Chilean students reject accusations of violence

Undersecretary of the Interior Rodrigo Ubilla blames students for protest violence last year.

Chile’s student unions have rejected suggestions by the Chilean government that university students were responsible for acts of violence in protests last year, calling the accusation a distraction.

Young Chileans fight back at a July 2011 protest for education. (Photo by todosnuestrosmuertos/Flickr)

“Giving prominence to this subject (of violent acts in student protests) distracts us from the fundamental dispute, which relates to structural changes, both educational and social,” Bárbara Vallejos, a spokesperson for the student union of the Universidad de Santiago (FEUSACH), told The Santiago Times.

The accusation was made by Chile’s Undersecretary of the Interior Rodrigo Ubilla who, in an interview with El Mercurio on Thursday, said that some of those responsible for the violence in the wake of protests had the profile of university students.

“They take advantage of the underclass, but the bulk of these ‘encapuchados’ (hooded vandals) are prepared,” Ubilla said. “They have gone through the learning process, and they generate actions of coordinated and simultaneous violence.”

Ubilla also admitted that the Ministry of Interior was not prepared for the magnitude, nor frequency of the marches. More than 6,000 protests and marches took place across the whole country between March and December, resulting in injuries to 1,102 Carabineros, Chile’s police force, and 791 civilians, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

The endless violence that happened in the protest chaos exposed numerous problems for Chile. Various NGOs saw incidents of police brutality and abuse, which the Ministry of Interior has often denied, while Ubilla said they discovered issues in their ability to prosecute for the crimes.

“There are weaknesses and strengths--one of the weaknesses is the issue of intelligence,” Ubilla said. “There are weaknesses in intelligence in order to preempt the incidents. But also, in the capacity that the police have, to be able to provide proof to the prosecutors in the prosecuting stage.”

Ubilla added that in August, the Ministry created a special task force that led to an increase in arrests for more serious incidents of disorder and violence. The situation even led the Ministry to draft a bill known as the “Hinzpeter Law,” which seeks to increase penalties for participation in the violence.

But Ubilla’s comment about the university students contradicted the public stance of the student unions, who have always vocally opposed violence during protest marches.

Andrés Fielboum, a spokesperson for the student union of the Universidad de Chile (FECH), told The Santiago Times that student organizations have always condemned the violent acts.

“We believe it is very important that there be marches and that we have the right to protest,” he said. “However, this is no justification (for acts of violence).”

Ubilla’s comment did not surprise Fielboum.

“It’s just more of the same,” Fielboum said, referring to the Chilean government’s ongoing attempts to discredit the student movement by blaming it for acts of violence and destruction perpetrated by encapuchados during and after student protests.

“In the end what they’ve always done is repressed and detained students who have done nothing but march peacefully. They’ve never been concerned with identifying who’s committing acts of violence and who isn’t. They just come and detain anybody,” Fielboum said. “I definitely think the government’s strategy should be to concentrate on resolving the conflict over education instead of persecuting and condemning the protests.”

The student unions were quick to point out that the criminal elements that got involved in student protests were in fact not students at all, but simply vandals taking advantage of the presence of large numbers of people to commit acts of property damage with impunity. They said the government has always exaggerated the isolated acts of violence in order to reframe Chile’s education conflict as an issue of law and order.

“(The comment by) Undersecretary Ubilla just reflects the government’s plan to divert the focus from the fundamental dispute,” Vallejos said. “When the government concentrates on the mobilization as an end in itself, above all from the perspective of violence, it forgets the important elements of the mobilization which even the very president (of Chile) has praised in conferences overseas.”

Last year Chile’s university student unions organized massive protest marches through the streets of the Chilean capital Santiago, sometimes attracting hundreds of thousands of students to protests for the cause. The student movement, which demanded free, high-quality public education, enjoyed widespread support among Chile’s general population, but acts of violence and property damage committed by hooded criminals in the wake of the protests diminished public support for the mobilizations.

By Michael Andrews (editor@santiagotimes.cl)
Copyright 2011 – The Santiago Times

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