ProtestBlog.org: Tens of thousands once again took over the center of Santiago Chile as the new year began in Chile, 2020. The protests stopped neither for Christmas nor New Year. The more entrenched the protestors in their demands, the more repressive the police. Open battles between protestors and law enforcement continue, with the burning of a church an especially sad occurrence marking the first days of 2020.
As has been the case since the protests began and spread all over Chile, the Plaza Italia in the center of Santiago remains the dynamic nerve center of protest, and the epicenter of police repression, particularly with respect to the area for several blocks surrounding the plaza, where protestors have taken on the Carabineros in pitched battles using Molotov cocktails and rocks, in some cases forcing the police to withdraw. They have also occupied and shut down the principal thoroughfare through Santiago, as well, for hours at a time.