Protesters battled police in Chile s capital on Sunday as violent clashes broke out when demonstrators marched in remembrance of a military coup that ended the rule of Marxist President Salvador Allende some 38 years ago.
Youths blocked roads, threw rocks and set fire to piles of trash at intersections. Police then used water cannon and tear gas to defuse the latest rash of social unrest against conservative billionaire President Sebastian Pinera s policies. Television footage from the scene of the protests showed at least two people being detained by police.
Led by students demanding free education, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in recent months to call for greater distribution of the income of a copper price boom in the world s top producer of the metal.
While Latin America s model economy is seen expanding 6.6 percent this year and is an investor magnet thanks to prudent fiscal and monetary policies, many ordinary Chileans feel they are not sharing in Chile s economic miracle.
Sunday s march is held annually to commemorate Salvador Allende, who was 65 when he died and is venerated by the left as a champion of the downtrodden. His portrait gazes from posters in street markets alongside those of other left-wing heroes such as Che Guevara and Karl Marx.
His election infuriated US president Richard Nixon and his economic policies met violent opposition from Chilean business and foreign capital dried up and inflation soared to 300 percent.
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