MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

President Piñera loosing the education reform battle with Chilean students

Ten of thousands marched in downtown Santiago in spite of violent clashes (Photo AP)

Chilean riot police fired tear gas and used water cannons Tuesday to disperse violent protesters of an originally peaceful student demonstration that turned wild in the capital Santiago. Police said 273 protestors were detained and 23 police officers injured.

Tens of thousands of teachers, students, parents and sympathetic labour activists marched in downtown Santiago for the fifth time in two months to demand reforms from the conservative government of President Sebastian Piñera.

The peaceful protest, previously agreed with Carabineros, came apart when a group of hooded youths hurled sticks and rocks at riot police near the presidential palace of La Moneda. Some of the youths smashed street lights and broke windows, and at least two cars were set ablaze.

Police said some 60,000 people marched and organizers put the number closer to 150,000. The recent wave of student protests is the largest since democracy was restored in Chile in 1990 after 17 years of military dictatorship.

Students want the state to take over the public school system, where 90% of the country's 3.5 million students are educated. The nationwide school system was broken up during the military regime (1973/1990) and handed over to local authorities.

Protesters claim the current system results in deep inequalities is under-funded, elitist and favours the rich and those who can pay for the good private schooling system.

Chile has one of the highest per capita income in Latin America but also has one of the greatest income disparities in the region. Students also want more affordable higher education: most Chilean college students take out loans to go to private for-profit universities because public colleges are few and short of funding.

Student leader Camila Vallejo hailed the protest as a “success” and called on Piñera's government to allow the Chilean people to directly decide the future of education in a referendum.

The government, however, appeared inflexible on the issue with Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter urging “the whole country” to “reflect” on the damage caused by the protests.

“When a march is held, organizers have to take responsibility for making sure it is peaceful,” Hinzpeter said. Police authorized the Tuesday march, unlike a protest demo last Thursday that resulted in more than 800 arrests and dozens injured both marchers and police forces.

Protests have been mounting since Piñera, the first conservative president to govern Chile since 1990, announced wide-ranging education spending cuts earlier in the year and described education as a “consumer good”.

Piñera sought to defuse protests last month by proposing 4 billion dollars fund for higher education and then proposing reforms like guaranteeing education as a constitutional right – which students said do not go far enough.

Protests also occurred Tuesday in Chile's other main cities, including Arica, Valparaiso and Concepcion, and hundreds marched in solidarity in Argentina, where there is a large population of Chilean college students.

Unions representing public workers and copper miners announced they would join the students, a sign that the social upheaval against Piñera -- in power since March 2010, and with a 26% approval rating -- is broadening.