Santiago de Chile, April 27 (RHC)-- Cuban news agency Prensa Latina’s reporter Damian Trujillo was detained Sunday in Santiago de Chile during a protest marking the day on which the country’s constitutional referendum would have taken place, had it not been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A group of Carabineros, the Chilean police, arrested the journalist and threw him into their van while his colleagues protested and called for his release, teleSUR’s Paola Dragnic reported from Santiago.

Trujillo told Prensa Latina by phone that he had been detained without any justification, as he was holding his safe-conduct ID, the official document allowing him to be present at the place of the demonstration.

Videos of the journalist’s arrest were released on social networks showing how he was forced into the police van before being transferred to the police station.  Other people taking part in the protest were also detained by the Carabineros.

Wearing face masks, white overalls, and keeping two meters of distance between them, dozens of people were demonstrating against right-wing President Sebastian Piñera’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, according to local media.  They shouted slogans against Piñera and demanded that he resign.

The protesters were supported by the residents in the neighborhood where the demonstration took place.  They put speakers on their windows broadcasting some of the songs that became popular as the symbols of the massive anti-government protests that broke out in October last year.

For months, the South American nation has been gripped by protests against high living costs and extreme inequalities in a country where the richest have an income nearly 14 times greater than the poorest.  

Passers-by also brought their support to the demonstrators by chanting slogans in favor of the rewriting of the country’s Pinochet-era constitution, for which a much-anticipated referendum will be held on October 27th.