Chile in pain

‘Dude, I got effing tear gassed!’

That’ll pretty much put a wrap on any day. It’s also pretty good excuse to not go to class. That’s all Ryan was trying to do today.* Tough day all in all, but at least he dodged the irritant-laced water cannon, dogs, and projectiles.

Nobody else was going to class today either, or anytime in the past three weeks as a general strike by all of Chile’s public university students wears on and turns progressively more confrontational. The issue at hand is nothing revolutionary; students complain of rising tuitions and apparent misuse of funds, officials obviously deny the claims and accuse the students of wanting a free ride. It’s an issue heavily divided by generational and class lines, just as it is in the United States or England recently. Yet in Chile, issues like this are never quite as simple as a complaint or disagreement to be settled by lawsuit or edict. It’s a straight-up fight, and it’s personal.

The ongoing war over education, framed by the students in terms of social rights and responsibilities, is hardly an isolated incident. Just in the past four and a half months since I arrived, there have been three separate large scale waves of protest. HidroAysen. The May 21^st demonstrations. Now education. From the outside, this would sound like a good sign for the country; a vibrancy in the air, where people aren’t afraid to point out problems and challenge authority, demand change to improve society. Many international commentators cheered when the people came out in force to protest the government’s plans to dam up Patagonia, and undoubtedly the current situation with public education has it’s share of outside support as well. But from the inside, things look a lot different. Every one of these protests started with positive intentions and subsequently devolved into all-out riots that threaten public safety and repeatedly blur ethical lines.

The sad thing is that all of these rioters are rallying around good causes, and in doing so, they kill any possibility of change. It’s a case of having too much of a good thing. Students are right to be upset with rapidly increasing costs and poor spending, but they take that several steps too far when they work themselves into a rage and attack police cars with rocks and baseball bats. During the HidroAysen protests, one policeman was ripped from his car and beaten to death. That helps nothing. That guy had no influence over the issue at hand. Simply being tied to the State was enough, and it became personal. Further hundreds were injured, arrested, and the damages were heavy and widespread.

It doesn’t have to be like this. There’s a stark difference between civil disobedience and direct confrontation, and Chile has yet to learn where to draw that line. Ironically, Chile’s neighbors to the north in Bolivia, much poorer people with arguably bigger problems, provide a contrasting example to Chile’s behavior. Bolivians frequently strike by camping out in the streets, shutting down the country’s transportation, and quietly but emphatically forcing the business or government’s hand. By resorting to riots in Chile, the people force the government to squash it using tear gas and water cannons mounted on police tanks. The riot is dispersed, people are locked up or hospitalized, and the issue continues to exist. It also makes it extraordinarily easy for leadership to simply dismiss protesters as hooligans, rather than citizens in good conscience demanding change.

If Chile is to assert itself as South America’s flagship nation for economic and social prosperity, its youth need to grow up, fast. Being critical doesn’t imply being confrontational. Nor are the police your enemy. The Chilean police force is considered a model for all Latin countries, and it’s a good thing because they are stuck dealing with the most rebellious population. There are plenty of honest, peaceful demonstrators as well of course, but until they stand up to the legions of instigators, the resentful, and their wounded sense of pride, nothing here will change for the better. To reject violence, rioting and barbarism – now that’s something worth protesting about.

*to clarify, ISA still holds separate class for those at La Catolica. UAI is a private school and not participating in the strike.