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SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Riot police battled high school and university students in the streets of Chile's capital Thursday, firing water cannons and tear gas and using officers on horseback to break up flaming barricades. Police detained 552 students and at least 14 police officers and two young people were injured.
Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter and other Chilean authorities had warned that Thursday's marches were considered illegal and would be met with force.
The students, pressing for major changes to Chile's underfunded and unequal public education system, marched anyway, setting up barricades of burning tires at a dozen points around the city and paralyzing traffic. While many tried to peacefully hold their ground, some hooded demonstrators threw rocks at police cars and passing buses.
"Everything has its limit," President Sebastian Pinera said, warning against the demonstrations.
Hinzpeter added that "the time for marching has run out."
"This seems like a state of siege. I imagine it must have been like this 30 years ago," responded Camila Vallejos, a spokeswoman for the striking university students, referring to Chile's 1973-90 military dictatorship. "Even the right to congregate in public places isn't assured."
Despite the crackdown, Vallejos called for protesters to keep up the demonstration and bang pots "against the repression" through Thursday night. The sounds of pans bashing together could be heard in various parts of the capital late into the night.
Students, teachers and other education workers have participated in huge street demonstrations in recent weeks, with as many as 100,000 people joining their call for more government funding and a fundamental change in a system set up under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet that largely left public schools at the mercy of underfunded municipalities.
They are demanding improved quality as well as free education, including an end to profit-making at private universities.
Pinera offered a 21-point package of reforms Monday and invited center-left lawmakers to sit down with him in the presidential palace to resolve the strikes.
Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter and other Chilean authorities had warned that Thursday's marches were considered illegal and would be met with force.
The students, pressing for major changes to Chile's underfunded and unequal public education system, marched anyway, setting up barricades of burning tires at a dozen points around the city and paralyzing traffic. While many tried to peacefully hold their ground, some hooded demonstrators threw rocks at police cars and passing buses.
"Everything has its limit," President Sebastian Pinera said, warning against the demonstrations.
Hinzpeter added that "the time for marching has run out."
"This seems like a state of siege. I imagine it must have been like this 30 years ago," responded Camila Vallejos, a spokeswoman for the striking university students, referring to Chile's 1973-90 military dictatorship. "Even the right to congregate in public places isn't assured."
Despite the crackdown, Vallejos called for protesters to keep up the demonstration and bang pots "against the repression" through Thursday night. The sounds of pans bashing together could be heard in various parts of the capital late into the night.
Students, teachers and other education workers have participated in huge street demonstrations in recent weeks, with as many as 100,000 people joining their call for more government funding and a fundamental change in a system set up under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet that largely left public schools at the mercy of underfunded municipalities.
They are demanding improved quality as well as free education, including an end to profit-making at private universities.
Pinera offered a 21-point package of reforms Monday and invited center-left lawmakers to sit down with him in the presidential palace to resolve the strikes.
