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Here in the UK, apart from the initial toilet roll panic, we have had a fairly orderly shutdown of services, people are staying at home and the health system is generally coping. The people of Chile are not so fortunate. We received this report today from Gerd Bergmann of Grace Ministries, who has now been evacuated back to Germany.

“The situation in Chile has grown more and more tense, insecure and chaotic. The government did not take a lot of active measures to protect from the virus. That caused many citizens to take matters into their own hands. They blocked roads to prevent people from entering their towns and villages. Citizens hindered citizens to use public roads. The country declared a state of catastrophe, which means that the military has been dispatched to provide order. The medical provision in our little fishing village is minimal.”

In other parts of Chile the situation is desperate due to a lack of water for hand washing. As we have previously reported, this summer in Chile has seen one of the worst droughts for many years. Residents are relying on deliveries from water trucks to sustain them and there simply isn’t enough available to allow for additional hand washing. According to Greenpeace in Chile, about 350,000 people are affected.

It is also being reported that some churches are continuing to meet despite the restrictions on gathering and it is thought this may have caused further infection.

Please continue to pray for Chile, for good governance, for fair provision for all regardless of social standing, and for all communities to act responsibly and selflessly to combat the virus.

As you will know, there has been considerable unrest in Chile over the last month or so, with large scale protests and riots taking place. In Santiago there was a mass protest in which over a million people took to the streets, and there have also been riots and violence.

The flash point was a rise in Metro fares, but this unrest comes from a deep-seated resentment at the huge inequality between rich and poor in the country. Chile has a two-tier system in both health and education, a blend of public and private, with far better results for those who can afford to pay. The privately-run pension system makes a steady profit for the fund managers but provides low and often delayed payouts to pensioners. The people are demanding change, and one of the main issues for them is the constitution. Chile’s constitution was created in 1980 by General Pinochet following the 1973 coup with a few later reforms and although it was approved at the time in a national referendum, it is viewed by Chileans now as a ‘Dictator’s Constitution’ which keeps power in the hands of a select few.

Constitutional reform is much more common in South America than it is in Europe, so there is an existing model for this. Typically the reforms focus on:

• A commitment to greater equality
• Recognition of civil rights
• Acknowledgement of indigenous groups and their languages
• Re-establishment of the Catholic church and greater equality between religions

In practical terms what is also being discussed is an increase in pensions, an increase in health spending and a guaranteed minimum wage. These provisions have been agreed in parliament and are now progressing through the legal framework.

At the same time President Sebastián Piñera is facing a Constitutional Accusation, broadly similar to impeachment in the US. Opposition parliamentarians are trying to hold him accountable for human rights violations during the crisis, as it is generally believed that the military and the police used excessive violence against ordinary citizens during the protests. So far 22 people have died and many hundreds of others have been injured, including loss of sight from rubber bullets. There are allegations of arbitrary detention, abuse and torture by the authorities.

There is another darker side to these protests with arson, looting violence and vandalism taking place. It is being reported that there are Anarchist groups behind this, taking advantage of the unrest to further their own cause.

The cost to Chile has been huge. Many businesses have not survived, either because of physical damage or simply because they have not been able to trade. The COP25 climate conference which was being hosted by Chile had to be cancelled, as was the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. There has been widespread damage to infrastructure, and less visibly, the social and emotional damage of being affected by or witnessing violence.

There is now hope for reform, but there is still a great deal to pray about.

We have received this report from Rosalie Langley Judd following her mission trip last summer:

Seeing God at work in Valparaíso, August 2019

Following an initial call to Chile in 2011, God took me to Antofagasta in 2018 and to Valparaíso in August this year, this time with a friend. Before we went Brenda put me in contact with Paula – a key contact who led us to two key men of God, her Father, Pastor Manuel Pérez Jara and her Pastor, Bishop Juan Díaz Calderón. Both opened up significant doors for us and it was a delight to spend time with both families.

This time the Holy Spirit gave me an evangelistic tract to take with us about how the name Chile in the Mapuche language means ‘the end of the earth’ and how from Creation to Salvation the Bible focuses on reaching the ends of the earth. We took 2000 copies in Spanish with us. (It was only on meeting up with Brenda on my return that I learnt of the similarity to God’s original call of Ann and Arnold Page to Chile.)

There were many high points to this short mission trip where we saw God’s hand at work over and over again:

• Visiting Pastor Canipane and seeing God’s faithful people continuing to worship Him in a plastic tent as they waited for their church to be rebuilt;
• Speaking and ministering at the women’s prison and seeing around 60 women and 3 guards give their lives to Jesus;
• Speaking in the market square with the salvation of 3 traders and the little daughter of one of them;
• Speaking at the homeless ministry at the Bishop’s church, with the salvation of one man. Since then the man has been so hungry for the word of God that he has been going back and forth to the Library to borrow a Bible! Now he has one of his own;
• Meeting a female Uber driver who accepted Jesus as Lord and immediately began to evangelise others;
• Being invited to speak to evangelical pastors from across Chile at their annual retreat at the Bishop’s church;
• Being welcomed into the small Sephardic Jewish community in Valparaíso;
• The wide dispersal of the tracts

God is taking me back to Chile in December, this time to Arica, where I hope to make contact with Pastor Federico Bascuñán Mendoza at San Andres Church.

It’s good to hear some good news in the midst of all the violent protest going on throughout Chile.

Pastor Jose Canipane Segredo and his congregation are finally rebuilding their church, following its total destruction in the 2017 forest fires.

This picture shows the temporary ‘tent’ structure being removed in preparation for the brick walls and roof of the new church building. We hope to have more pictures soon.

You may have seen occasional reports about the riots in Chile following a rise in metro fares. Although this may have been a trigger point, tensions have been brewing for a long time due to the great inequality in the country as this BBC report explains.

Paula, our representative in Chile says:

The events of this weekend had been something surprising and terrible. We are not used to this. It all started when the subway ticket rise, anti-socials burned more than 10 subway stations in Santiago and then they robbed supermarkets across the country. Today there will be “Toque de queda” (curfew) which means that we have to stay at home from 8 pm until 6 am to give space to the police and military so they can keep order on the streets. No school will open tomorrow.

People voluntarily arrived on the outskirts of the Santiago subway to help remove the rubble.

Please pray for the situation there, for the people of Chile and for the Christians trying to bring peace.

President Piñera has declared most of the Valparaíso region to be a disaster zone following one of the driest winters in the last 70 years. Rainfall in the July 21 to September 21 period was only 70mm compared to the expected 255mm. This follows a similar declaration in the Santiago region a month earlier. To add further to the worry, snowfall in the mountain ranges has also been lower than normal, and it is melting snow which fills the aquifers.

Please pray for relief from this drought. As ever it is the poor who suffer most.

You can read more in this article from Chile Today.