Over the past month the students of many high schools and universities have taken over the facilities, stopping all activity. This action is an effort to combat the current education system which is very much a free market system, making free education almost impossible.
This week the congress is voting on a new law to improve the system, but many people believe it does not go far enough. Because of this there are currently protests going on in Plaza Italia, located in the center of the city.
My friend and I just so happened to walk through there today, and ended up stopping on the side of the road to watch everything that was going on. The students would chant and jump together, then the police would shoot tear-gas and spray them with water. The students would run, then return and the same would happen.
At the time that we were there there were two locations where this was occurring, one to our east and one to our south. Unfortunately the police decided to push the protest in the east towards us. At this point we decided to leave (about 5 minutes to late). We had to run from the water throwing truck, which we managed to escape. But then from the north came about 25 officers in riot gear who practice the policy of, "Beat the shit out of first, ask questions later". Obviously we ran as fast as possible into Parque Forestral. At this point they sent in officers on dirt bikes after us, so we sprinted across the street, hopped the fence to stop people from doing what we had just done and ran down a small side street.
If anyone in the United States thinks that the police are all fascist, they have no idea. Here they will hit you just because they can. They need no provocation to hit you with the water hose either. You're lucky if they only hit you with tear-gas. I think I know where George Lucas got his idea for the Clone Troopers (don't sue me George, I don't make any money for this).
I'm still catching my breath.
3 comments:
Pretty exciting stuff, good thing your Rugby playing had you in shape. Please don't hang out and watch any more demonstrations.
el hombre viejo
I would avoid those kinds of things from now on. I really don't think your parents would appreciate you getting arrested anytime soon.
As you can see the Police in Chile are very diferent to those from the United State or Canada, with a police car parked in a Dunkin Donut or a hot-dog stand. jejeje (joke)
Unfortunately this behavior of the "Carabineros de Chile" is the military government legacy from the 70´s,80´s. Carabineros were involved in criminal activities against Humans Rights in colaboration with the army, navy and airforce.
Due to that, most of chilian people lost there respect to the carabineros.
It have been very hard to the governement to make posible good relations between the carabineros and the people. But is something that is changing in many aspects.
About 2 years ago the President of the Republic created a "Secretary of Carabineros". This person is in charge to have direct communication between the Interior Ministry and the Carabineros General in chief. Now the carabineros are subordinates to the Interior Ministry also with the PDI "Policia de Investigaciones" Like your FBI. And not to previous "Consejo de Defensa del Estado" That groups army, airforce and navy.
Now the Carabineros is implementing many plan to work and to generate a good relationship with the population.
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