Starting in mid-october, students in Santiago began protesting the prices of metro fares rising, the protests started of peaceful for the most part, but quickly turned violent and destructive. The police in Chile, carabineros, were given the authority to subdue the crowds by whatever means necessary, including shooting into the crowds, firing tear-gas bombs, and arresting protesters. The spark for the protests were the increased public transportation fares, but the protests are actually about much more than that; they encompass poor education, increased cost of living with stagnant salaries, the pension system, the gap between the mega-rich and the poor and the privatized water system. All these reasons have caused the Chilean citizens to rally in the streets and protest their government that has not been doing much to improve their lives. 

This situation has affected our classes here by shutting down the main USACH campus and causing us to miss about 8 days of classes. Additionally the protesters have caused damage to much of the infrastructure in public transportation which prevents us from being able to get to and from class. At first I was worried about what would happen and if the protests would escalate in a way that would put me in danger, but I was never in any danger unless I decided to go protest. At this point I understand the feelings of the Chileans and why they are choosing to protest, by protesting they were able to cause the resignation of many of the cabinet members in the government to resign and are even calling for a new constitution to be written. 

I think it has been a really awesome experience to be able to see how the Chileans call for change in a way that is so different from the way the citizens of the United States would do it. I hope the best for the Chileans and I hope that their government actually listens to them and makes the changes necessary to improve the lives of their citizens. I have already seen how the Chilean people have inspired other countries to protest and voice their issues with their situations.