Marcha por la Educación

Hey everyone!

Rather than providing you with a general update of what I have been up to since my last post, I am going to share 1 epic day I had this previous Thursday, June 16.

So in my last update I mentioned that the students of my university went into strike and took the buildings into their own control. They are doing this to make a statement about changes in the education laws that may be happening soon. While there are many, many different parts of this controversy, essentially they want public education to remain public and in so, it should be a free service. 

Well this is a lot bigger than I thought.

A friend shared this image the other day:

Every blue marker shows a University here that is on Paro (strike). 

Anyway, this previous Thursday was the National Education Strike, so there were supposed to be huge protests in Santiago as well as across the country. And when there is a huge protest in Santiago, there must be one in Valparaíso too.

My intentions for the day aside, I ended up in the streets of Valpo with a fully charged camera battery, an empty memory card and an alert sense of everyone around me.

To start the day I went to the Congress building; the end point of all Valpo protests. While I was there, the police started building barricades in the surrounding intersections (essentially trapping me in), so I knew something had to be coming. And by the looks of things, it was going to be big. 

Barricading the street, with me on the inside.

Water cannon trucks, ready on standby. 

After asking politely if I could please be let out of the barricade, I headed down the road in the opposite direction of Congress. 

Then, just blocks away, the march was coming. They were yielding banners and flags with an intention to be heard.

I needed to get out of the way, and conveniently there was a structure to my left that already had some photographers ready to get some good shots of the protest. So I slipped right up there and found myself a nice spot right at the top, out of harms way but with an excellent view of the action.

Good elevated view, out of the way :-)

As the marchers approached, some lady over a loud speaker system was welcoming the crowd and encouraging them to stop to unite themselves before continuing down to congress. Then I looked around a little bit more, and realized that I was on the stage of the protest leaders... oops. But I wasn't the only person up there and I just blended in with the other photographers.

Stage of the protest leaders, crowed gathered in front. 

And what is a good rally point without a band?

Protest Band!

So there I was, in the protest, with an excellent view, and out of harms way. So as the protesters united and continued to Congress, I proceeded to take pictures. Tons of them. 

SEAMOS REALISTAS, HAGAMOS LO IMPOSIBLE
Lets be realistic, lets do the impossible!

Continuing down Pedro Montt towards Congress

One of my personal favorite photos of the day...

Tons of different universities and majors united in the streets

News reports claimed that there were over 15,000 people in attendance at this march. I believe it.

So after the last bit of the march passed me, I climbed off the stage and decided to follow a little bit more and get some more pictures.

Then, realizing just how slow protest marches actually move, I found myself back at the barricade. This time on the other side at the front line of the march. 

Front line of the protests...

Yeah, that is not where I want to be if I want to keep myself safe, dry and fee of tear gas. But, I still wanted to see some more of the awesome event, so I double backed and around a block to the same intersection. Now I was just at a simple barricade with some other on lookers. No one on this side had intent of getting violent, so there was minimal danger there. 

Raising their hands to show that they mean no violence

From here I could see a good amount of the police activity, and just a little of the protesters. 

Heavily armored vehicles, ready to go.

Then someone broke through the barricade. Reporters swarmed in, and the frenzy started

Here it comes...

And the first water cannon of the day was fired

I found myself in an amazing spot here, like being at some sort of show. I saw everything, but was always out of harms way.

Things did start to get violent though. Some of the protesters would throw glass bottles full of paint at the armored vehicles and the riot police. Not really sure how that is helping their education reform, but they did it anyway.

Then, some of the riot cops had enough, they were only getting pummled with crap so they turned into our little part of the intersection to face us as if we were next to start some trouble.

Coming at us

After taking a beating of paint bottles

The toughness factor really decreases when speckled with paint.

Things continued to escalate as more water cannons were fired and some protesters began to through more bottles and rocks at the cops. The cops here are notoriously trigger happy with tear gas, but this time may have been warranted. 

The release of tear gas catches everyone's attention.

The gas spreads quickly to disperse the crowd. Were I was it wasn't as strong, but I could still feel it.

The rocks, water and tear gas went back and fourth for a while longer and I decided to head out. On my way back to the bus to head home, I passed by the university. Many of the (peaceful) protesters brought their banners back to the buildings to hang them up and celebrate the success of the march. 

Signs hung up on a building in Toma (sit-in)

If you look closely  you can see that the streets are all wet and some of the students are soaked. When I got there they were still having a great time even though the group had been broken up just shortly before. The air here was still lingering with gas.

I started to take more pictures of this event, but unfortunately my battery died so I wasn't able to get more photos. Though what I saw here was awfully disgusting.
There were already armored cars on the block, but without warning or anyone provoking them, the water cannons went off directly into the crowd. I even watched someone fall down in the madness and, horribly, the water cannon followed him to the ground and continued to blast water into him and roll him over the cement. Terrible.

Then a smaller armored car revved up and powered though the crowed dispersing them from in front of the main building. After most of them ran down a side street, they immediately came running back out followed by a huge plume of noxious gas. At this point it was just an obnoxious display by the cops of power and intimidation. If all this weren't enough, one of the water cannons pulled up in front of a building (in Toma) and proceeded to bast water though the gates. I'm pretty sure that isn't allowed. Although I didn't have my camera, I was able to locate a video that one of the student took from inside the building as the cops blew water at them. 

The gas was too strong to handle and I was getting worried about the cops on a power high, so I decided to wrap up my day and head out of there.  

Tear gas sucks. It stays in the air for hours, or even days and sticks to the skin just to make a point. When I got home I had to shower to get it off of me and stop the burning. 

I heard some of my friends went to the march as well, and one of them even got a picture of me on my perch on the stage of the protest leaders!

Upper right side of the crowd.

Thank you for reading, everyone. It was a very interesting day and certainly one that I wont forget. I am safe and sound, no more burning gas and I still have all of my possessions! Success.

Until next time,

Matt