The protest was the second in two weeks for the student movement, and brought together high school students and private university students (MESUP), along with a worker’s group (CTU), to renew their demands for an end to for-profit education.
“We came to support the students and their demands, who have been mobilizing because of their discontent towards politics. [The government] has a very despondent attitude and doesn’t listen to the students or the people,” Ramon Lopez, a mineworker in CTU who participated in the march, told The Santiago Times.
Humans rights group estimated the number in attendance at around 5,000. While the turnout was far less than that of the CONFECH march last Thursday, the increasing frequency of the protests is reminiscent of the build up to 2011’s peak, and signals an impatience with not only President Sebastián Piñera, but also a dissatisfaction with the current candidates running for election.
"This march was convened because we believe that the government has not met our demands, which are free education, free public transport for university students and a democratization of the educational system,” said Ignacio Gajardo, a spokesperson for the high school students.
The march began outside of University de Santiago de Chile (USACH), where students readied banners, browsed photocopies of anarchist literature for sale or purchased hamburgers from plastic coolers.
Another student juggled lemons (
) that would later serve to mitigate the effects of tear gas.
Soon, thousands poured into the street, peacefully cheering and waving banners along Alameda until Plaza Los Héroes, where layers of barricades indicated the end of the approved route.
While most students hung in the background, “encapuchados” or “hooded ones,” pushed forward, rattling barricades mere feet from where Chile’s uniformed police force, the Carabineros, stood in tightly knit groups, their shields perched in front of their bodies in defense.
