Last week the student federation requested another "hora protegida" in which there are no university classes. Today from 11:30 - 2:30 all classes were cancelled to allow for students to participate in a marcha.
Why? you ask.
Well, this is why:
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| Education should be a right. [sidewalk at the bottom of Campus Andres Bello.] |
At 11:15 I left Análisis Numérico class and headed to the cafeteria/dining hall of Campus Isabel Bongard - just below the hill of Campus Andres Bello. This campus borders one of the main roads of La Serena, which is where the march passed by around 1:45pm. There were carabineros (policemen) stationed along the road, which meant that some were right outside the fence of the university.
((I suppose that bears mentioning - each campus is fenced in and they are locked at night, which is different from the US.))
As the mass of people passed by, I was surprised at how calm and silent it seemed. The peace was quickly shattered when 5-10 students with masks on or hoods up ran across the Isabel Bongard campus and started throwing stones and insults at the carabineros. On the upper level of the cafeteria on campus, necks craned to watch the action, and other students joined in on the shouting. A campus security guard who had been stationed near the fence slowly ambled off to the center of campus, away from the encapuchados (masked students). I took that to mean he was giving tacit approval to the cause that the students were protesting.
For a couple minutes the carabineros tolerated it, but they soon began targeting the stone-throwers with a fire hose. Most got out of range by running towards the center of campus before the policemen could hit them, but a few ended up hiding behind trees until they could run to safety. Crowds formed along the fringe of the range of the fire hose, and milled around even after the encapuchados scampered away to blend back in with the rest of the students and the carabineros stopped the jet of water.
About 15 minutes after this, I had to go to my 2:30 class in Campus Andres Bello, so I went to leave campus Isabel Bongard... only to find that the gate was locked. It wasn't clear what the reason for this was - presumably to minimize confrontation between policemen and students (on campus) during the march. More pessimistically, it could be to prevent students from easily reentering campus if the march got violent. Without an easy means to escape, the marchers would be trapped in the streets at the mercy of the carabineros. Unfortunately, based on what I've seen and heard in Chile regarding education protests, I find that likely.
There was a small crowd of students waiting for someone to unlock the door, but to no avail. All was quiet, the march had dispersed, and the hora protegida was finished, so we expected it to be open by this point. After a few minutes of waiting, someone came to unlock it but brought the wrong keys for the padlock. He told students to go around to the other entrance, which was open. Most students opted to walk around, but I was already running late to class so I opted to join the few students who decided to climb and jump down from the 7 or 8 foot fence.
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