Police arrest 113 protesters at 14 different demonstrations in Santiago

Students gather throughout Santiago in most forceful
protest of the movement. 

Thousands of student protesters demonstrated throughout Santiago on Thursday in one of the largest displays of force from the student movement yet.

The Coordinating Assembly of Secondary Students (ACES), who organized the marches, only had official clearance for one of the demonstrations which was in the upmarket Las Condes neighborhood.

“Students are asking for free education and better quality,” Paula Levi, a student at Universidad de Santiago, told the Santiago Times. “People can go into certain universities depending on their socioeconomic status, for example, people do not go into universities because of their capacities, rather their money defines their education.”

High school and university students converged on neighborhoods all over Santiago, with some ending in violent clashes with police.

Police reported 113 arrests throughout the metropolitan region — 39 adults and 74 minors —  for crimes ranging from mild and serious public order offences to vandalism. One adult was arrested for firearms offences.

ACES spokesperson Pablo Toro estimated 3,000 students at the Plaza de Armas meeting point in downtown Santiago, however, Chilean police claimed that only 1,500 people were there.

Police also estimated 2,000 students gathered at a protest in Providencia, a wealthy neighborhood to the east of the city.

The Liceo Arturo Alessandri School student body President Moses Paredes, however, said that they met with double that amount and Spanish news agency EFE reported 5,000 students congregated outside the area’s municipal building.

According to Camila Vallejo, vice president of the Federation of Student’s of the Universidad de Chile (FECH), the vast numbers of attendees means that "no one can ignore the fact that Chile is in a social and political crisis.”

Thursday’s protests were also notable for their wide national distribution, with unrest reported in the coastal cities of Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, La Serena and Punto Arenas.