Chile’s government battered by protests, polls

Students and teachers clash with riot police in clouds of tear gas, a minister is sacked by Congress over a funds scandal and soaring inflation stirs anger — President Michelle Bachelet’s government is in trouble.

Buoyed by windfall copper revenues, Chile has long been lauded as Latin America’s most stable democracy and it has one of the region’s strongest economies.

But many Chileans feel the center-left “Concertacion” coalition that has ruled since the right-wing dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet ended in 1990 is now out of touch and failing to help create opportunities for the poor.

Reuters