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((Clarín photo))

Police attack after fire in Araucanía

[Translation of an article from the Venezuelan website TeleSur for January 8. See original here and related articles here, here, here and here.]

The Chilean carabineros [militarized national police] early Sunday morning raided the Cacique José Guiñón community, in the commune of Ercilla, province of Malleco (in the Araucanía region), after a fire in a rural parcel of land that is considered a Mapuche conflict zone.

“We are in the commune of Ercilla, 100 kilometers north of Temuco, where close to 100 members of the Carabineros de Chile proceeded to raid the Cacique José Guiñón community early this morning,” reported César Parra, the TeleSur correspondent in the commune. (more…)

[Translations of two articles from El Mostrador of Santiago, Chile, for January 6 and 8. See originals here and here. During an unusually warm and dry summer, fires in central and southern Chile have destroyed some 50,000 hectares of pristine forest since they started in late December. The regions of Bío Bío, Maule and Araucanía are particularly affected. The Mapuche indigenous peoples have struggled to regain their homelands in the area, opposing forestry and other operations, and opposition to construction of the HydroAysen hydroelectric plants in the region has been massive and strong.]

Firefighters in Carahue dispute Piñera’s explanation of how fires started

by Christian Buscaglia

President Sebastián Piñera announced yesterday a formal complaint invoking the Anti-Terrorist Law [which dates from the days of the Pinochet dictatorship] against those found responsible for the fires that have affected immense parts of Maule and Araucanía and have cost the lives of six firefighters working for a private company. “We have credible information that leads us to assume that there was a criminal intent behind these fires,” he declared from the La Moneda palace. (more…)

[Translation of an interview by BBC World with Camila Vallejo, a leader of the Chilean student movement, as published in El Mostrador of Santiago on October 18. See original here and related articles here.]

After close to six months of protests, the student movement, which is demanding free public education, continues shaping the country’s political agenda. A new 48-hour strike begins this Tuesday.

Students, professors, environmentalists and the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, one of Chile’s principal unions, support the protest, which will include as its central event a demonstration scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

On the day before these mobilizations, BBC World spoke in Paris with Camila Vallejo, president of the Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile and one of the most visible faces of the movement.

Vallejo, a 22-year-old student of geography, has been in Europe since Friday along with three other Chilean student representatives to present their demands and to attempt to internationalize the movement.

You traveled to Europe to meet with international organizations and with intellectuals. Of the advise the intellectuals have given you, which do you like the best?

The philosopher Edgard Morin gave us confidence. He told us that higher education cannot be tied to the market, but that public education has to be guaranteed because countries need it in order to develop. (more…)

Priest calls for state of siege

[Translations of two articles from El Mostrador of Santiago for October 9 and 7. See original articles here and here and related articles here.]

Government claims student movement has been taken over by extremists

Press Secretary Andrés Chadwick charged on Sunday that the breakdown of talks is due to the Confederación de Estudiantes de Chile (Confech – Confederation of Students of Chile) being taken over by the most “extremist, intransigent and ideological” sectors of the student movement.

This was the executive branch response to the students’ decision to end talks with authorities on resolving the conflict, which has gone on for five months.

“It has become clear from statements made yesterday that Confech has been taken over and led by the most extreme, intransigent sectors, which will result in a student movement that is not concerned fundamentally with the question of education but with agitation,” the spokesman declared. (more…)

((Gabriel Salazar -- Brasil de Fato photo by Fábio Nassif))

The movement for public education in Chile gains strength, urges new constitution to counter legacy of the dictatorship

[Translation of an interview from Brasil de Fato for September 23. See original here and related articles here.]

by Fábio Nassif

This was a different kind of September 11 for Chile. The same script was used again but this time in a political climate that stresses more forcefully the ideas of the government that was interrupted in 1973. The march organized by human rights groups brought out close to 5,000 people, who walked to the cemetery where the monument to the executed and the disappeared is located. The colors of the political organizations moved gradually to the immense mural where the names of those to be honored are listed. At former President Salvador Allende’s grave, flowers were placed, songs were sung and his presence was remembered. The same for the singer Víctor Jara.

At a certain moment in the activities, the police, faced with young people who were setting up barricades on the avenue leading to the cemetery, began their repression. And, as a form of physical and moral intimidation, they made an incursion into the cemetery with water cannons, horses and all their weapons. More than 20 cars made their way through the midst of the homage. (more…)

The student movement and citizen protests against exclusion, neoliberalism and the lack of democracy

[Translation of an article from SubVersiones for August 25. See original here and related articles here.]

"This is our moment and this is our position: Free, quality public education" -- SubVersiones photo by Italo Retamal

by Claudia Villagrán Muñoz

Something changed in Chile on August 4. It was no longer only students who were mobilized but an important part of Chilean society actively joined in the students’ clear and concise demands: free, quality public education for all Chilean children and youths. The march, called by high-school and university students and by the professors, who on that day defied the authorities’ orders not to hold another march along the main avenue of Santiago, was brutally repressed by the Chilean police, who are under the command of the Ministry of the Interior.

