At least 50 demonstrators were arrested on Thursday when masked protesters attacked police at the end of a massive and otherwise peaceful march in Santiago demanding more resources for education.
Tens of thousands of students, teachers and their supporters marched from the University of Santiago, in the western part of the city, to the La Moneda presidential palace demanding reforms.
Marchers took up 11 blocks of the central Alameda boulevard as they headed into downtown Santiago.
Photo: AFP
Protest organizers said that more than 150,000 came out to march.
“This is an absolutely massive march that has surpassed our expectations,” student leader Giorgio Jackson said.
However, Santiago Governor Cecilia Perez said the figure was closer to 60,000.
Regardless of the number, the ongoing demonstrations have turned into the largest protest movement in Chile since General Augusto Pinochet’s military -dictatorship ended in 1990.
Thursday’s march follows even larger demonstrations in June, July and last month. The large crowds prove that the student’s demands remain popular and show they have not lost strength after their numbers dwindled in recent marches.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, a center-right billionaire who came to power in March last year, has stubbornly rejected the protesters’ demands.
Pinera has shrugged off calls for the school year to be rearranged and said that 70,000 high-school students making such calls and refusing to make up course credits through remedial tests had simply wasted a year.
The breakdown of talks between the students and the government last week also contributed to renewed anger.
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