Chilean Students Fight for a New Constitution

Santiago de Chile, Jun 21. -High school student federations in Chile say they want a new Constitution, on that would provide the right to a free public education at all its levels.

The student leaders also said they would keep about 300 high schools shut down across the country to protest government privatization plans.

The National Coordinating Committee of Secondary School Students called upon all youth to join their protest on Tuesday and Thursday through marches and others actions until the government responds to their demands.

Students will keep mobilizing, assured student leader Rodrigo Rivera, of the northern Chilean coordinating committee.

Jaime Gajardo, president of the Teachers Association, said there is a common factor in the demands of the students movement, which has acquired a magnitude of citizens movement, which is defense of public education and opposition to neoliberal policies that promote exclusion and inequality.

On Monday, the Carabinero police cleared the main campus of the Central University of Chile, which had been taken over by students, according to Bio Bio Radio.

The Constitution approved by the Augusto Pinochet military regime (1973-1990) is still in effect in Chile, promoting commercialization of education. (Prensa Latina)