Police detained 29 people this Sunday, October 18, in downtown Santiago. The incidents occurred during a march marking the seventh anniversary of the 2019 social uprising, which had not been authorized by the Metropolitan Presidential Delegation.
According to BioBioChile, Public Security Minister Martín Arrau condemned the incidents and confirmed that six police officers were injured. "We expect all those detained to face justice and answer for their crimes," he said.
The head of the Metropolitan Police Zone, Inspector General Manuel Cifuentes, estimated that between 2,500 and 2,800 people participated. The preventive deployment began at 10:00 in Plaza Baquedano and, at around 13:00, the march moved west along the Alameda.
The march was organized by the Class Struggle Workers' Confederation, the Vereda Sur Anticapitalist Platform and the Antifascist Popular Assembly, according to El Mostrador. They sought to reaffirm the demands that sparked the October 2019 protests.
According to the police account, the march began peacefully. Later, groups of hooded protesters moved to the front and attacked officers with blunt objects and Molotov cocktails. The main clashes occurred near Diagonal Paraguay, the Catholic University's Main Building and the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center (GAM), where water cannon vehicles were deployed.
Among those detained, police identified one person for possessing and throwing an incendiary device at officers, another for a violent robbery at a business and a third for damaging public security cameras along the Alameda. At this stage, these are detentions. The sources do not report whether those detained have already appeared at a detention review hearing, the first review before a pretrial judge.
Cifuentes said some officers suffered facial injuries when a pyrotechnic device went off. He added that several would go to the Police Hospital once order had been restored.
On X, Arrau wrote that "the same violent agitators, hooded individuals and criminals as always" had returned to the streets to destroy street furniture and attack police. He also said he would not allow "a few people to sow chaos again."
Police will also review the conduct of an officer who drew his service weapon during a detention at around 16:40 at the intersection of Alameda and San Antonio, according to a video shared on social media. Cifuentes said that administrative measures would follow if protocol violations were found and that, if appropriate, the evidence would be sent to the Public Prosecutor's Office.
Santiago Metro closed the Santa Lucía and Universidad Católica stations on Line 1 as a precaution and restricted access at Baquedano and Universidad de Chile. The detention count remains preliminary because police will maintain preventive deployments overnight downtown and in other parts of the capital.
