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A two day shut down of Chile last week was set off by university students protesting the high cost of education, joined in solidarity by transport and public sector workers. Violence flared between protesters and police, particularly in the Chilean capital, Santiago. Since June hundreds of thousands of students, including those in high school, have been boycotting classes. At the center of the demonstrations is 23 year old Camila Vallejo, the head of the University of Chile’s student union, who has garnered major media attention as a leading figure in the protests. Vallejo has articulated demands being made of the conservative administration of President Sebastian Pinera for the right to education – she said, “[w]e do not want to improve the actual system; we want a profound change – to stop seeing education as a consumer good, to see education as a right where the state provides a guarantee.” A majority of Chilean students graduate with tens of thousands of dollars of debt incurred by their families for student loans that are often too big to pay back. So far, one person has died in the protests – a sixteen year old boy who succumbed to a gunshot wound. Responding to the seriousness of the demonstrations, President Pinera has already offered concessions such as cutting interest rates on student loans, and offering to amend the nation’s constitution to include the guarantee of quality education for all. But Chilean students see this as too little, too late. Outraged at the police violence aimed at the demonstrators, students now want the Chilean interior Minister to resign. Vallejo herself has received court-ordered police protection after a government official suggested she be assassinated to quell the protests.

GUEST: Lichi Fuentes, Chilean American singer/songwriter, works at the La Pena Cultural Center of Berkeley