40 Protesters Arrested in Chile

Police arrested 40 relatives of political prisoners today after soaking many of them with jets of highly pressurized water. Officers used large clippers to cut chains by which the demonstrators had chained themselves to the iron fence around the Congress building.

The protest was in solidarity with a month-old hunger strike by about 400 detainees demanding better prison conditions. Some of those fasting have been described as severely weakened and at least four of them are hospitalized.