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Raisethefist.com: Buses burned as students protest education reforms in Santiago, Chile
Buses burned as students protest education reforms in Santiago, Chile
by anonymous Wed Aug 8 23:36:42 PDT 2012
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POLICE used water cannons and tear gas to break up a demonstration in Chile's capital by thousands of students demanding free education, and hooded vandals set ablaze three buses and hurled rocks at police.
Small groups of vandals often mingled with the student protesters, and Chile's government said student leaders cannot be exempt from responsibility for the violence following the burning of the Transantiago mass transit system buses.
"The leaders are opening the doors to vandalism and delinquency," presidential spokesman Andres Chadwick said.
"How much more should we put up with these illegal marches that call on school takeovers and that threaten a violent August? What does that have to with education?"
Santiago's municipal government had banned the students from flooding the streets of the capital, fearing the protest would turn violent.
Demonstrations demanding education reforms have swept Chile for more than a year. The government says the latest one in late June turned out to be the most violent, with 472 demonstrators arrested and 36 police officers injured.
"I deeply regret what is happening today in the streets of Santiago, but the government's is responsible for this because of its indolence and silence to all the proposals of the student movement," Gabriel Boric, the president of the University of Chile student federation, told local TV.
"We've tried all ways to reach out and have a dialogue."
President Sebastian Pinera's approval ratings have plunged with the protests that have put attention on academic and economic inequality in Chile.
Pinera has refused to radically change the education system, instead proposing to spend $1.2 billion on thousands of new scholarships and lower student loan interest from an average of 6 percent to 2 percent. He says the plan would allow more of Chile's most promising students to attend the best schools and slash the financial burden on their families.
Student leaders want to change the tax system so the wealthy pay more and to put the state back in control of the mostly privatized public universities to ensure quality. They say change will come only when the private sector is regulated and education is no longer a for-profit business.
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