Public Statement by the FeL following the events of 8 September in Valparaiso

bolivia / peru / ecuador / chile | repression / prisoners | press release Friday September 16, 2005 18:38 by Frente de Estudiantes Libertarios - FeL fel_valpo at yahoo dot es

Following the events in the vicinity of the Universidad de Playa Ancha (UPLA) on September 8 last to commemorate the 32 years of the dictatorship, where a comrade in struggle was seriously injured at the hands of the Chilean Carabineros, the Frente de Estudiantes Libertarios [Libertarian Students' Front] declares as follows:

1. That for the commemoration of the 32 years since the4 military coup d'état, over 300 students actively took part in a popular protest demanding justice for the thousands of missing, murdered and tortured political prisoners. Besides demonstrating our strength, we were demanding, as conscious students, some answers for the millions of poor who in these 32 years of neo-liberal dictatorship have watched as the "elite" has trampled upon their dignity.

2. That during this legitimate commemoration, the Chilean State and its repressive aparatus attacked the crowd with inhuman violence, leaving seven people injured in varying degrees of seriousness. The violence consisted in shooting of tear gas canisters at body height and mass use of water cannons. Of the seven injured, the most serious was the result of a cowardly multiple violation which took place at about 1.00pm, the work of the driver of armoured truck number LA-002.

3. Comrade Francisco San Martín Soto, from the Villa Alemana area, who is studying for a Baccalaureate at the University of Valparaìso and is a libertarian militant in the popular struggles, was left with multiple fractures to the pelvis and the lower limbs after he was crushed against a metal fence on the North side of the UPLA by a water-cannon truck. At present he is being treated at the Pena Blanca Hospital. He is conscious and is resolved in his intention to obtain justice for this assault and to continue in the fight for a free people's university.

4. That we reject the unpunished actions of the Chilean Carabineros in this latest terrorist attack against the county's exploited and oppressed people, and that together with the family, we will be pursuing legal action against those responsible to the very end. Furthermore, we will be engaging in every type of activity possible in order to denounce what happened to as many as possible and also collecting funds for our comrade Francisco's medical expenses.

5. It remains only for us to reaffirm our commitment to the revolutionary cause which will continue in spite of the bourgeois State's lashing out at us, in spite of the inhuman exploitation and oppression of those who seek a new world. We welcome all demonstrations of solidarity from political and human rights organizations e we appeal to all students, citizens, employed and unemployed workers NOT to allow themselves to be intimidated and to continue to fight for our rights and for our DIGNITY.

Against inhuman and authoritarian repression!

Onward with the popular movement in the libertarian struggle!



FRENTE DE ESTUDIANTES LIBERTARIOS
fel_valpo@yahoo.es

Photos:
http://santiago.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/38233.php (Francisco being crushed)
http://valparaiso.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/4357.php
http://valparaiso.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/4372.php
http://valparaiso.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/4380.php
http://valparaiso.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/4366.php
http://valparaiso.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/4351.php


Translation by FdCA-International Relations Office