SANTIAGO – Twenty-two people were hurt and 64 arrested during protests against a tribute to late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, authorities said Monday.

Two of the 20 police injured in the disturbances remain hospitalized, one of them in serious condition.

The protests were spurred by a gathering of Pinochet supporters at a Santiago theater to watch a film glorifying the leader of Chile’s 1973-1990 military regime, which is blamed for more than 3,000 deaths.

Police resorted to tear gas and water cannon when small groups of hooded militants began engaging in vandalism and accosting pedestrians.

The demonstrators destroyed several traffic lights, damaged 15 vehicles at an auto dealership and tried to burn down a building under construction.

While some 1,200 Pinochet loyalists attended the film screening, the protesters numbered roughly 3,000, according to police.

Pinochet seized power in a Sept, 11, 1973, coup against elected President Salvador Allende, who took his own life as troops stormed the presidential palace.

The junta tortured upwards of 25,000 people and forced tens of thousands into exile.

Pinochet, who died in 2006 of a heart attack, cultivated an image of probity, but it emerged in the mid-2000s that he had amassed some $26 million in secret foreign bank accounts. EFE