The victims of the dictatorship are honored 50 years after the Chilean coup

Thousands of Chileans walked through Santiago on Sunday in an annual mourning march honoring the victims of dictator Augusto Pinochet’s rule.

The current president chose to participate in the procession for the 50th anniversary of the coup.

Monday is the anniversary of the coup that overthrew the popularly elected left-wing president Salvador Allende. Chile’s brutal regime came to characterize and symbolize the many military dictatorships that ruled Latin America during the 1970s.

It was also symbolic when Chile’s current president Gabriel Boric left the Moneda Palace, where Allende died on the day of the coup on September 11, 1973 after giving a radio address to the nation, to join the procession of over 5,000 participants.

Boric leads the left-wing Convergencia social party and is the first president to choose to participate in the annual march honoring the victims of the dictatorship.

A small group of protesters, dressed in black and masked, chose to attack an entrance to the presidential palace and throw Molotov cocktails at outposted police.

A couple of protesters were arrested and some police officers were injured, according to the police agency la Prefecture central de carabineros.