MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chaos in Chile’s main cities as police clash with protesting students: 550 arrests

Students peacefully occupied a television station to have their message aired

More than 550 people were arrested and 31 wounded in cities across Chile Thursday when police fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse student protesters calling for education reforms.

Hundreds of students later occupied a Chilean TV station until producers agreed to air their message.

In the evening thousands of students and professors attempted to meet at Plaza Italia in the country's capital Santiago after earlier clashes at spots across the city where students had set up barricades of burning tires, bringing traffic to a standstill.

Deputy Interior Minister Rodrigo Ubilla confirmed that 552 people were arrested and 31 wounded in clashes.

About 200 students staged a peaceful takeover of Chilevision television station to express their demands, said one of the station's reporters, Macarena Pizarro. After producers agreed to record and air a message from the students, they began to leave the station, Pizarro said.

In another violent incident a fire was raging in downtown at a branch of La Polar, a supermarket chain recently gone bankrupt and which catered mostly to low income Chileans. Thousands were swindled when La Polar credit card holders had their accounts manipulated so that for months the company showed earnings and applied for loans.

Fire fighters arrived late because of the police barricades and protestors improvised defence lines impeded the water trucks through.

Late Thursday night and when clashes were dying out a loud throng of pans’ banging coming from several districts of Santiago began to be heard. Pans’ banging is very symbolic since in many South American countries it was the spontaneous reply to military governments, particularly when they were airing national messages.

Students in Chile want the national government to take over the public school system, where 90% of the country's 3.5 million students are educated. The students say the system is under-funded and deeply inequitable.

Students and teachers had announced a national strike and two marches would take place on Thursday, but Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter said the government had not granted permission for the demonstrations.

“There are limits, and we've gone past them,” government spokesman Andres Chadwick said on national radio, referring to the multiple protests staged over the past several months. “The students do not own the streets.”

Protests have been mounting since President Sebastian Piñera announced wide-ranging education spending cuts earlier this year despite the country having one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America.

Chile currently dedicates 4.4%t of the country's GDP to education, far below the 7% percent recommended by UNESCO.

Piñera has called on the students to reach a negotiated solution with the government, which this week presented a 21-point proposal for resolving the crisis -- the second such offer since the conflict began.

The proposal would meet one of the students' key demands by enshrining the right to quality education in the constitution, and it includes an increase in grants and lower interest rates on student loans.

Students were expected to officially respond on Friday, but the proposal has already been rejected by several powerful student unions.