MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Policeman shot dead and riots on Pinochet coup anniversary

Mourners assemble at the Memorial for the victims of Pinochet

One police officer was killed and 41 people injured in Chile's capital Santiago when hundreds of protesters battled with riot police through the night on the anniversary of the September 11, 1973 military coup. The Chilean government reported on Wednesday that 216 people were arrested.

Shops were looted, a school and a gas station were badly damaged and more than 140,000 homes were temporarily left without electricity as protesters threw chains at power lines. Minor clashes occurred during daylight Tuesday in the city of 5.5 million people, but they grew more serious after nightfall. Masked youth erected flaming barricades to block traffic and attacked police with firearms and rocks. Officer Christian Vera, 36, died after being shot in the head, police said, while several other officers were wounded and one had his face burned with acid. Police dispersed the rioters with tear gas and water cannons, but they repeatedly regrouped. The reasons for the night protests, which have become common on the coup anniversary every year, were not clear. Chilean Defense Minister Jose Goñi said, "They are not demonstrators. They are criminals and vandals." Interior Minister Belisario Velasco said drug traffickers were also involved. Tuesday was the first anniversary of the 1973 military coup since the death in December of the general who led it and ruled Chile until 1990, Augusto Pinochet. September 11 was decreed a national holiday during the Pinochet regime and remained a holiday during the first years after Chile's transition to democracy, thus giving protesters a day off to show their disapproval of the anniversary. Following Chile's return to democracy in the 1990's, the day has been used by both Pinochet supporters and left activists to mark the most controversial event in modern Chilean history. In the early 1990's, protesters were sometimes killed, but the intensity of the protests has calmed in recent years. On Tuesday morning, President Michelle Bachelet called for Chileans to strengthen democracy and placed a wreath at a memorial to Salvador Allende, the elected Socialist Marxist president who committed suicide at the presidential palace rather than surrender to the rebellious military. "Nowadays, the best tribute that we pay to Allende and all those that were killed fighting for democracy and their country it is to construct a society and a country that guarantees opportunities, guarantees rights, and guarantees a commitment to democracy in each one of our compatriots," said President Bachelet. The Pinochet family, meanwhile, gathered at the former dictator's countryside residence near Santiago to inaugurate a crypt where his ashes were placed.