Protesters to hit streets Thursday for Chilean education reform
Protesters to hit streets Thursday for Chilean education reform
Monday, 02 September 2013 19:17
Written by Zachary F. Volkert
Organized under the Chilean Student Federation (Confech), 100,000 workers and students are expected to mobilize Thursday in Santiago.
Confech will hold its first official protest since June 26 on Thursday, with a second one planned for Sept. 11 in solidarity with protests marking the 40th anniversary of the coup d’état. That latter date is often marked by nights of intense violence in the Chilean capital.
One view of Confech’s protests in June showed thousands of students peacefully marching to Plaza Los Héroes. Another view — that the umbrella student organization tries to distance itself from — was of masked vandals, or “encapuchados,” throwing stones at police and lighting fires around Santiago in an ambience of chaos.
Protesters will meet at 11 a.m. in Plaza Italia on Thursday, where they will march a pre-approved route down Santiago’s main thoroughfare, Alameda, to Calle Mac Iver before arriving at Estación Mapocho. The Universidad de Chile’s Student Federation (Fech) Vice President Fabián Araneda estimates the march will again reach the 100,000 who participated in June.
“We think that the only way to change the education system is through mobilization,” Araneda told The Santiago Times. “(To assure) that the the people’s demands are felt, despite what happens with the elections at the end of the year.“
More:
http://www.santiagotimes.cl/chile/education/26670-protesters-to-hit-streets-thursday-for-chilean-education-reform