Chile: Evangelical Leaders Call for Prayer to End Leftist Riots by Ben Kew for Breitbart
Religious leaders in Chile called people to pray for the end of left-wing riots taking place across the country on Tuesday, after a weekend marred by violence that saw at least 15 people killed and hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
The demonstrations started early last week as a student revolt against a three percent increase in metro fares, but have since morphed into widespread riots that have led to authorities calling a state of emergency.
Protestante Digital reports that several Chilean evangelical organizations have issued communiqués condemning the violence in the capital of Santiago and other major cities, calling on people to pray for the restoration of the “social order.”
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Protests Erupt Across Chile – 21 images from cities in Chile, where a protest that began small – anger over a subway fare hike – has grown huge, leading to clashes with riot police, looting, arson, hundreds of arrests, and at least 15 deaths. https://t.co/fv42LNj6cA pic.twitter.com/ymtM8lzukr
— The Atlantic Photo (@TheAtlPhoto) October 22, 2019
“We ask that the social order be restored in a timely manner and we are assuming an active commitment to contribute to this task,” said the president of the Union of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Chile (UBACH), Juan Carlos Barrera.
He continued:
I deeply regret the violence and vandalism actions that pollute the eyes and prevent us from understanding the reasons behind these demonstrations in different regions of the country. What we have seen Santiago indicates that there is something else. It’s not just about students evading the subway, it’s a much bigger problem. But violence is not the way that Jesus proposes and we cannot support it.
On Sunday evening, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera gave a televised address to announce he had scrapped plans to raise the cost of subway fairs. He also launched an attack on the rioters, declaring that the country was at “war with a powerful and uncompromising enemy that respects nothing and no one.”
