Abstract

Chile is known for being one of the richest and most stable countries in Latin America, however it isalso the most unequal country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) with an income gap that is 65% higher than the OECD average. This situation has generated,for more than a decade, protests to improve living conditions. Citizens, seeing no response from theauthorities and faced with a 30-peso hike in the public transport rate in October 2019, went out to protestwith greater intensity, generating a large-scale social unrest, producing a series of demonstrationsthroughout the country where there were violent clashes with the police that ended with the applicationof toxic gases and riot guns, as measures of repression. The purpose of this work is to determine theimpact that the demonstrations had on the number of admission to emergency care in public healthcentres, through a difference-in-differences analysis where two municipalities are compared, one thatwas exposed to demonstrations and disorders daily, while the other was not. The results are statisticallysignificant and indicate that there was a 4% increase in the number of emergency care visits, and a 7%increase in the number of care for respiratory symptoms in health centres located in the municipalitythat was exposed to manifestations and public disorder. Finally, the results can be useful to dialogueand discuss “the protocols of police action in Chile” and take into account the health-related effects oncitizens and their impact on other public services.