More than 500 detained in Chile student protests!
SANTIAGO, Chile - August 5, 2011 - More than 500 people were arrested and 14 wounded in cities across Chile Thursday when police fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse student protesters calling for education reforms.
Hundreds of students later occupied a Chilean TV station until producers agreed to air their message.
In the evening thousands of students and professors attempted to meet at Plaza Italia in the country's capital Santiago after earlier clashes at spots across the city where students had set up barricades of burning tires, bringing traffic to a standstill.
Deputy Interior Minister Rodrigo Ubilla confirmed that 527 people were arrested and 14 wounded in clashes.
About 200 students staged a peaceful takeover of Chilevision television station to express their demands, said one of the station's reporters, Macarena Pizarro.
After producers agreed to record and air a message from the students, they began to leave the station, said Pizarro.
Students in Chile want the national government to take over the public school system, where 90% of the country's 3.5 million students are educated. The students say the system is underfunded and deeply inequitable.
