Truckers strike in Chile, in new challenge to government

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Truck drivers in Chile are staging a strike to demand an end to highway tolls, posing a new challenge to a government struggling to ease public anger after days of deadly unrest over economic hardship.

Hundreds of trucks on Friday drove slowly on a main highway that skirts the capital of Santiago, where stone-throwing protesters have fought riot police for more than a week. Some Chileans in cars and motorcycles joined the protest against the tolls on private roads.

At least 18 people have died in the turmoil that has swept the South American nation. The unrest began as a protest over a 4-cent increase in subway fares and soon morphed into a larger movement over growing inequality in one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries.