LatinNews Daily - 28 November 2023

* Chile’s President Gabriel Boric has inaugurated the extension of the second line of Santiago’s metro system. According to the government, the Line 2 extension will benefit over 618,000 people living in the south of Santiago in the communes of La Cisterna, El Bosque, and San Bernardo, which will join the metro network for the first time. The extension runs for 5.2km, includes four new stations (El Bosque, Observatorio, Copa Lo Martínez, and Hospital El Pino), and will reduce journey times by 32%, according to a government statement. It is projected that the Line 2 extension will have an average daily flow of 32,000 passengers from Monday to Friday and has an investment of US$409.2m. With this, the Santiago metro network will have a total of 143 stations, over 149km of line. Speaking at the inauguration event in San Bernardo, Boric stated that, “we are advancing in the dignity of sectors that for a long time were left behind”. He added that “public works are not only hard data, investment and square meters, they are also happiness because the role of a government is to improve the quality of life of its people”, adding that the extension “gives dignity to many people”. Santiago’s metro served as a catalyst for the mass anti-government street protests in Chile that began on 18 October 2019, initially as a student action against increased metro fares, which later escalated into demonstrations against the rising cost of living and economic inequality more widely.