Can someone give me the tldr of why they're protesting? From what I read, they want more gibsmedats. But I'll reserve my judgement until I get the proper information.

**"Not even the transition from the Pinochet dictatorship to democracy had these levels of destruction"** *Chilean socialist former president Ricardo Lagos analyzes the causes of his country's greatest social and political crisis since the return to democracy* He participated in a meeting of former presidents in Madrid, when he learned what was happening in Chile. Protests over the rise in the subway ticket exploded a feeling of frustration of a citizenry who feels outside the country's development path. Chilean former president Ricardo Lagos Escobar (Santiago, Chile, 1938), canceled all his commitments both in Spain and in other European countries to return. "It is the biggest political and social crisis since the return to democracy in 1990, by far," says Lagos, who ruled Chile between 2000 and 2006 and was the first socialist to arrive in La Moneda after Salvador Allende. The crisis has left at least 19 dead, hundreds of detainees and the capital and major cities are under military control. The Government of Sebastián Piñera tries to find a way out, while mass demonstrations are repeated every day. Question. Is it one of those who are worried or those who feel jubilant about a kind of awakening of Chile, as part of the citizenship says? Reply. No no no. Very worried, because these things we know how they start, but not how they end. Very worried, in addition, because what is behind is a distrust between citizens and the ruling class. This came from long ago. Q. How do you explain this social outbreak? A. The protest is normal, because of what has happened. There is reason to go out. We had 40% of the poor and it has dropped to 10% in the last three decades. That 30% have new demands. The first, not to be poor again, but the second is the need for the State to provide more public goods than it provided before. Free goods that allow to have a better education, a better health, a better old age. In other words, that society begins to move forward so that we are all equal in dignity. It is what the philosopher Norberto Bobbio called a civilizational minimum. Every society, he says, has to have something in which all citizens are equal. Q. In Chile, people feel anger at all leading and privileged groups, including transition leaders, like you. Why are everyone questioned? A. The question is: "I expected more." But there is an economic reason for this, because our tax system has practically not changed despite the many reforms that have been made. First: the tax burden has remained practically the same: around 18% and 20% with respect to the gross national product, a lean figure. European friends are all around 35% and 40%. U.S, about 30%. This tax burden does not allow for an improvement in the equality of income, unlike what happens in the rest of the world. In Chile, in addition, half of the taxes paid correspond to the value-added tax, VAT, the most regressive of taxes. It is the great straitjacket of the rightist and more conservative sectors of Chile. And that has been impossible to modify. Q. Did you try it in your Government? A. Every time I wanted something, the only way to finance it was to raise the VAT. It was very complex a transition where there was an inherited straitjacket and where that basic straitjacket, of a tax nature, has prevented Chile from doing what everyone should do: that as the country grows, the tax burden increases . Felipe González , in Spain, assumed in 1982 with a tax pressure of 22%. In 1996, after 14 years, it had grown to 36%. One point per year. Q. And why couldn't you do it to the Spanish? R. He had no majority in Congress. The right vetoed everything. We had a very difficult transition to democracy. George Bush Sr. could not believe in an official visit to Chile in 1990 that at his official dinner in La Moneda, where Allende had died, Augusto Pinochet , as commander in chief of the Army, and Allende's widow. That was our transition, shocking. In Spain they waited for Franco to die, it was easier. P. Part of the citizenship asks the center-left that since 1990 administer an economic model inherited from the dictatorship. A. Not at all. They accuse me, for example, of having privatized everything. But I never privatized a company. What I did have to do is give concessions for public works, but the public work belongs to the State. Because we made the roads we did, today the State of Chile is 25,000 million dollars richer than 30 years ago. With tax levels like those in Germany, the roads of course can work without taking tolls. But the toll that prevented me from paying for the construction of that road, allowed me as president to invest in rural drinking water, in public schools. Q. The center-left is criticized for having carried out an agreed transition with the military regime. A. It was not agreed, no. It makes me laugh: I wish there had been a pact! A pact means that we are both on equal terms. But we were with a man in front of us, Pinochet, who had the political, military and institutional power of the dictatorship. It was an imposition and we only had the moral power to have won the plebiscite in 1988. Each generation has its own epic and ours was to restore democracy against a dictatorship. And we did it. Someone can discuss the way it was achieved. But the way it was achieved was more peaceful than what we have seen this week in Chile. Not even the transition from dictatorship to democracy saw the levels of destruction we have seen these days. And it was a relentless dictatorship, with a curfew where they first shot and then asked. P. One of the great achievements of his Government was to have returned the military to the barracks. Was it a mistake for Piñera to take them out again during the protests? A. It is difficult to know, because we do not have the level of information available to a president. I would have tried to do it only with police [police]. The sensation of militarization is serious, although the first duty of a State is to maintain order. Q. Do you condemn the violence that has occurred in recent days, with an unusual destruction of the subway and public and private property? R. I condemn violence, obviously. Violence goes against the democratic system. P. The subway was one of his great works: in his six years as president, the network doubled. What did you feel when you saw many burned stations? R. Much sadness. I remembered the pride felt by the inhabitants of modest areas of Santiago when a new station opened in their neighborhood. P. President Piñera spoke of “brutal violence and destruction that small groups of criminals have unleashed, with organization and with means”. Do you think those responsible for the fires in the subway were the same protesters or other groups operating in Chile? A. I have heard that quite sophisticated fire accelerating substances have been found that are not commercially available in Chile. Q. What is the way out of the crisis? A. The Government should look for spaces to better listen to people. It could summon a nucleus of 30 or 40 Chileans from the most different sectors: from universities, national science or arts awards, the living world of social organizations, neighborhood meetings, reflecting the different segments and having direct communication with society. Citizenship is not enough to vote every four years and seeks participation mechanisms of greater horizontality. It should function as an auxiliary group of institutions such as the president, Parliament and the Judiciary. The protests show a dissatisfaction with the type of society that is formed in Chile. Therefore, it is about identifying the general principles of computers that put human beings and their dignity at the center of their concerns. Chile needs a new social contract . Q. Is it enough to get out of this serious crisis? A. Together with a change of Cabinet, because in a presidential system it means a new hope. Q. What do people want? A change of the economic model? A. The people what they want is to have public goods available to all Chileans. Q. Is the continuity of the Piñera Government at risk? A. I think not. Q. Can politicians alone overcome this moment when there is a serious crisis of representation? Just vote 49%. R. I wish it were, but I don't think so. It is the greatest difficulty: if the political class and the institutions that govern us in a democratic system itself, such as the parties and Congress, are distrustful, we are in very deep difficulties. Where is the place, the locus , from which we can start talking to solve the problem? But the president calls the political parties and a good part of the opposition parties decide not to go. I don't remember what happened to me while I was president. Q. You are a socialist. How did you assess that the Chilean PS did not come to speak with the president? A. It is a mistake. I do not conceive that, given a situation of seriousness in Chile, a party, no matter how oppositional, refuses to dialogue. Q. Is it time to deny salt and water to the political adversary? A. It is not the time to deny salt and water to the political adversary. It is never that moment. P. Part of the left evaluates to present a constitutional accusation to dismiss Piñera. A. It does not help at all. Q. And you, what position are you in? Do you want to help the Government, despite being opposition? A. What I want is to help solve this problem. Q. Do you think Piñera is the one who can lead a process of change that meets the demands of Chilean society? A. The statement of days gone by is strong: “It is true that the problems were accumulating for many decades and that the different governments were not and were not able to recognize this situation in all its magnitude. I recognize and apologize for this lack of vision, ”said the president. https://elpais.com/internacional/2019/10/25/actualidad/1572026903_812256.html