Around 20 students protesting the Chilean government’s education policies were forcibly removed by guards from the presidential palace on Tuesday (May 24) after they had entered disguised as tourists.
Wearing orange baseball caps and backpacks, the students walked in the front entrance of the Palacio de la Moneda in downtown Santiago, cameras in hand. Upon reaching the central patio, they unfurled a banner reading, “Take note: the offensive begins today.”
Interior Minister, Jorge Burgos, said care had to be taken in the response.
“We have to see, it is not good what happened and obviously we have to take the right measures. I hope that the measures do not impede what always happens and which is very good, that many students come here to see the presidential palace and understand Chile’s history.”
In dramatic scenes, guards tried to drag them outside. Many students resisted forcibly, clinging to columns as they battled.
According to student union Confech, the protest was a response to what it feels is the slow pace of education reforms by the center-left government of President Michelle Bachelet.
“Today we the students of Chile have decided to break into the presidential palace to notify the president and the Chilean government that their educational reforms have failed, their labour reforms have failed, their economic reforms have failed. Nowadays it is not only the student movement, but social movements and the majority of Chileans who have decided: Chile is tired of waiting,” said Confech spokesperson, Gabriel Iturra.
Bachelet, who began her second non-consecutive presidential term in 2014, campaigned on a slew of reforms that included shaking up Chile’s highly privatized education system and making university free of charge.
Although some education reforms have been passed already, students complain others are taking too long and do not go far enough. They also feel as though they have not been sufficiently consulted.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016
