SANTIAGO, Chile — Tens of thousands of Chileans marched peacefully Thursday demanding profound changes in the country’s heavily centralized and privatized form of government, while smaller groups broke away to fight with police. More than 450 people were arrested and dozens injured.

Union members, students, government workers and center-left opposition parties took part in the final day of a nationwide two-day strike, which included four separate protest marches in the capital and demonstrations across Chile. In many areas, families grabbed spoons and spilled into the streets to join in noisy pot-banging shows of support.

President Sebastian Pinera’s ministers sought to minimize the impact. Police estimated Santiago’s crowds at just 50,000 and said only 14 percent of government workers stayed off the job.
Union leaders claimed 600,000 people joined demonstrations nationwide. Raul de la Puente, president of the government employees union, said 80 percent of his members joined the strike, at the cost of two days’ pay.

Pinera called the strike unjustified because Chile’s economy is growing strong and providing more opportunities. He also said he remains open to those seeking dialogue, although his administration has refused to discuss some student and union demands, arguing the real work of reform must be done in Congress.

What began three months ago as a series of isolated classroom boycotts by high school and university students demanding education improvements has grown into a mass movement calling for all manner of changes in Chile’s topdown form of government.

Protesters now want increases in education and health care spending, pension and labor code reform, even a new constitution that would give voters the chance to participate in referendums — a form of direct democracy previously unthinkable in a country only two decades removed from a 1973-90 military dictatorship.

Polls taken before the strike say the majority of Chileans side with the protesters, although it’s unclear how the violence will affect popular sentiment.

Printed on Friday, August 26, 2011 as: Leftist Chilean protests clash with police.