There arose immediately a widespread indignation over the prohibition against the right to assemble freely to demonstrate, indignation against the police forces being used against minors who were not causing trouble, indignation over seeing downtown Santiago in a state of siege as in the worst days of the dictatorship, indignation because a just demand was not being listened to after three months of legitimate protest. When night fell, the most humble of the population, sectors of the middle class and even the well-to-do all over the country joined together for a cacerolazo [a noisy protest involving the banging of pots and pans] organized by the citizenry in a matter of hours, a massive spontaneous protest that had not been heard since protests across the country against the Pinochet dictatorship. (more…)

El Mostrador photo

[Translation of an article from El Mostrador of Santiago for August 19. See original here and related articles here.]

by Claudia Rivas Arenas

Despite the heavy rains falling on the center of the capital, the student movement did not slacken in its enthusiasm for demonstrating against the latest proposal by the chief executive. Similarly, President Sebastián Piñera sent a clear message that the government will not back down and that it is not willing to give in to what it considers the intransigence of the students, something the president made clear when he warned that “we remember that road from the past and it led us to the breakdown of democracy, to the loss of a healthy coexistence and it had many other consequences,” making a comparison with the climate of the days before ’73 [when the military overthrew Salvador Allende] . (more…)

El Mostrador photo

Santiago mayor says armed forces could be deployed if demonstrations escalate

[Translations of three articles from El Mostrador of Santiago for August 14 and 15. See originals here, here and here and related articles here.]

University students reject dialogue with Congress, call for another march

University students have rejected a dialogue with Congress on putting an end to the demonstrations for better public education that have been taking place since mid-May and have called for another march next Thursday.

Meeting in extraordinary session in the city of Concepción, the students explained their decision by pointing out that the government is not responding to their fundamental demands and has passed up a settlement by plebiscite. (more…)

"The struggle belongs to the whole society. All for free education."

[Translations of three articles from August 5, the first from La Tercera, the second and third from El Mostrador. Both publications are in Santiago, Chile. See originals here, here and here and related articles here.]

Government confirms 874 arrested in student protests and 90 police injured

Government spokesman Andrés Chadwick confirmed this morning that the nation-wide total of persons detained in the student march yesterday was 874 and that there are “more than 90 injured police officers.” He further added that the demonstrators’ constitutional right to assemble was not violated since it “depends on a request” and this was denied by local authorities…

In response to student claims concerning violation of the right of assembly, Chadwick declared that “the constitutional right to assemble is subject to a request, to authorization, when it is to occur in a public place, and that has to be submitted to the local authorities and the local authorities determine the place where the right will be exercised.” (more…)

El Mostrador photo

Demonstration in capital draws 50,000

[Translation of an article from El Mostrador of Santiago for July 14. See original here and related articles here, here and here.]

According to early counts, more than 50,000 people gathered in the center of the capital city on Thursday [July 14] for another march called by the Colegio de Profesores and the Confederación de Estudiantes Universitarios (Confech) to oppose proposals on university funding offered by the executive and to insist on ending profit making in education.

Although the city government had not authorized the demonstration to gather in the Plaza Italia area, it was from there that the column of people, carrying signs and poster, began to move west on the Alameda. (more…)

One-day stoppage falls on 40th anniversary of nationalization law

[Translation of an article from El Mostrador of Santiago, Chile, for July 11. See original here.]

Workers in Codelco [Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile – National Copper Corporation of Chile] began a 24-hour strike this morning as a warning against the eventual privatization of the mining company.

Some 15,000 regular workers and another 30,000 contract workers are called on to participate in the strike, which the company says will entail a loss of 41 million dollars.

The president of the Federación de Trabajadores del Cobre [Federation of Copper Workers], Raimundo Espinoza, said on the 24 Horas television channel, “We have in effect a complete shutdown of Codelco; there is no production. After 24 hours we will go back into production, because this strike is a warning in the face of questions we have already presented to Codelco, in the face of the question of privatization, of the participation of this government, which has invested a minimum level of resources into the company.”

According to the leader, the stoppage includes the Chuquicamata, Andina, Teniente, Ventanas and El Salvador divisions and the central office.

“We are undertaking this stoppage because we have concrete evidence of an effort not just by Codelco but by the government to begin a secret privatization of this great state enterprise. We are going to make a presentation to the comptroller and we sent letters to the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies and to the presidents of all the political parties, giving them background on our vision of the company,” he said.

In an interview with Radio Cooperativa, the leader asserted that they will send information on this “secret privatization” to the comptroller general of the republic and to Congress.

The mobilization coincides with the 40th anniversary of the law nationalizing copper that led to the founding of Codelco. The enterprise has decided to postpone celebrating the anniversary.

[Translations of two articles, the first from La Jornada of Mexico City, the second from El Mostrador of Santiago, Chile, both from July 1.  See originals here and here and related articles here.]

Hundreds of thousands of students demand education reforms
Confrontations with police result in 38 arrests, 20 injuries to cops

By Enrique Gutiérrez

Santiago, June 30 – In one of the largest demonstrations of the past 20 years, some 200,000 Chilean students rallied today at La Moneda, the  presidential palace, to demand reform in public education and to reject  privatization, resulting in isolated confrontations with the police, with at least 38 arrests and two dozen injuries to police officers, and a warning from the president, businessman Sebastián Piñera, that strikes and demonstrations will not improve the educational system.

“Un pueblo educado jamás será engañado” [“An educated people will never be deceived”], “Queremos educación pública gratuita y de calidad” [“We want free, quality education”] shouted the students, among whom were high school and university students as well as professors.  “We want the government to understand that this is a political movement, that what we are fighting for is better education,”  asserted student leader Camila Vallejos. (more…)