Chilean Students: "We Keep on Protesting Despite Rain or Snow."

In their place, banners and this fun mock-up of a Santiago public bus took to the streets, the former asking for a plebescite, or turning the vote for whether or not to fund education to the people, and the latter calling out the for-profit educational model.

Negotiations between the student groups and the government have not made much progress, and as of August 4th, President Sebastián Piñera had approval ratings of only 26%, which are the lowest seen by any leader of the Chilean government since the end of the dictatorship, according to El Mercurio, a Chilean newspaper (in Spanish).

Today’s march convened about 50,000 people, after about a week’s break since the last march. Many universities and high schools are still “en toma” (in takeover), and this academic year is likely to be a wash for those students, since even attending school until a month past the normal academic year wouldn’t give them enough hours to finish. The CUT (the main labor organization in Chile) has called for a general strike on the 24th and 25th of August to support the students in another “paro general” (general stoppage).