260 Arrested During
Student Protests in
Chile
Some 260 people were
arrested Thursday during
protests in Chile
convoked by a student
organization, police
said.
The Association of High
School Students is
boycotting the Organic
Education Law (LGE),
which will replace the
one inherited from the
country's military
regime, and urged the
government to increase
the educational budget.
The protests were
especially large in the
Chilean capital Santiago
and the southern city of
Valdivia.
Some 2,000 people
participated in the
protest in Santiago. The
protestors, aged between
14 and 17, received
official authorization
to march to the Bellas
Artes Museum and through
the Parque Forestal in
the downtown area.
However, police
intervened to stop the
manifestation and
arrested some 50 people
as the students tried to
surpass the authorized
limits.
Meanwhile, thousands of
students clashed with
police and about 210
people were arrested in
Valdivia, 840 km south
of Santiago, and
Concepcion, another city
in the south of this
South American nation.
"The police repression
surpassed all the limits
since it was a peaceful
manifestation that only
demanded the compliance
of the government's
commitment not to
commercialize
education," said Ursula
Shuller, vice president
of Chile's Federation of
University Students.
In 2006, students staged
protests against the LGE,
which they said would
change the country's
public state education
system.
Nicolas Pineda, a
spokesman of the Manuel
de Salas School in
Santiago, said the LGE
"does not represent all
students and it does not
solve any of the demands
we made in 2006." |
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