The chilean student movement during the democratic transition: resurgence and mobilization against the legacies of the Pinochet regime

Abstract

This research paper aims to analyze the path followed by the Chilean student movement, particularly the Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH) in the 90’s, in order to evaluate transformations experienced by this movement during the transition to democracy. The ongoing social demobilization, impelled by opposition parties when facing the 1988 referendum, affected all social movements which had led protests between 1983 and 1986, especially the student movement. The mobilizations reappearance during the cycle 1996 – 1997 responded to a profound internal transformation of the student movement patterns and, moreover, to the development of a new framework for collective action suitable for democracy.