Violent protests for education reform in Chile

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Violence has broken out in Chile's capital as tens of thousands of students stage another protest demanding changes in public education.

Masked demonstrators are burning cars and barricades, looting storefronts and throwing furniture at police. Officers are responding with tear gas and water cannons.

Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter says the violence shows student leaders can't control their demonstrators. Tens of thousands of students and teachers earlier marched peacefully in Santiago and elsewhere in Chile.

But masked protesters then split off from the main crowd and began clashing with police.
Earlier, student protesters who have snarled Chile's universities and high schools with weeks of strikes and demonstrations called on Monday for a national referendum on their demand for free and high-quality education.

The students also wanted teachers to join them on Tuesday in a nationwide strike, and plan to march again without police permission down the capital's main avenue. When they marched last week, nearly 900 protesters were arrested.

Catholic University student leader Giorgio Jackson said the situation was getting critical because many high school students could lose a year's worth of education and about 40 student hunger strikers can't hold on much longer.

There was no immediate response to the referendum demand from the administration of President Sebastian Pinera.

Chile operates under a constitution inherited from the 1973-90 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet and it doesn't provide for referendums in such situations.

Sen. Carlos Larrain, president of Pinera's center-right National Renovation party, told Radio Agricultura that the idea of holding a referendum under pressure from protesters was extremely dangerous and subversive.

But Socialist party leader Osvaldo Andrade told Radio Bio Bio it made sense for such a vote when a country's politicians were so far apart on a divisive issue.

Camila Vallejos, a spokeswoman for protesting university students, said it would be good to let Chile's citizens decide if they want the government to spend more and provide all students with free and improved education. After two months of marches, strikes and school takeovers, Pinera replaced his education minister and proposed a package of 21 reform measures.

Students rejected the proposal because it doesn't directly address a key demand that private universities invest their income in educational improvements, which protesters say is required by law for nonprofit institutions.

Pinera's approval ratings fell to 26 percent in July, according to a survey by the Center for Public Studies. The same poll, which had an error margin of three percentage points, said 80 percent of Chileans support the students' demands.