Who is she? Camila Vallejo Dowling is one of the leaders of the student movement in Chile and the president of the University of Chile’s student union (Fech, Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile). She is the second woman to hold this post, following Marisol Prado (1997-1998).
Why watch her? Vallejo has become the face of massive student protests in Chile over the past few months. A member of the Chilean Communist Party (PCC), she has led the way in rejecting reform plans for the education system drafted by the centre-right government, led by President Sebastián Piñera. The perseverance of the student movement has resulted in meetings between student leaders and the Chilean government, including a three-hour meeting with President Piñera himself. Piñera quickly removed Tatiana Acuña, a senior culture ministry official, after she insinuated on Twitter that killing Vallejo would provide a quick end to the uprisings. In August, Piñera ousted his education minister, Joaquín Lavín, after Lavín failed to sort out the protests.
On 12 September the leaders of Confech (Confederación de Estudiantes de Chile) delivered a document to the government outlining four key requests: 1) a total freeze on the government’s education reform bills, which were drafted without the input of students or teachers; 2) public coverage (either on TV or on Twitter) of any government-student meeting; 3) the suspension of resources for profit-making educational institutions; and 4) the extension the current academic term.
Secondary school pupils and university students have refused to attend class since early June. There have been some hunger strikes by the students.
Born: Santiago, Chile.
Date of birth: April 28, 1988
Family life: Her parents, Reinaldo Vallejo Navarro and Mariela Dowling Leal, were members of the Chilean Communist Party in the 1970s, during General Augusto Pinochet’s regime (1973-1990).
Marital Status: Single.
Education: Vallejo grew up in Santiago, attending a private, state-subsidised school (Colegio Raimapu) in the district of La Florida. She currently studies geography at the Universidad de Chile.
Public Life: Until six months ago, Vallejo was unknown to the mainstream media. In 2008 she was the Fech’s adviser and vice-president, and the substitute president of the union of geography students (which she co-founded). She was elected president of the Fech in November 2010.
Timeline:
November 2010: Vallejo is elected president of the Fech for the 2011 term.
19 July 2011: Piñera appoints a new education minister, Felipe Bulnes, to replace Joaquín Lavín.
August 2011: Tatiana Acuña Tweets, “If the bitch is killed, you kill the uprising” and is subsequently removed from her post.
August 2011: Vallejo is granted police protection, after she received death threats online.
3 September 2011: A first meeting takes place between student leaders and Piñera, lasting over three hours. The student unions later reject the government’s proposals.
Strengths: Vallejo’s organisational skills, her polished oratorical skills, her fierce determination and her obvious political charisma have propelled her to the forefront of Chilean society, and indeed further afield. The young student leader is representative of a new generation of Chileans, born on the eve of the return to democracy (1990), who, having enjoyed 20 years of economic growth and political stability, are now asserting demands more typical of voters in more mature Western democracies.
As Chile’s new media darling, Vallejo happily admits to capitalising on her good looks to advance the students’ political cause. She scores highly in opinion polls, in contrast to the slumping national approval ratings for President Piñera. She is also becoming a regional (and international) figure: Brazilian students persuaded her to join them in Brasília in early September as they demonstrated for higher government spending on education.
The Chilean government has been inept in trying to defuse the protests. It may have resorted to agents provocateurs to attack policemen during demonstrations in order to create a backlash against the students, but this tactic has not worked, largely because Vallejo and her colleagues anticipated it. The police ineptitude was compounded when they shot dead a student on 25 August and then tried to claim that there was nothing to investigate. This attempted cover-up cost the police commander in Santiago, General Eduardo Gordon, his job and led, indirectly, to the resignation of the national Carabinero commander, General Sergio Gajardo.
Weaknesses: There are calls from some dissident students who wish to return to school, but as yet these voices are not loud enough to be used against the student leaders. It is not yet clear what sort of negotiator Vallejo is, but the government’s ineptitude has magnified her qualities.
Prospects: Vallejo has made clear that she and the other students will continue protesting until they achieve their aims. The student movement shows no sign of waning or of compromising with Piñera. Vallejo’s high public profile suggests that she could become a major opposition figure if the Chilean Left were to realign. The opposition Concertación, which ruled Chile from 1990 to 2010, is contemplating re-jigging itself, perhaps at the expense of jettisoning the Partido Demócrata Cristiano. The success of Marco Enríquez Ominami, a dissident deputy from the Partido Socialista (one of the four component parties in the Concertación), in the 2009 presidential election underlined the Concertación’s problems and the need for it to be re-invigorated.
End of preview - This article contains approximately 868 words.
Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article
Not a Subscriber?
Choose from one of the following options
