Federation of Chilean Students (FECH)

Founded in 1906 as the official student organization of the University of Chile, the Federation of Chilean Students (Federación de Estudiantes de Chile—FECH) was the first, largest, and politically most powerful student federation in Chile until 1973. Because the university was the largest institution of higher education in the country and the source of much of Chile's political and professional elite, FECH exercised strong influence on national affairs. Since its inception, FECH has contributed significantly to political change through alliances with unions and political parties, or through massive mobilizations that have affected policy at the national or university levels. In 1931, for example, it contributed to the demise of General Carlos Ibáñez Del Campo. In 1957 FECH again challenged Ibáñez during his second administration. During the 1960s and early 1970s, it became part and parcel of political struggles at the national level and mobilized the student population to an unprecedented degree. During this period, FECH secured a 25 percent representation in rectorship elections, thus achieving the university reform ideal of co-gobierno (co-government). In 1973, FECH was banned and its leaders driven underground. In conjunction with the resurrection of other democratic forces in the mid-1980s, FECH once again entered the political fray, but this time in a weakened and less ideological position, reflecting the overall decline of the university. In 1993 it closed down, but was restarted by Rodrigo Roco in 1995. In March 2006 FECH once again engaged in activism by supporting the protests of high school students, who demanded education reforms. This new student movement, the largest in thirty years, peaked on 30 March with 790,000 students participating in a strike. In June the government announced policies that largely met student demands.

See alsoUniversities: The Modern Era .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bonilla, Frank, and Myron Glazer. Student Politics in Chile (1970).

Bravo Lira, Bernardino. La universidad en la historia de Chile, 1622–1992. Santiago: Pehuén, Universidad Santo Tomás, 1992.

Cifuentes Seves, Luis, ed. La reforma universitaria en Chile (1967–1973). Santiago: Editorial Universidad de Santiago, 1997.

Huneeus Madge, Carlos. La reforma en la Universidad de Chile (1973).

Jaksíc, Iván, and Sonia Nazario, "Chile," in Student Political Activism: An International Reference Handbook, edited by Philip G. Altbach (1989).

Levy, Daniel C. Higher Education and the State in Latin America: Private Challenges to Public Dominance (1986).

                                                IvÁn JaksiĆ