Students protesters occupy Universidad de Chile’s main campus

A group of approximately 30 university students took over the main campus of the Universidad de Chile late Thursday night. It is the first time the emblematic university has been occupied by students since the end of the “Chilean Winter” last year.

The occupation, or “toma,” follows a series of similar takeovers in Santiago high schools over the last two weeks. The Universidad de Chile occupation, however, is the first to take place on a university campus since last year’s Chilean Winter demonstrations.

“While we sleep comfortably in our houses, the secondary students occupy and re-occupy their schools and are violently evicted and detained,” the students said in a statement. “We cannot stay seated, arms crossed, while endless atrocities occur in front of our eyes.”

“Enough of the abuses, now is our time and we will make ourselves heard,” the statement continued. “We demand a return to the debate in favor of public, free, and high-quality education.”

Organizers hope that the toma will serve as a catalyst to re-ignite the student movement for educational reform that peaked last August, but has remained largely dormant this year.

“[We hope to] to revive the movement,” Danae Spinoza, one of the original occupiers, told The Santiago Times. “The movement has slowed, student interest is falling. . . We’re going to continue fighting alongside our allies in secondary schools.”

Government spokesperson Andrés Chadwick spoke out against the occupations in an interview with Canal 13, calling them violent and unrepresentative of students in general.

“This movement is very different from last year’s,” Chadwick said. “We are seeing small groups who are engaged in very focused action. We now see 30 students taking over the Universidad de Chile’s main campus without consulting or coordinating with their leaders and we have six occupied high schools. Therefore, we in the government believe we are facing a very small group that acts through violence and tomas.”

While the Universidad de Chile toma is not specifically endorsed by the Federation of Students of the Universidad de Chile (FECH), the university’s official student organization, it is currently being discussed by the various faculties of the university and will be voted on Monday.

Depending on the results of Monday’s plenary meeting, the toma will either continue as a FECH-sponsored occupation or come to a close, according to student occupiers.

FECH president Gabriel Boric did make an appearance at the Casa Central soon after the toma took place to verify that the occupiers were indeed students of the Universidad de Chile.

“Our convictions remain firm for all of Chile, secondary schools and universities,” said Boric, refraining from endorsing the Universidad de Chile occupation specifically.

Although police have evicted hundreds of occupiers in five high schools since Thursday, students at Universidad de Chile do not consider police intervention to be a likely, as law enforcement needs special permission to enter university property.

By Lee Purvey (lee@santiagotimes.cl)
Copyright 2012 - The Santiago Times