Chilean Students Try To Rev Up Stalled Education Reform Movement

A flurry of school occupations and street protests has provided a sudden burst of momentum to Chile’s student-led education reform movement, which had laid conspicuously low in recent months following its tumultuous rise to prominence in 2011.

A Summer Ceasefire For Chile’s Student Protestors. Will They Be Back In 2012?

"No more repression" (simenon/flickr)

Chile’s warm southern summer has brought an end – for now at least – to a relentless sequence of student-led protests that dominated headlines for much of 2011, cost two education ministers their jobs and sank President Sebastián Piñera’s approval rating.  

In Political Free Fall, Chile’s Piñera Has Company — On The Left

President Sebastian Pinera (Gobierno de Chile/Flickr)

Since last October’s improbable yet ultimately successful rescue of 33 miners in northern Chile, President Sebastián Piñera has had little else to celebrate – except maybe that the opposition Concertación coalition is faring just about as badly as he is.

Student Movement Marches On In Chile

Student protestors in Santiago (Tom/Flickr)

Chile’s student protestors are beginning to regroup following a tragic plane accident earlier this month that cost the powerful reform movement both momentum and a popular ally: beloved television personality Felipe Camiroaga. One of the country’s biggest celebrities, Camiroaga died along with 20 others when the military plane they were traveling on crashed off the coast of Chile’s Juan Fernández islands.

Chile’s Student Demonstrators Put President Piñera To The Test

A June protest in Santiago, Chile (credit - Dave_B_/flickr)

At some point over the past several months, President Sebastián Piñera, a billionaire businessman who until recently had also enjoyed a winning record in politics, lost his Midas touch. Now it seems he may be losing control.

In Chile, Students Mount Massive Education Reform Movement

Teachers' Union head Jaime Gajardo (left) and student leader Camila Vallejo (Credit - Flickr/Gonzalo Zapata)

Five years after the famed revolución de los pingüinos (penguin revolution) erupted along the streets of Santiago, Chile’s students are once again experiencing of winter of serious discontent, leading a series of massive demonstrations that many observers describe as the largest since the end of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990).