Camila Vallejo, Sebastian Pinera and the Chilean Student Protests

Hundreds of thousands of people from across Chile have been protesting for two months against the social injustice of the current education system. Pinochet’s privatization of the education system has led to an explosion of poor quality private universities that differ hugely in quality from the country’s best universities. University Students are charged expensive fees and must pay exorbitant interest rates on loans leaving students and their parents heavily in debt. The private universities also receiving state funding as they are designated as ‘non profit’ organizations. The people who benefit financially from this educational system are the owners of the universities, many of whom are linked to or actually within the current government.

Before reaching university level, children in Chile are sent to government funded schools where the quality of education is dependant on the income generated from the surrounding area. At present Chile spends 4.4% of the country’s GDP on education, which is well below the UNESCO 7% recommended figure. Those who can afford it do send their children to higher quality private schools and universities. But the protestors of this social injustice are not only the poor but include middle class citizens from across the country who are furious at the government’s broken promises and who see a few becoming rich while most are struggling to make a living. The average monthly wage in Chile is estimated at $385 while the average monthly college tuition stands at $500. It is estimated that most students will leave education with a debt of $40,000, this is thought to increase to around $100,000 within 20 years.

According to Joseph Ramos, the head of the Economics Department of Chile, ‘The income difference ratio between the richest 20% and poorest 20% of Chileans stands at 14 to 1, one of the most unequal distributions in Latin America, and the world.’ Chile is one of South America’s most prosperous countries, one example of which is that the copper value extracted from Chile in 2010 came to $39 billion. This would be enough to give every one of the 16 million population of Chile $2 million each. Under the changes made during Pinochet’s government, which was one of mass privatization, the ownership of Chilean copper mines is now shared with foreign companies.

Sebastian Pinera is the current President of Chile, he has held this position for just over one year. Pinera is one of Chile’s richest people with an estimated fortune of $2.4 billion, much of which came from introducing credit cards into Chile during the 1970s. Highlights of Pinera’s history include outright ownership of Chilevision, a terrestrial nationwide broadcasting system, which he sold shortly after becoming president. Prior to winning his place as president, Pinera spent $13.6 million on his presidential campaign. In 2007 Pinera was fined around $680,000 by Chile’s security regulators for an offence similar to insider trading. Pinera denied any wrong doing but did not appeal the case.

Pinera also has strong links to the Pinochet government including managing the ultimately unsuccessful election campaign of former Pinochet minister Hernan Buchi in 1989. Pinera’s brother Jose was a high ranking member of the Pinochet cabinet for three years as the Secretary of Labour and Social Security and then the Secretary of Mining who privatized mining and state pensions. Sebastian Pinera did acquire most of his fortune during the Pinochet era.

Sebastian Pinera has seen his approval rating plummet due to the Chilean protests. His approval rating was 63% around the time of the Chilean miners rescue but this has now dropped to just 26%. Pinera’s approval of an immense hydroelectric dam in the beauty spot of Patagonia has also not helped his approval rating and has led thousands to protest against Pinera’s business tactics.

The Chilean student protests did begin peacefully and included marches through Santiago by around 80,000 students and teachers asking that the national government take control of the school system. Peaceful protest soon turned to violence as the government sent in riot police using tear gas and water cannons to deal with the crowd. The 4^th of August protest ended with 900 arrests with many claiming that the brutal tactics taken by the riot police were not a far cry from the repression used during Pinochet’s regime.

Camila Vallejo, the University of Chile’s student leader, has been active throughout these protests and is seen by many as the protest figurehead. The 23 year old is a member of Chilean Communist Party and the second ever female leader elected in the university’s 105 year history. Vallejo has been behind many of the peaceful protests and the 23 year old has incensed Pinera’s government. Many have commented that Vallejo’s good looks are a hindrance to her being taken seriously. Yet she has been taken seriously enough to have death threats issued against her, which have lead to Chile’s Supreme Court placing her under police protection. The Ministry of Culture, Tatiana Acuña, was recently fired for claiming that the protests would soon end if Vallejo was assassinated. Acuna wrote on her Twitter account, “If you kill the bitch, you kill the rising.” This is thought to be in relation to a quote from Pinochet addressing his troops saying, “If you kill the bitch, you do away with the litter.”

Vallejo has been in the midst of the riots and was recorded as saying, ‘The right to congregate has been violated’ as tears streamed down her face from the teargas used by riot police trying to control the crowd. Vallejo said recently, “We don’t want violence, our fight is not versus the police or to destroy commercial shops … our fight is to recover the right to education, on that we have been emphatic and clear.”

Camila Vallejo is not the only young person fighting for the right to an equal education.

Gloria Negrete, 19, has now been hospitalized after staging a hunger strike that began over a month ago. Negrete is one of a group of students from Buin who are on hunger strike as part of their protest for the right to free and public higher education for Chilean students. From her hospital bed Negrete read a public statement that included, “This will be a manifestation of the discontent of the responses that this government has given to all the students of Chile. Our lives end, but we know this sacrifice will not be in vain. It will mean that all boys, girls and youth in Chile will finally have a free and dignified education. Today we are in the hospital of Buin, and with our health in precarious conditions after 33 days of this hunger strike, we cry out to be heard, and we represent the cries of millions of Chileans.”

The two day nationwide shut down in Chile on the 24^th and 25^th of August that includes transport and public sector workers is now underway. The protestors have not accepted the government’s promises to cut interest rates and increase spending on education by $4 billion. The protestors are demanding that the blatant segregation and the inequality of education that is in evidence comes to an end and a real reform of the public education system in Chile is undertaken by the government.

With what looks like no backing down from the protestors, President Sebastian Pinera, the man who opposed the arrest of the brutal right wing dictator Augusto Pinochet claiming that it was an attack on the sovereignty and dignity of Chile may have to reconsider the statement he made to students that, “Nothing in this life is free. Someone has to pay.”

* On 24^th August, Gloria Negrete ended the Buin high school students 37 day hunger strike stating that the measure was taken out of concern and distress for the families of the hunger strikers and that they will continue to struggle “because it is better to die standing than live kneeling.”