Several former Chilean student leaders are capitalizing on their high approval ratings to run for Congress and challenge Chile binomial voting system.

In southern Chile a dramatic sixty-day hunger strike that left four young Mapuche prisoners near death ended in celebration.

Since both high school and university campus occupations were rekindled mid-August in response to disappointment in the education reform proposals, the government has cracked down with a zero tolerance policy.

The indigenous Mapuche people have been trying to reclaim their ancestral lands for the past ten years, but Chilean authorities have only reacted with force.

More than 100,000 students in Santiago, Chile yesterday demanded an end to profiteering in education and called for free and quality education to all Chilean students.

Hundreds of thousands of peaceful demonstrators participated in marches across Chile, united by the same desire: that the government would commit to working towards a quality, free, not-for-profit education for all students.

Chilean students fasting for the cause of free and public education released a statement saying they will hold President Sebastián Piñera responsible for any physical damage they suffer.

Chilean students are no longer willing to accept mountains of debt to gain an education, and they have have taken over university campuses demanding accessible education for all of the country’s students.