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Chile police clash with student protesters in Santiago

Wednesday, 23 December 2015 5:36 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 23 December 2015 6:42 AM ]

Chilean police throw water at students during a demonstration in demand of free state universities and for the quality of public education in Santiago, on December 22, 2015. (AFP)

Police have clashed with protesters in the Chilean capital, Santiago, during a demonstration in support of public education.

Students and education sector workers took to streets on Tuesday to rally against the government’s education reforms. The demonstration was organized by the Confederation of Chilean Students.

The protesters said the reforms promised only for poor students by President Michelle Bachelet did not fulfill her electoral promise to grant free education for all.

The protesters held banners in support of “public education” and against the “government's inefficiency and the opportunism of the right-wing.”

They also hanged a giant banner at the university of Chile’s front door that read "Another democracy. Free and quality public education."

The demonstration turned violent after protesters threw bottles, rocks and firecrackers at police officers who responded with water cannon.

Chilean students clash with police during a demonstration demanding free state universities and protesting at the quality of public education in Santiago, on December 22, 2015. (AFP)

The clashes ended after the Chilean Special Forces joined the police and closed the streets around the university. One protester was reportedly arrested.

Education has been at the center of debates in Chile in recent years due to the Latin American country’s infamously expensive and poorly-run system that has been steadily privatized.

Bachelet was reelected in late 2013, with promises to undertake reforms, including free university education for the country's poor. In May, she announced reforms starting next year which would make university education free for 60 percent of the nation's poorest students.

The government is still struggling to pass the bill of the proposed reforms. The opposition, however, described it as “discriminatory.”

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