Riots in Chile have led to violence, 18 reported deaths, and a state of emergency. What caused the riots? John Authers writes in the Washington Post that there are a number of reasons. Second in importance after income inequality is energy price hikes. The immediate cause was a 4 percent rise in transit fares, which rose partly because of a switch to more-expensive renewable energy.
The catalyst was a proposal to raise public transport fares and energy bills. There is ample evidence from across the world that these will incite rebellion like nothing else — a point that those who hope to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions via a carbon tax should bear in mind.
The violent protests of the Gilets Jaunes in France were over higher gasoline taxes, which were seen as penalizing car-dependent people in the provinces while favoring metropolitan elites. Mexico in 2017 saw riots and protests against what was known as the “gasolinazo,” a 20% rise in fuel prices that was a part of the government’s partial privatization of Pemex, the monopoly state oil company.
Last year, Brazil was rocked by protests and a strike by truck drivers in response to fuel shortages and a sharp increase in the price of diesel.
Authers, who writes for BloombergOpinion, listed the other reasons as the lack of a populist leader who could control populism and slumping prices of copper, a major Chilean export.