This morning I left my university to use the metro to get to work, to find that a huge (peaceful) march was taking over the entire Alameda (Santiago's main avenue), and thus the entrance to metro was closed. Buses were obviously not passing by since the protesters took up the whole street. I went back to school and studied for an hour, after calling work and explaining the situation.
The march, which the news says was somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 people (depending on what report you're looking at), was mainly university students. From my limited understanding, they are protesting against public universities becoming privatized, and fear that this causes the cost of education to go up. Students are also complaining about having to take out loans for college which take years to repay. I know you all are probably rolling your eyes, since we face this at a much higher cost in the United States. But, I think it's great that the people value their education so much and see it as a right.
Anyway, on to where my story gets intense: An hour after my first try, I reasoned that the march had probably passed and went back to use the metro. The streets appeared empty of people (and oddly empty of cars), and I was confused why the metro still was not open. As I stood there staring, trying to figure out why they wouldn't just open the gates, I heard screaming and looked up to see people running down the Alameda, toward me, ducking in to the bus stops and side streets as a tank with a water cannon came down the road spewing water on the protesters. I quickly ducked down a couple stairs of the metro (if only I could have just gone in the metro!) as people ran. There were also some guys in black bandanas breaking glass at the bus stop beside me. When it seemed that people had stopped panicking, I left the stairs and quickly went to a bench on Ejercito, the street my university is on. From there I watched for about half an hour.
The water cannons were followed by an endless stream of cops: on horses, on foot, in vans, in tank-like-vehicles. Small groups of protesters continued but I didn't see any more violence. Then, however, a large group of cops on horses had on protective masks and so did the horses. I barely had time to guess what was happening next when it did happen: the carabineros (police) tear gassed the crowds. People began running down Ejercito coughing and crying. I was lucky that I did not feel the full effects--my eyes stung and for a moment I had trouble breathing but it was definitely not at the level that most of the protesters must have experienced.
Finally, the chaos moved on. It didn't end, but it continued down the Alameda and I was left free to use the metro and overwhelmed.
I wish I had had a video camera, because I don't think my explanation does the situation justice. It was bizarre, scary, and a bit saddening to see it happen. While I know that some protesters got violent, I saw water cannons and watched people get tear gassed without having done anything but march peacefully. It's one thing for the police to intervene amongst those that aren't protesting peacefully--but from what I saw the water cannons and tear gas seemed excessive and abusive.
On a related note, I just love that Chileans protest in the streets! They were the past couple weeks too about hydroelectric dams the government wants to put in Patagonia that are really destructive to the environment (that's the extraordinarily short version of that story). From what I hear, Chileans are the most mellow of the Latin American countries when it comes to speaking up for their rights, but I just wish that people in the United States could find even a fraction of the energy that these people have to participate in politics.
No comments:
Post a Comment