Chilean students resume violent strikes

CHILE: Protesters clashed with Chilean police on Monday as nearly one million high school students and sympathizers joined an expanding strike pushing for increased education funding.

The strike, the largest such action by Chilean students in decades, is the first domestic crisis of President Michelle Bachelet's nearly three-month-old government.

Public high school pupils are demanding free bus fare, free college entrance exams, more teachers, and improved secondary school buildings. They rejected Bachelet's offer last week of $135 million in additional annual funding for school programs, saying it failed to meet their key demands.

"Our demands from the start have been for sweeping changes to the education system," said Maria Jesus Sanhueza, a student leader.

While there were no reported injuries, some 160 demonstrators were arrested and police said many were older than high school age. Bachelet said reforms would be implemented with or without a strike, but she would not bend further to student demands.

"I am sorry we are experiencing this strike today, because in my view it is not necessary," she said. The protests increased in intensity as the day progressed, with some demonstrators damaging public property, smashing downtown store windows and attacking police with rocks and other projectiles.

Santiago, Tuesday, Reuters