Left I on the News

This item was only worth mention in a "news in brief" item in the San Jose Mercury News, the New York Times, and no doubt many others; I doubt it made many TV news broadcasts, if any:

Police used tear gas, water cannon and clubs against demonstrators staging national protests Wednesday against government social and economic policies.

And why didn't this get more coverage? Because this wasn't Venezuela or Cuba (where, by the way, police do not use tear gas, water cannon, and clubs against demonstrators), in which case it would have been front page news, an occasion for diatribes from American politicians and pundits, and calls for overthrowing the brutal government might have ensued, but Socialist-ruled (but definitely not "socialist") Chile, and the demonstrators were calling for "higher pensions and better education, health and housing services" and opposing "free-trade agreements with the United States and other countries." Obviously trouble-makers, and deserving whatever they got from the government in question, at least according to the U.S. ruling class.