Clashes in Santiago as police block Chilean student march.
Chilean police yesterday fired water cannons and tear gas at hundreds of protesting university students as they attempted to march on the Ministry of Education to protest proposed education reform measures.
The students, organized by the Confederation of Chilean Students (CONFECH), met at multiple points around downtown Santiago in the morning and began marching toward the ministry, located next to the government palace. “On the same path of changing education, lies the revolution,” “Stopping the reforms of the neoliberal state,” read some of the signs carried by the protesters. But after peacefully walking a few blocks they were intercepted by riot police and dispersed with tear gas.
The mayor of Santiago had earlier refused permission for the march.
Police did not provide figures of detainees. A journalist from state television reported the arrest of cameraman Gonzalo Carvajal “with absolutely no provocation” and said “they beat him, the camera must have been destroyed, they put him in the police van and took him away.”
Students also marched in Valparaíso, Temuco, Valdivia, and Concepción.
Demands, doubts
The students reject the country’s long-awaited education reform bill, delivered to Congress on Monday following at least nine delays, while also demanding the resignation of Education Minister Adriana Delpiano.
The reform was the principal campaign promise of President Michelle Bachelet. However, the fall in international copper prices, Chile’s main export, has tied up the proposed reforms over cost concerns. Finance Minister Rodrigo Valdés, said universally free access to higher education would call for additional annual state investment of nearly $4 billion.
At: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/217498/clashes-as-police-block-chilean-student-march
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