Chile: Student mobilizations and clashes in the streets continue full strength

Posted on July 21, 2011

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Jul162011

In Chile the student strike continues in full force with occupations, demos and clashes with the cops. Amongst the demands are constitutional changes for free public education but there is also a strong insurrectionist flame blowing through the youth of the land as “ecapuchadxs” (the hooded) seek total destruction of the establishment.

From Liberación Total,
translated from spanish by sabotagemedia:

Thursday July 14, a call out for a new national strike for education was answered as demonstrations were held in various regions. In Santiago a massive student demonstration took the Alameda without government authorization.

The first clashes and riots in Santiago were around 12:30pm. The hooded armed with stones, sticks, paint bombs and Molotovs began attacking police, along with destroying the the street signs, law enforcement responded with their water canons, mounted police and tear gas, breaking with the siege of security that is installed for each demonstration.

The transit through the Alameda and surrounding areas was kept interrupted and diverted for several hours, until past 17:00, the last incidents reported in front of USACH (University of Santiago de Chile) where there were barricades risen and clashes.

The riots spread to different places, at the intersection of Alameda Manuel Rodriguez were reported attacks to the Embassy of Brazil with Molotov cocktails after some cops took refuge inside.

Further along, the Alameda, Santiago’s main avenue was disturbed in continuous occasions with barricades where banks were also attacked, and at the hight of Republica Street an Army office was attacked resulting in their windows being destroyed. A car was overturned and burned in the intersection of Santa Isabel and San Isidro by subjects who fled.





In Valparaiso the hooded clashed with the police with stones, sticks, paint bombs and Molotovs. Protesters set barricades on Avenida Brasil and beyond. Also a car was overturned and burned and a Copec gas station was destroyed and looted.



Executioners injured…

In the clashes, two policemen suffered burns. The most serious burns resulted in the legs, torso, and respiratory tract after being hit by a Molotov cocktail while on duty at the front of the Embassy of Brazil. Yet another policeman who was at the Embassy of Brazil suffered light burns.

Nationally 35 policemen were injured, the majority after being hit by stones, 2 with burns and other 2 with fractures.

At the end of the day, a Special Forces van was hit by a bus of Transantiago resulting 3 police injured.

The detained…

After the demonstrations in several regions police detained 176 people, the majority for disorders. All but 18 were released. The regions were there was the most detainees were Santiago with 88, Valparaíso 16 and Concepción 45 Amongst the detained, a young 20 year old student of anthropology is accused of throwing the Molotov cocktail that left the two policemen wounded after being photographed, followed and snatched by undercover agents of the “Dipolcar” political police.

Flyer

The following is a transcription of a flyer which was collected in the riots in Santiago within the diversity of propaganda that has been written on the street in this day of confrontation. On one side it had a picture of the hooded attacking a police car with “PAYBACK” written as a call to revenge and to attack what oppresses us daily, on the other side was the following text:

In the marches, in the streets and in your life, go beyond what is established. The enemy is the capitalist society as a whole, attack its infrastructure and its executioner defenders.

Capitalist society violently denies us living in freedom. Through the stalking and pursuing by the police on the street and in your mind; business people and politicians are getting rich from what you eat, you learn, you use and desire; the press and TV justify all this, making us believe that nothing is going on, that now there are no more conflicts in a democracy, that it’s time that we all be friends.

What to do then? Obey and ask politely to those who shit on us? Do we mobilize peacefully as politicians and business people want, being friends with the cops, respecting public and private property, being tolerant with this society? Historically, peaceful means have achieved nothing, only channeling rage and discontent towards attrition, demobilization and defeat.

Thats why from the State and its police, the rich and powerful, we beg nothing. This and all marches are moments to attack, denying authority, going beyond the legality of what is permitted, generating moments in which openly, in complicity, we unleash and make them pay.

Attack! recognizing not only the police as the enemy, but also the banks, fast food outlets and the capitalist society in its whole! To see ourselves as individuals in conflict, sticking up for each other in the street, as violent individuals and bearers of chaos!

 

 

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