Truthout - Jonathan Franklin, 11/18/13
Camila Vallejo speaking on July 20, 2013. (Photo: Paulo Slachevsky)
Champagne. Cumbia music. Street parties. The Chilean student leaders who upended their nation’s political agenda in 2011 with dozens of street protests on Sunday transformed their activist power into a mini bloc of student activists. Four of the young students - Giorgio Jackson, Camila Vallejo, Karol Cariola and Gabriel Boric - won congressional offices and will take seats in the Chilean Congress in March.
"We have battled for some time for our ideals for what we think Chile deserves and the transformations that Chile needs," said Vallejo, the 25-year-old former student body president as she celebrated on Sunday evening in Santiago. "It has been a long fight to open up the [political] spaces to win this via the elections process and the street fight. In those two environments we have advanced and won."
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