Collective protest grew recently in Chile, yet we know little about the characteristics and determinants of the tactics employed. By examining more than 2 300 protest events between 2000 and 2012, we explore the determinants of the adoption of four types of tactics: conventional, cultural, disruptive and violent. Multivariate regression models show that: 1) protests against the State elicit conventional tactics, but protests against private companies elicit disruptive and violent tactics; 2) workers "specialize" in disruptive yet non-violent tactics; 3) the presence of formal organizations in the protest increases conventional tactics and decreases disruptive and violent tactics, and 4) protest events with a smaller number of participants are more likely to have disruptive and violent tactics than more massive events.