Teenaged hunger strikers hospitalized Chile

Aug 17, 2011, 19:47 GMT

Santiago - Three Chilean teenagers who have been on hunger strike for 31 days to demand free public education were hospitalized Wednesday with life-threatening heart problems.

'We are going to fight for our education. We will continue the strike to the end,' student Gloria Negrete, 17, said as she was taken to hospital.

This week, the teenagers started to refuse liquids except for 1 litre of water shared among the three. They were suffering cramps and dizziness and feeling increasingly weak, according to doctors.

'Let us hope they do not go back to the strike,' said Sergio Aguilera, medical director of San Luis de Buin Hospital, where the youths were being treated. 'Their lives are at risk.'

About 30 other schoolchildren have been engaged in similar hunger strikes across Chile. The government was evaluating a formal request for court intervention to halt the hunger strikes, since the children's parents are not acting to stop them.

Students have been rallying periodically for the last three months in the largest demonstrations in Chile since the end of the military dictatorship in 1990.

A local representative for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) agreed with protesters Tuesday that 'Chile has one of the most segmented education systems in Latin America, and indeed one of the most segmented in the world.'

'This means that if you are poor (in Chile), you get a poor education. If you are rich, you get an excellent education,' said Gary Stahl, UNICEF representative in Chile.

In Chile, most school education and all universities charge monthly fees.

The ongoing protests have eroded Chilean President Sebastian Pinera's approval rating, which sank to 26 per cent according to a survey published earlier this month, the worst of any Chilean president since the restoration of democracy.