SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — Chile announced Sunday it will move to draft a new constitution and replace one dating back to the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship — a key demand of protesters who have rocked the country for three weeks.

The new constitution will be drafted by a body called a constituent assembly and then put to a referendum for ratification, Interior Minister Gonzalo Blumel said.

He made the announcement after a meeting with a coalition of center-right and right-wing parties which until now had been the most reluctant to change the Pinochet-era constitution.

The US-backed general ruled with an iron fist from 1973 to 1990.

Chile has been stunned by three weeks of sometimes violent and deadly protests by people fed up with the status quo. They cite low wages, high costs for education and health care and a yawning gap between rich and poor in a country dominated politically and economically by a few old, elite families.