On the 18th of October of 2019, a revolution started in Chile; it was not planned; there were no leaders, just a big group of people who have had enough. Although Chile from the outside seems like a stable country with a good economy, you would see the truth if you dig a little deeper. The inequality is vast, the middle class survives with loans after loans, and everything is privatized. Basic rights as health or education are expensive and only available for free for the very few who belong to the population's poorest sector. Our pensions are solely constituted by our savings (a mandatory percentage stated by the government) and are managed by private companies. This translates into consistent benefits for them but, in many cases, pensions below the minimum wage. All this and much more came together year after year until the people decided to stop and say enough is enough. The impunity with which the powerful distributed the resources among them while being supported by a corrupt government, meanwhile the rest of the population only got back an increase in the prices of basic needs and no increase in the salaries was too much. It indeed started because of an increment in the public transport ticket, but that was just the match that started the fire. Discontent has been there for a long time. Still, the government and the wealthy elite are so disconnected from the rest of the country's reality that it took them by surprise.

It is interesting the way it all worked without leadership. The problems are so evident that everyone agreed on them, perhaps not on the form of fixing it, but in the fundamental problem. One of the most popular petitions that arose after the revolt was to change our constitution written by Augusto Pinochet, a dictator that ruled from 1973 to 1990. This would be the first constitution written in democracy in our country.
The protests are still going, and we have not advanced as far as we would like, but there is a feeling of irrevocable faith and fearlessness. On the other hand, the government has been defending its interests by attacking us with the police, making us believe that this is a revolt of a few thugs and indiscriminately using brute force. Many people have ended up in jail after being beaten and with no proof against them besides the police word. They are political prisoners, taken because of what their fighting for, but with no political affiliation or belief. There are 2500 political prisoners in Chile, many of them in preventive prison pending trial on charges of up to 20 years. The excessive charges are feasible because the government is prosecuting them as terrorists, even though some didn't even have any priors.