International Student Movement

June 13th: Riot Police Raids University
following Mass-Demonstrations across Chile

Like in many other parts of the world also in Chile the struggle against the increasing commercialisation of education and for free emancipatory education continues. More than 100,000 students, teachers and parents took to the streets of Santiago and other cities for another in a long series of protests calling for a radical shakeup of the educational system.

Besides the Confech university students confederation also high school student associations CONES and ACES, the Student Federation of Private Universities (MESUP), a parents’ group and a group representing teachers across Chile were involved in the protests that day. Riot police used batons, water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowd towards the end of the rally in Santiago, which resulted in dozens suffering serious injuries and hundreds being arrested.

Following the march, Carabineros, Chile’s uniformed police, violently entered into the central campus of Universidad de Chile which — alongside 25 other university buildings — has been occupied by students as part of the struggle. The police intrusion even drew fierce condemnation from university chancellor Víctor Pérez.
More than 20 students were injured and 20 others arrested during this attack alone. Nonetheless students remained in control of the premises, according to activists on the ground.

Protesters also clashed with riot police in Valparaíso and Concepción, amongst others. Arrests across the country totalled up to 360, according to involved students on the ground.

“They say they want to move forward on getting business out of education, but they allow the continued advance of a Superintendency of Higher Education that legitimizes profit instead of ending it,” Vela Diego, president of the student federation at Catholic University, said of the administration.
Among others people resist tuition fees and the fact that private institutions are subsidised by the state even as public schools in poor areas struggle.

Chile’s public schools and universities were neglected during the 1973-1990 rule of the late Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Private schools mushroomed under the military regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet in the 70s and 80s. The trend continued after democracy was restored, also during the 1990-2010 tenure of the center-left Concertacion coalition.

Students and parents want the elimination of school fees, an end to for-profit universities and a reduction in the high cost of college, which forces many to take on large debts.

sources: hispanicallyspeakingnews.com / santiagotimes.cl