MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Violent Chilean anniversary.

Three people with bullet injuries and over 200 arrests, was the final count of the violent protests in Santiago and other Chilean cities last Saturday, the 31st anniversary of the military coup led by former General Augusto Pinochet.

Clashes between protestors and police forces occurred mainly in the outskirts of the big cities where some of the neighbourhoods ended with blackouts following vandalism against electricity lines and poles.

Two policemen and a young woman suffered bullet wounds in the outskirts of Santiago when hooded young men set up barricades, attacked local businesses, stoned cars and fired Molotov bombs against police forces.

One of the protestors was severely burnt when one of the fire bombs exploded unexpectedly. Arrests in Santiago reached 165 and another forty in the rest of the country.

The first protests began Saturday evening during a march in downtown Santiago to honour the 3,000 killed and disappeared during Pinochet's iron fisted regime (1973/1990). September 11, 1973 military forces violently ousted President Salvador Allende, Chile's first elected Socialist president who finally committed suicide in Palacio de la Moneda (Government House) where together with a few loyal followers he had taken refuge.

With the setting of the sun, thousands of candles were lit surrounding Santiago's main stadium in memory of those killed while imprisoned in the football arena, the country's notorious jail during the first few months of Pinochet's dictatorship.

"I deeply regret and condemn with energy the violent actions experienced last night in Santiago streets", said President Ricardo Lagos Sunday morning after participating in an evangelical Te Deum and Thank Giving's ceremony in anticipation of the beginning of Chile's independence week long celebrations.

"This does not represent what Chile wants or stands for. I believe in democracy and the rule of the law like the overwhelming majority of Chileans, and it's my opinion that these few protestors are not interpreting the national feeling", highlighted President Lagos.