Chile Coup Anniversary Protest Turns Violent

Chile Coup Anniversary Protest Turns Violent

SANTIAGO -- Protesters hurling Molotov cocktails clashed with police in
the center of the Chilean capital on Sunday at an anniversary
commemoration for leftists killed after Gen. Augusto Pinochet took power
in a 1973 coup.

Witnesses said police fired tear gas and water cannons at protesters,
some of whom were hooded, on a march to a monument in Santiago's General
Cemetery.

Violence is common at the annual protest, which marks the death of an
estimated 3,000 people killed by the armed forces after Pinochet
overthrew leftist President Salvador Allende on Sept. 11, 1973.

While most of the 1,500 demonstrators peacefully marched more than 25
blocks from downtown Santiago to the city's main cemetery, small groups
of masked youth started throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at stores,
bank offices and at police.

As the march went past the presidential palace, which was destroyed by
air force jets during the coup, the demonstrators burned a U.S. flag.

It was widely believed that the U.S. government and CIA supported the
coup.
Among the stores attacked by the demonstrators was a McDonald's
restaurant, which was set on fire and had its windows smashed.

The march ended at a memorial wall erected at the cemetery to honor
hundreds of victims of repression during Pinochet's 1973-90 rule.

Buried at the cemetery is Salvador Allende, the Marxist president
toppled by Pinochet in the coup.

At the cemetery and in nearby streets, some of the demonstrators renewed
their violent protests, erecting barricades, and throwing rocks and
Molotov cocktails.

Police responded with water trucks and tear gas. Police Col. Jorge
Carmona said eight demonstrators were detained. There was no reports of
injuries.

Both the army and leftist groups plan to hold small commemorations of
the coup on Wednesday, when much of the world will be marking the first
anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.