Chile sanctions police after fatal protest shooting

Chile has ordered the resignation of a police general and suspended five officers after police admitted to firing a weapon in a neighborhood where a teenager was shot dead during mass protests.

The death of 16-year-old Manuel Gutierrez further inflamed social tensions in Chile, where the government has faced a wave of student and union protests that culminated last week in a 48-hour general strike.

Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter said late Monday the government had demanded the resignation of General Sergio Gajardo, whom it accused of failing to promptly investigate the killing.

The government had initially denied that police had fired on the demonstrators, but the commander of the Santiago metropolitan police admitted earlier on Monday that a patrol officer "made the decision to use his service weapon, an Uzi nine millimeter, on two occasions."

General Jose Luis Ortega said the police officer, one of the five who have been suspended, "said he fired, not at a group of persons, but in the air" after police saw protesters firing at them.

"We are not assigning responsibility (for Gutierrez's death) to the officer who used his service weapon. That will have to be established scientifically by the technical studies that will be carried out," Ortega said.

President Sebastian Pinera, who has seen his popularity plunge during the protests, on Sunday promised to get to the bottom of the death.

Gutierrez was shot to death Thursday during clashes between police and protesters in Macul, an area east of Santiago, one of hundreds of places around the country where violence broke out during the general strike.

Pinera has called for a "constructive dialogue aimed at finding solutions," and announced he was rescinding a seven percent health insurance tax on the pensions of poor senior citizens.

The Confederation of Students of Chile accepted Pinera's invitation to meet on Tuesday.