Anti-government civil resistance: Analysts of the social movement "Chile woke up" in Concepcion

This article aims to analyse the resistance actions developed by the social movement that emerged in Chile against the government policies after the increase of the rate in the Santiago Metro. It focuses on the events that happened at the city of Concepcion between October 2019 and March 2020. In particular, this study addresses how civilians have used nonviolent strategies to transform social, political and economic structures in this conflict. Methodology involves an ethnographic design and content analysis. Data collection techniques include interviews to key informants, a deep review of local media, and the examination of social networks belonging to the movement actors. There are three main findings in this research. First, structural violence is identified as the main trigger for the mobilizations. Second, civil society organizations deployed a wide range of nonviolent methods in their resistance processes, the most prominent were methods of protest and persuasion. Third, a partial success of the anti-government movement is estimated based on the analysis of the collective actions and the government counter-response. The resistance process opened a political opportunity through a constituent process in November 2019. However, this did not fully address the ambitious goal of ending structural violence, which poses challenges for campaign participants.