The revolution is contagious, or so it seems. Now Chile has joined Brazil in countrywide protests ahead of a scheduled presidential election.
More than 100,000 people gathered to demonstrate and ended up vandalising shops and fighting with police in Santiago de Chile yesterday.
They are also occupying election polls in the sprawling metropolis, a situation that could bring the elections to a halt.
What are they asking for? A better education system.
The incumbent president, Pinera, has already warned that the protesters "will be dealt with quickly by riot police if they do not surrender the polling stations they have occupied."
Already the protesters have been branded criminals and extremists. In a country where anti-communist sentiment still runs high, and many people still support the Pinochet junta as one of the most favorable outcomes in Chilean history, the demonstrators risk getting hit with a backlash by police and the voting population.
The revolts are being coordinated by student groups, universitarian and secondary, and lead by Moises Paredes. He is pinning himself against the powerful and superrich Pinera. Paredes for his part has truly upended the power structure by seizing the polling stations.
The bone of contention in Chile, unlike many other countries has to do with University education, which is currently in the hands of private colleges and privately owned institutions. There are almost no public Universities left in Chile. Chile is a wealthy country, the protesters contend, and the wealth re-distribution is a must to offer the poor a chance to higher education.
The protesters are also asking for higher taxes for the rich, who as most of the wealthy in the Latin American continent, have privileges not afforded the poor. The wealth inequality that characterizes Latin America might finally become the subject of strong protests.
What is interesting however, is that the bulk of the demonstrators is made up by teens, who are connected by Facebook, and are becoming empowered by electronic media.
Source : Guardian UK / 6.27.13
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