Defying police water cannon and tear gas, tens of thousands of students marched in Chile’s capital and main cities on Thursday, the latest in a series of protests aimed at obstructing the government’s legislative agenda.
Carrying banners that read: “Don’t profit” [from public education], students demanded improved education standards, lower university fees and cheaper bus passes from Chile’s center-right government.
TV images showed some protesters, wearing T-shirts over their faces, throwing rocks at armored police vans that spewed tear gas in the capital, Santiago. Buses were covered in student slogan graffiti.
Most of the protesters — estimated by police at about 70,000 in the capital alone — marched peacefully in one of the biggest rallies since Chilean President Sebastian Pinera took office last year, ending 20 years of center-left rule in Chile.
Student protests have plagued successive governments in a country where students must pay toward their state education, and are piling fresh pressure on the embattled administration.
Pinera’s approval rating hit a new low of 36 percent last month, a survey by pollster Adimark GfK showed this month, as he was punished for his government’s approval of a controversial hydroelectric project and despite the strong economic recovery from the ravages of a devastating earthquake last year.
A billionaire, Pinera has also been buffeted by a scandal over credit irregularities at retailer La Polar that have sent shockwaves through the stock market.
Critics say the government failed on oversight.
“This makes it very difficult for the government to advance its legislative agenda,” said Patricio Navia, a political scientist at New York University. “People are not paying attention to what happens in Congress, so the political upheaval in the streets and the La Polar issue too make it very difficult for the government to focus on its legislative agenda.”
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