Chilean capital overrun by violent protests

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Riot police detain a protestor on Central
University's campus in Santiago on Tuesday
October 18, 2011.

A second consecutive day of massive student protesters has paralyzed the Chilean capital Santiago as riot police violently clashed with the demonstrators. Some 100,000 students took to the streets on Wednesday, demanding reforms in the country's educational system, the Associated Press reported. Violence erupted after the law enforcement agents started confronting the protesters with tear gas canisters and water cannons. Protesters were seen throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the police. A gas station was reportedly attacked and the protesters set fire to tires and several barricades they had set up. The Chilean Deputy Interior Minister Rodrigo Ubilla said that some 260 people had been arrested during crackdown on dissent across the nation since early Tuesday.

Chilean students and teachers have been absenting themselves from classes and holding protest rallies to demand free education for the past five months. Since the launch of the protests, more than 1,500 people have been arrested. Officials say some 350 have been charged and a dozen others placed in detention. The demonstrations, however, are expected to grow and new ones are scheduled to be held within the coming 24 hours as some 70 other organizations, including Chile's main trade union Workers' United Center (CUT), have joined the student movement. Chile's education system was established during the 1973-1990 military rule of former dictator General Augusto Pinochet. In line with the system, only about 40 percent of school and university students qualify for free education based on their parents' income. The growing Chilean protests represent the country's largest mass movement since democracy was reestablished in the South American state in 1991.

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