The Guardian

An explosion of protest, a howl of rage – but not a Latin American spring

From Chile to Ecuador and Bolivia to Haiti police and protesters are clashing on the streets, but what are the common threads and will they lead to change?
People demonstrate in Santiago this week on the fifth straight day of street violence which erupted over a now suspended hike in metro ticket prices. Photograph: Pedro Ugarte/AFP via Getty Images

Tanks on the streets in Chile. Barricades and bloodshed in Bolivia. Weeks of unrest that have pushed Haiti to the brink and forced Ecuador’s president to relocate his government.

“This is a social revolution,” said Andrea Lyn, a 61-year-old actor who took to the streets of Santiago this week. “It is us saying: no more.”

Latin America has been called “the forgotten continent” – but in recent weeks it has hardly been out of the news.

A succession of dramatic – and in several cases unforeseen – social Latin America and the Caribbean “red hot”.

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