Chilean students protest municipal elections

High school student leader Eloísa González spoke Thursday, calling
students not to vote or to vote null in Sunday's municipal elections. 

Students and other sympathizers took to the streets Thursday in a series of countrywide protests in support of the campaign by the Coordinating Assembly of Secondary Students (ACES) to boycott municipal elections Sunday.

The call to boycott was born out of frustration with the government response to student demands. Some students believe changes they see as necessary can never be made from within the political system.

“Democracy isn’t produced by voting once every four years,” ACES spokesperson Eloísa González told the press leading up to the march. “Transformation in Chile comes about thanks to these student and social movements.”

Within Santiago, ACES was backed by various marches in distinct neighborhoods.

"We have called for decentralized marches with the hope of reflecting the support we have in every neighborhood," González said.

Though Thursday’s marches were announced ahead of time, they were not cleared with city authorities. As a preemptive measure, Chile's national police force, the carabineros, surrounded a handful of schools in downtown Santiago, preventing students from participating in marches by bringing them to police stations for "identity control,” according to ACES. In laws never changed from the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), national police are legally permitted to detain anyone and bring them to police station to verify their identity cards.

González expressed her outrage with the day’s events via her Twitter account.

"(Carabineros) are detaining high school students to prevent the march!" she tweeted, calling on her followers to retweet the message. "This is not democracy!"

“The youth have to take matters into their own hands. The government has its ears covered,” said Luis García, a university employee. “The only way to be listened to is by marching and protesting. I’m not in favor of violence, but people have to go into the streets and make themselves heard.”

With protests undermined by police in downtown Santiago, ACES spokesperson Javiera Román expressed poignant frustration.

"Carabineros are experts at dividing us and diminishing our power," Román told The Santiago Times.

Carabineros could not be reached for immediate comment.

- The Santiago Times