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'Carabineros tumbando olla común / Police tumbling soup kitchen', Taller Vicaría de la Solidaridad. (Photo: Martin Melaugh)

In this sombre, traditional arpillera, framed by a dull sky and monochrome hills, we see the impoverishment wrought by the economic policies of the Pinochet regime. Unable to pay for their electricity, these villagers are using wires to tap into the main power supply. Resilient in the face of such hardship, they have decided to set up a soup kitchen so that the worst affected are not left hungry.

Given that these soup kitchens were a lifeline for the poverty stricken during the Pinochet era, it is distressing to see an armed policeman, flanked by a police car, tumbling the entire contents of the soup pot onto the ground. The image of the young people approaching, with their soup plates in hand, adds to the sense of outrage; we know they will have no food today.

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