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A positive balance was made today by the mayor of the Metropolitan Region, Felipe Guevara, to the day of protests that took place yesterday in the capital. “The city, within what these disorders imply, worked quite well,” he said at a press conference in which he was accompanied by the mayor of Santiago, Felipe Alessandri.
The authority was consulted as to whether it adhered to the annoyance expressed by the Army regarding the unknown persons who yesterday painted the monument to General Manuel Baquedano red, pointing out that they were people who expressed their frustration and resentment. In this regard, Guevara indicated that “we have great respect for our history, countries that do not know and do not respect their history, have no future. Who does not know where he lives has no idea where he is going and that is why the Army’s respect for symbols that recall events as important as the case of General Baquedano, so important for his participation in the War against the Confederation of Peru and Bolivia and on all in his participation as head of the Army in the War of the Pacific ”.
Along these lines, the mayor of the RM deepened and said he was sure that “the vast majority of Chileans respect and adhere to his deed” and recalled that “Chile has an advantage over other countries in the region, and that is in a good position, among other things because we have had natural resources whose origin is largely in the Pacific War, saltpeter, copper, now lithium, are elements that Chile has been able to exploit. We owe it precisely to heroes like General Baquedano ”.
This morning the statue woke up restored. When the mayor Guevara was consulted about who was behind these arrangements, he confirmed that it was a company hired by the Municipality that repainted the monument within the framework of a “Plan for the Recovery of Public Spaces” that is carried out in the historic center of the capital. “We restore the monument to General Baquedano and we will do it again, if again there are behaviors of contempt for history, heroes, characters who have contributed to our Republic, to the democracy of our country, let’s go to restore the correct arrangement of those elements. ”The work began at two thirty in the morning and lasted for two hours.
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In terms of public order, Guevara added that based on what happened on Friday, it was decided not to alter any of the plans for this Sunday, and that public transport will function normally on October 18. “We do not believe it necessary to change what is planned for tomorrow, October 18, therefore we have a plan and that will not be modified given yesterday’s demonstrations,” he said.
The authority detailed that on Friday afternoon and night there were riots in nine parts of the city, with a total of 17 detainees. “We had normal public transportation, the Baquedano subway station had to be closed at 4:50 p.m. and for a moment the Universidad de Chile station in one of its entrances at 7:34 p.m. The public transport buses were vandalized 21 times, I mean stones, scratched and we have two drivers attacked with stones with minor injuries ”, he explained.
Despite how marginal the riots were, Guevara targeted those behind these behaviors. “Those who vandalize do not want democracy, do not love freedom and are only concerned with destruction, chaos and harming others. When someone destroys a traffic light, vandalizes a Transantiago bus stop, when they break the children’s games or the seats in the square, the only ones harmed are the neighbors who want to occupy those public spaces to improve their quality of life and are prevented from doing so by people that vandalize them, “said the authority, who also called for” isolating the violent, so that the police can do their job. “
