Santiago – Chile’s government began high-level talks Tuesday with representatives of the roughly 600,000 secondary students who mounted a strike to demand educational reforms, even as police clashed with strikers in incidents that most observers blamed on the cops.
Even the halls of Santiago’s National Library, where Education Minister Martin Zilic was meeting with delegates from the ACES student association, filled with tear gas fired outside by police trying to disperse a peaceful demonstration.
The striking students, constituting more than half of Chile’s high school population, are backed in their protests by many parents, teachers and school administrators.
The agenda of Zilic, who met with student leaders by direct order of President Michelle Bachelet, included the students’ most urgent demands, including free use of public transport and a waiver of fees for the PSU college-entrance exam and for student identification cards.
The PSU currently costs $37.60, the student ID costs $5 and student fares on public transit are 23 cents.
The government, according to student leaders, offered to partially agree to the demands by authorizing fee waivers and free transit to students coming from the bottom 60 percent of the population in terms of income.
The others points among the demands, which include the overhaul of the education statute known as LOCE, will require longer and more complete negotiations since it is a legislative matter, a fact agreed upon by both students and government representatives.
In the course of the demonstrations which began several weeks ago, fundamental stands have been taken on the quality of education, which is regulated by LOCE, which was imposed by dictator Augusto Pinochet the day before he stepped down in 1990 and is blamed for an enormous gap in the quality of education given to the rich and the poor.
Student leaders emphasized the peaceful nature of the protest and, according to local media and other observers, the street incidents that began to multiply around mid-afternoon Tuesday were mainly provoked by the police, who began to forcefully disperse the marchers.
The repression extended to journalists, cameramen and photographers who were covering the events in downtown Santiago, with several of them being beaten by militarized police a mere 100 meters from the presidential palace.
The deputy interior secretary, Felipe Harboe, condemned the attacks and told journalists that he had ordered an internal investigation within the police to establish responsibility in the matter.
By late afternoon, police had arrested 300 people in Santiago and another 100 or so in other cities, but the disturbances were continuing.
