Chile has withdrawn as host of the APEC trade summit in November and the COP25 climate summit in December after several weeks of violent unrest, President Sebastian Pinera announced on Wednesday.

Chilean President Sebastián Piñera says ongoing protests have led him to call off the two major international summits.

Piñera announced Wednesday that the Asia-Pacific summit set for Nov. 16-17 and the global climate gathering planned for Dec. 2-13 are being scrapped.

The South American nation has seen 12 days of massive protests to demand greater economic equality and better public services in a country long seen as an economic success story.

The demonstrations have been accompanied by some vandalism and arson, which forced the shutdown of numerous subway stations.

The APEC summit was scheduled to bring together 20 world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, over Nov. 16-17. The COP25 program was due to run between Dec. 2 and Dec. 13.

“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,” Pinera said in a brief statement from La Moneda palace in Santiago.

Material from Bloomberg, Reuters and the Associated Press has been used in this report.