Victory to the Chilean people’s uprising!

Hundreds of people gathered in New York City’s Union Square on Oct. 26 to demand that Chilean President Sebastián Piñera resign. The billionaire Piñera has had his army and police kill at least 19 people, with hundreds injured and thousands arrested. The metropolitan area of Chile’s capital Santiago has been under a state of siege.

Most of the people who came to Union Square were from New York’s Chilean community. Many were young, others were veterans of the struggle against the Pinochet dictatorship. The crowd sang songs by martyred Chilean poet/singer/songwriter Victor Jara, murdered in the U.S.-backed coup of Sept. 11, 1973. They also sang El Pueblo Unido, the anthem of the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende, also martyred with thousands of his supporters in Washington’s coup. 

The flag of the Mapuche Indigenous nation of southern Chile was carried by many in the crowd. Activists from Honduras, Mexico and Brazil also carried their flags in support.