Riots

The protests of the Chilean students continue. Almost every University in Chile is currently occupied by students who 2 weeks before the past semester ended (in late May) began to protest the educational system here in Chile. The main concern of students and teachers had been the lack of funds distributed to Chilean schools. Chile only spends 4.4% of GDP on education, compared to the 7% of GDP recommended by the UN for developed nations. Therefore students pay around $7,000-10,000 (USD) for public universities per semester- very comparable to US university prices. But many locals have told me this is much more than families can support, scholarships are rare, loans have high interests rates and that the public schools are extremely far behind the private ones anyway. This initiative apparently began and is being organized by the Present of the Student Body for all of Chile. This girl is now famous, and is somehow organizing thousands from all over the country in some incredible protesting. Teachers, professors, parents, and students from university all the way to middle schoolers have come together to protest the current education system. Some of there other demands are these: a constitutional guarantee to a quality education, allowing student participation in university governance, the end of local control over public secondary education, and increase university scholarships and provide help for people with unplayable student debt.

All over Santiago are HUGE signs constantly calling out their demands. Every day there are students putting up displays, running around with banners and just making noise voicing their purpose. Almost all schools are closed, with banners and signs covering their walls, and chairs shoved into their gates. The schools are overtaken by students who camp out in each of them, planning their next protest like a rebel base. Every Thursday during the past month has been official protest day. Usually legally registered, thousands gather in main areas around the city and march with signs, yelling and banging of pots. Most of these riots turn to violence before the day is over with giant street fires and riot police releasing tear gas.

Yesterday the students apparently did not officially register. And it was an all day plan. The Middle Schoolers were to start at 10am, then the High Schoolers later, and then the University Students into late in the night. So at 10 am, the riot police started their job of stopping an illegal protest- right outside of our window. We tried to leave our house right around then to get to the Thursday market in Bellavista. After being stopped 3 times by different police on 3 different corners and then seeing a large street fire being constructed down the street, we gave up and headed back to our apartment to watch and wait. It was a good thing we got back safe to our place when we did because not 5 minutes after we returned, the riot police made their move complete with water cannons and tear gas. It was unreal to watch middle schoolers running full speed from police and tear gas. Some were captured and thrown into the police trucks. The pictures are taken from our 22^nd floor balcony, the video shows the water cannon spraying the running middle schoolers.

The tear gas could be seen rising all over the city, and it penetrated into our apt and affected me pretty bad. The others in our apt just got stinging eyes or itchy throats, but I got an awful headache and had to lay down for most of the day.

Later that evening I was scheduled to sing at El Oasis (the Christian Community House here in Santiago started by Globalscope, in junction with CCF back at Tech). Nick and I were the cover band of the night, so I played guitar and the 2 of us sang the duet “Picture” by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crowe. It was a blast. I really enjoyed my time there. All the boys came to support us, as well as my Chilean buddy Nadia from my rugby team. El Oasis lives up to all the great stories I have heard my by friends who have come down here to intern at different times through out university. I am so glad I can now experience it. Here’s a video of us singing and some pics.

Coming home from El Oasis was quite an adventure. The riots were in full swing, students were out everywhere, banging on pots, yelling, starting huge fires, police, tear gas, water canons- it was insane. The metro was closed. The buses had stopped. It was Chris, myself and my Chilean friend Nadia just trying to get back to the Pint-house (what we now call our apt.) There were riot police on every corner, in full armor and shields. At one point a police tank drove by and threw out 3 cans of tear gas, Chris and I stood there and stared at them and the people running for a moment meanwhile Nadia was yelling “RUN” and we took off down the street and around the corner. We were right in a mass of people running as Nadia told us “If they catch us, they will take us straight to jail no questions asked.” So we ran. As we got to an area where the police hadn’t marched yet, we tried asking police how best to get to our apt. They responded with a stern laugh and a good luck to us. We passes LOTS of tear gas. My contacts seemed to help me bypass the blinding that it can cause, and I guided the other 2 through a couple blocks as they couldn’t stop crying and all of our noses running and bad head aches. We got home eventually. Naddia had no way to get to her home due to busses and the metro all being stopped. There wasn’t a car on the road outside of police armed vehicles. So she stayed with us. We all got home safe, with minimal tear gas exposure but it was definitely an event to remember.

Apparently the protests are going to only get worse this coming week, I think I have learned to just stay where you are when they are bad. It’s definitely an interesting movement to be around. Unlike any thing I have ever seen before.