ABSTRACT
Out of the blue, Santiago de Chile students took to the streets in May 2002, in wild protest against plans to raise the prices of preferential student tickets for public transport by 10 per cent. The entire nation was flabbergasted by the evening news showing their sons (and a few daughters) running amok, attacking policemen, demolishing street signs and smashing traffic lights. The state struck back relentlessly. ‘If youngsters want to shorten their lives by spending up to ten years in prison, they may go on like this’, was the reaction of the deputy home secretary in his first public comments – strong words in a country relatively lenient towards horrifying crimes committed by the Pinochet regime. A deeper cause than ticket prices must have been behind the demonstrations. According to close observers, the main reason for the outcry lay in a deep frustration with the educational system which appears to have become a costly dead end for many young Chileans.
