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Along the biggest avenues of Santiago, Chile, a social rebellion rallies against the dominant two party system.
The bitter cold of the Chilean capital, together with a tight land and air police presence, were no impediment for the massive gathering of students, workers and social organisations.
From midday on the 26th of June, the main artery of Santiago started to fill up with the columns of demonstrators coming from the park, the Franklin metro station and the University of Santiago (USACH).
Teachers, health-care workers, secondary school and university students and union workers wrote a new chapter in the history of the social struggle in Chile.
Andrés Fielbaum, president of the University of Chile Students Federation (FECH) said that the mobilisation is a concrete statement: “Let it be clear to the presidential candidates that Chile has today organised itself, it is different, it is not going to continue tolerating that their business becomes law. Today Chile is demanding that the form of democracy is radically changed, that there is much more direct participation of the people and, if this doesn’t happen, the mobilisations will continue to appear.
Text: Juan Carlos Cartagena
Photos: Marcela Contardo Berríos
