Chile truckers block roads in Iquique, flights suspended as migration protests continue

Truckers blocked roads in Chile’s northern city Iquique on Monday to protest migration from Venezuela and crime, prompting the local airport to suspend all flights. The simmering issues will present Chile’s new president with challenges when he takes office in March. Despite pandemic restrictions, migrants from Venezuela and elsewhere have continued arriving in Chile, one of the wealthiest countries in a region rocked by protests over entrenched inequality. Iquique, a metropolitan area on the Pacific coast of about 215,000 people known as a duty-free zone, has become one of the main destinations for Venezuelan migrants, many of whom cross into Chile by the land border with Bolivia. Iquique’s airport said Monday it was suspending operations until a blockade no longer prevented access by airline and terminal personnel. Protesters marched on Sunday in Iquique here, located over 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) north of capital Santiago. <br/>