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[img]http://i.huffpost.com/gen/322063/thumbs/r-CHILE-STUDENTS-large570.jpg[/img]
SANTIAGO, Chile -- Riot police battled high school and university students in the streets of Chile's capital on Thursday, firing water cannons and tear gas and using officers on horseback to break up flaming barricades.
Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter and other Chilean authorities had warned that Thursday's marches were considered illegal and would be met with force.
The students, who have been on strike for weeks to press for major changes in Chile's underfunded and unequal public education system, insisted on marching anyway, setting up barricades at a dozen points around the city and paralyzing traffic. While many tried to peacefully hold their ground, some hooded demonstrators threw rocks at police cars and passing buses.
Students, teachers and other education workers have participated in huge street demonstrations in recent weeks, with as many as 100,000 people joining their call for more government funding and a fundamental change in a system set up under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet that largely left public schools at the mercy of underfunded municipalities.
President Sebastian Pinera offered a 21-point package of reforms and invited center-left lawmakers to sit down with him in the presidential palace in hopes of resolving the strikes that have put classes on hold around Chile for more than two months. His plan would increase funding in general and partially shift education responsibilities to Chile's heavily centralized national government.
But the lawmakers refused the invitation as the students held out for more substantial changes. Some of the 33 high school and university students on a liquid-only hunger strike raised the stakes by saying they may stop drinking fluids as well.
As dawn broke, Santiago Gov. Cecilia Perez said riot police had to intervene to break up barricades, and called on parents to rein in their children.
"The students are not the owners of this country," declared Andres Chadwick, the government spokesman. "We cannot be held prisoner as a society by the idea that the only rights that matter are those of students to protest."
The government had declared the marches illegal and warned students not to gather on the streets of Santiago, but the strikers insisted on marching anyway down the central Bernardo O'Higgins Avenue Thursday morning. They also gathered the streets outside the University of Chile and Plaza Italia, where police broke up barricades of burning tires by firing water cannons and tear gas.[/release]
[url="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/04/chile-police-students-cla_n_918401.html"]Huffington Post[/url]
[release]Dozens were detained as they tried to march to the city centre despite a warning that the protest was illegal.
Chile has seen weeks of rallies by students and teachers demanding reform and more investment in education.
President Sebastian Pinera has pledged extra funding, but student leaders say his offer is not enough.
Protesters are calling for the government to take control of the country's public education system, saying the current system is underfunded and unequal.
Riot police moved to clear the demonstrators as they tried to rally in Santiago's Plaza Italia in the city centre. At least 130 students were arrested, while two police officers were reportedly injured in the scuffles.
Earlier, some officers had clashed with activists who had set up street barricades using burning tyres.
Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter had warned that the protests were illegal and would be met with force.
"The time for marching has run out," he said on Thursday.
Camila Vallejo, a spokeswoman for the striking university students, called it a "state of siege".
"I imagine it must have been like this 30 years ago," she said, referring to Chile's 1973-90 military dictatorship.
"Even the right to congregate in public places isn't assured," she said.
On Monday, Mr Pinera presented a 21-point package of reforms and asked centre-left lawmakers to hold talks with him to end the dispute.
The proposal offered to increase funding, improve teacher training, increase university scholarships and help resolve unpaid student loan debts.
But opposition lawmakers declined the invitation and students said the offer failed to meet their demands.
Chile sets aside 4.4% of the country's GNP for education, less than the 7% recommended by Unesco.[/release]
[url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14412646"]BBC[/url]
Another protest for this year.
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