What's happening in Chile?

Things in Chile have been very unsettled lately.

It's because of anti-government protests which have turned violent recently.

At least 20 people have been killed so far in the demonstrations which started last month.

Now, two important summits have been called off including the United Nations climate change conference in December.

Where is Chile?

It's a long narrow country in South America on the southern west coast.

Peru borders it to the north, Bolivia to the north-east and Argentina to the east.

It covers an area of 291,930 square miles and has a population of 17.5 million people, according to the 2017 census.

Spain conquered and colonised the country in the mid-16th century, taking over from the Incas. They were a civilization in South America formed by people also known as Amerindians.

Why have the riots started?

The trouble began because people were unhappy about a rise in the cost to use the subway.

However protesters are now marching to express their unhappiness over a wide variety of problems ranging from inequality to the high cost of healthcare.

Several days of rioting and vandalism took place and it led to President Sebastian Pinera scrapping the fare increase, two weeks after it launched.

He also declared a state of emergency in the capital Santiago and in five other cities.

More than a million people are believed to have attended a rally in the capital last weekend, in what organisers said was the largest demonstration since democracy was brought back in Chile in 1990.

Over 7,000 people have been arrested too.

Why was Chile hosting COP25 conference?

World leaders were expected to gather in Chile for the COP25 climate change conference

The United Nations climate change summit was originally supposed to be hosted by Brazil.

But in November last year, just two months after being announced as the summit's host nation, then President-elect Jair Bolsonaro pulled out.

A month later, Chile was selected to host the climate conference instead.

The COP25 climate summit was scheduled for 2 to 13 December but the UN said it was now looking for other venues.

This is the first time a country has pulled out of hosting the conference at such short notice.

It's also pulled hosting the APEC trade summit this month because of the unrest.

20 world leaders were expected to go, such as Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, over the weekend of November 16-17.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said "this has been a very difficult decision, a decision that causes us a lot of pain, because we fully understand the importance of APEC and COP-25 for Chile and for the world".