Tribute to Pinochet victims turns violent
Organizers: Infiltrators started throwing rocks, firebombs
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A demonstrator throws a Molotov cocktail at riot police outside Santiago's main cemetery.
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SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- A tribute to victims of the regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet on Sunday ended in clouds of tear gas as demonstrators clashed with police at Santiago's main cemetery.
Police did not immediately report on detentions, but reporters saw the helmeted officers dragging a number of demonstrators to police buses. At least one officer and two civilian were injured.
More than 5,000 people had marched peacefully for more than 20 city blocks from downtown Santiago to a memorial wall erected in the cemetery bearing the names of hundreds of victims of Pinochet's 1973-90 dictatorship.
Organizers of the tribute blamed the incidents on vandals and infiltrators -- mostly young, hooded men -- who started throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails, first at a McDonald's restaurant, then at a suburban city hall home to the administration of Mayor Gonzalo Cornejo of the right-wing Independent Democratic Union party.
Police moved in firing tear gas and using water cannons, both inside the cemetery and around it.
Police Col. Fernando Munoz said "we acted to restore order and protect peaceful citizens."
The tribute is staged every year on or around the anniversary of the September 11, 1973 coup in which Pinochet ousted Marxist President Salvador Allende. Clashes in previous years were clearly more serious than those on Sunday.
Organizers of the tribute include human rights groups and leftist political organizations.
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