Can Chile reinvent itself?

WALK NORTH-EAST along the Alameda, the main avenue of Chile’s capital, Santiago, to the well-heeled neighbourhood of Providencia, and for several miles the scene on either side is one of desolation. Hundreds of businesses are boarded up, some operating through doors between shutters. The Baquedano metro station and a large hotel next to it are partly burned out. Pavements have been ripped up, leaving earth and rubble. Traffic lights are disabled. Walls and statues are plastered with graffiti. Many denounce as “murderers”, variously, Sebastián Piñera, Chile’s centre-right president, the Carabineros (the national police force), the state and capitalism. Others hail a coming revolution, or at least a new constitution.