Opposition Groups Fix Dates for Protests Against Pinochet, Plan New Publication

Opposition groups announced future mass protests against President Augusto Pinochet on Thursday, one day before today’s lifting of civil rights restrictions in effect since his military government took power in a 1973 coup.

One of the protests, set for Sept. 4, would be the first opposition march in downtown Santiago in 15 years.

An opposition front of 16 parties called on Chileans to bang on pots and pans in their homes next Tuesday night to reject Pinochet’s expected candidacy in presidential referendum six weeks hence.

An umbrella organization of labor, student and professional associations, including a truckers union, announced the opposition rally for Sept. 4. The government denied permission for the rally last week, but with the lifting of the state of emergency, the permit will no longer be necessary.

Opposition journalists who had been denied permission to found an evening newspaper under the emergency promptly announced that they would go ahead with plans for the new publication.

About 100 journalists demonstrated Thursday outside the presidential palace to protest the trials of 31 journalists, including Francisco Herreros, the editor of an opposition weekly who was arrested in his home earlier in the day and charged with insulting the armed forces in an article.