Student violence rocks Santiago during national strike

Violent student protests rocked the Chilean capital Santiago and other cities on Tuesday, the day of a national strike called to demand improvements to education. University and high school students set up barricades along many of Santiago's main thoroughfares but they were quickly taken down by the national Carabineros police force. In some areas of the capital, students burned tires and destroyed property, including buildings and some cars parked in the streets.

At least six people were arrested on Tuesday morning, all juveniles, said city superintendent Cecilia Pérez.

The Chilean Confederation of Students (Confech) called for an unauthorized march that was to begin at the University of Santiago and make its way through the city center.

Protests have been mounting since President Sebastián Piñera earlier this year announced wide-ranging education spending cuts despite the country having one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America. In the last two months, teenage students have seized hundreds of high schools, demanding an end to for-profit educational institutions, lower interest rates on student loans and the provision of a student bus pass, valid year round.

Asking for support

Students are calling for a national referendum on their demands, and asked teachers to join them on yesterday's march down the capital's main avenue, despite not having gained police permission. Students want the national government to take over the public school system, where 90 percent of the country's 3.5 million students are educated, charging the system is under funded and deeply inequitable. Chile currently dedicates 4.4 percent of the country's GDP to education, far below the 7 percent recommended by UNESCO.

There has been no immediate response to the referendum demand from Piñera's government. Justice Ministry officials, who met with student leaders last week, said they are studying the petition. Chile operates under a Constitution drafted during the 1973-90 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet that doesn't provide for referendums in such situations.

Until last week, the protests had been peaceful, including a massive student "kiss-in" in front of La Moneda presidential palace. But last Thursday night the government sent in the riot police with water cannons and tear gas.