Chilean Student Throws Water on Education Minister

In Chile, a student fed up with the repression and incarceration of participants in the protests against the new General Education Law (LGE) and the beatings and abuse sustained by her from the military during these protests complained to the Minister of Education at one of the Participatory meetings organized by the Ministry [es] to discuss the LGE, discussion which ended with a jug of water thrown in the Minister’s face as can be seen on the following video.

In the video, uploaded by user profemetropolitano shows a conference during the Participatory Dialogues the Minister of Education has established. At about the 2:02 mark, in the midst of chants against the LGE, a 14 year old student in a red jacket is seen asking for answers regarding her detained classmates, and demanding explanations towards the beatings she was subject to. She then follows Minister Mónica Jiménez up on stage, insists in speaking to her and is blocked by government officials, and that is when she grabs a jug of water and proceeds to throw it at the Minister’s face.

Chilean students have been protesting the new General Education Law Project [en] as Erwin, collaborator for The Latin Americanist blog reports(Ley General de Educación) which is already to be decided in the Senate specifically in the areas of for-profit education guidelines as well as the possibility of selecting students based on socio-economic levels and academic performance to enroll in schools, among complaints that the government isn’t following through with the agreements written up during 2007 protests. In the midst of these massive protests, occupation of schools and blockages all around the country, hundreds of students and teachers have been repressed by the police and detained in some cases, as can be seen on this mashup of television images reporting on the events.

The Minister has declared [es] that the throwing of water on her face is an example of how people with no arguments to prove their points resort to violence.