For the past several months, students, teachers, and their supporters in Chile have been staging chaotic demonstrations against their government. Their goal is to transform the country's education system. In particular, they're seeking a referendum to significantly increase the funding and quality of public schools. Students have engaged in multiple forms of protest, from hunger strikes and sit-ins to marches and pillow fights. Smaller groups of protesters have engaged riot police directly, hurling stones and firebombs. Chilean authorities have responded by banning demonstrations, pushing protesters back with water cannons, and offering education proposals that have been rejected. Students in the tens of thousands -- with popular backing across Chile -- continue to march without official permission, and public sentiment against president Sebastian Piñera continues to grow. Collected here are some scenes from the streets of Chile over the past few months.
Student Protests in Chile
-
-
Argentine and Chilean students march to the Chilean Consulate in Buenos Aires, on August 5, 2011, repudiating the police repression against Chilean students during demonstrations in Santiago de Chile. #
Maxi Failla/AFP/Getty Images -
-
-
Demonstrators try to stop a police vehicle armed with a water cannon, during clashes with riot police near the Chilean Congress where President Sebastian Pinera was delivering his State of the Nation address to the National Congress in Valparaiso, Chile, on May 21, 2011. #
AP Photo/Carlos Vera -
A masked demonstrator runs from a water canon fired by police during a protest near La Moneda government palace in Santiago, Chile, on June 16, 2011. Thousands of students and professors went on strike and clashed with police during a protest to demand non-discriminatory access to education, and against government plans to reform and privatize part of the Chilean education system. #
AP Photo/Roberto Candia -
-
Students shout during a protest against the government entitled "Mass suicide by education" in Valparaiso, Chile, on June 28, 2011. Students lay down in protest in the streets of the city, demanding changes be made to the state education system. #
Reuters/Eliseo Fernandez -
-
A firefighter tries to extinguish a fire engulfing a department store building during a rally in Santiago August 4, 2011. Students had organized the rally to demand changes in the public state education system. Reuters could not confirm whether the fire was started by the protesters. #
Reuters/Carlos Vera -
Riot policemen stand guard during a student rally to demand changes in the public state education system in Santiago, on August 9, 2011. The graffiti reads "Chile, you do everything for profit". #
Reuters/Ivan Alvarado -
-
A demonstrator prepares to throw a homemade bomb as a police water canon shoots water during a demonstration demanding reforms in Chile's educational system in Santiago, Chile, on June 30, 2011. #
AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo -
-
Students sleep inside the Liceo 1 school during a strike in Santiago, on July 5, 2011. Students participated in the sit-in to continue their ongoing protest demanding improved education standards, lower university fees and free bus passes from Chile's center-right government. #
Reuters/Victor Ruiz Caballero -
-
A student of Liceo Dario Salas lies on the ground on the 7th day of their hunger strike in Santiago, on July 27, 2011. Some 29 students from different schools nationwide, were on hunger strikes to demand for changes in the public state education system. #
Reuters/Victor Ruiz Caballero -
-
People beat their cooking utensils in a "cacerolazo", a form of loud protest done from one's own home, in support of Chilean students during a rally to demand changes in the public state education system in Santiago, on August 9, 2011. #
Reuters/Ivan Alvarado -
-
-
Students protest in front of and on the roof of a riot police vehicle, which has been vandalized with paint, during an anti-government rally in Valparaiso, on August 4, 2011. #
Reuters/Ivan Contreras -
-
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.