Últimas Noticias in english, Venezuela
This Saturday Chile became the protagonist of the headlines around the planet due to the xenophobic events against a group of migrants – the majority Venezuelans – who were in the northern city of Iquique, waiting to continue their journey to the capital, Santiago, or other cities in search of work and housing.
Hundreds of residents of that town – most of the upper middle class – gathered on Saturday in the streets, in a demonstration against “irregular immigration” in that area. The participants burned the migrants’ belongings, a day after a government eviction that generated controversy in the South American country.
During the march, which was broadcast on local television stations, banners reading “Close borders now” or “No more undesirable immigrants” were displayed. The song of “Chileans first” was heard, or shouts of “to recover the city”, along with waves of flags of that country. In addition, in some cases, the protesters made barricades in which the possessions of some migrants who live installed in tents in the streets were burned, says AP.
The demonstration took place the day after the police evicted hundreds of migrants from Plaza Brasil, a central public square in the city. The space had been occupied for months by successive families, many with minors and babies, waiting to be able to move to other areas of Chile.
In some cases, migrants claim that they have relatives in the country and that they seek to meet them or have their support to get ahead.
Other protesters went to a couple of small Venezuelan migrant camps – which were not there – and burned their few belongings in a barricade: stuffed animals, bicycles, tents, mattresses, bags, blankets, toys that they receive in donations.
“I am born, raised and spoiled in Iquique and I have always lived in this northern area and what we are experiencing is terrible, because the problem is that in Venezuela they have opened their jails and part of those people have come to Chile,” he said. to AFP Veliz Rifo, a 48-year-old farmer from La Tirana, a town located 72 km east of Iquique, when he echoed openly xenophobic and aporophobic rumors.
Chile has expelled hundreds of irregular migrants so far in 2021, a decision that is sometimes questioned by Chilean courts, which affirm that in certain cases basic rights of deportees are violated. The government has indicated in the last hours that they will resume the policy of expulsions for which it contracted special flights with a commercial airline.
Campaign from the Right
It is no coincidence that these types of demonstrations occur less than two months before the general elections in Chile, scheduled for November 21. Right-wing candidate José Antonio Kast has been fueling hate speech towards migrants for electoral purposes. On the same day as the attacks on migrants, he published the following on his account on the social network twitter @joseantoniokast
The UN described the xenophobic acts in Chile as an “inadmissible humiliation”
The UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Felipe González, described this Saturday as “inadmissible humiliation” the arson attacks against migrants. This was stated in his account on the social network twitter @UNSR_Migration
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Read also:
UN concerned about ‘xenophobia’ against migrants in Chile
The United Nations expressed concern on Monday about the “violence and xenophobia” inflicted on undocumented immigrants in Chile over the weekend by locals fed up with their presence in the country. Some 3,000 protesters took to the streets of the northern port city of Iquique on Saturday, some burning the belongings of poorly sleeping migrants who had been occupying a public square for months.
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