Chilean activist and artist Francisco Tapia, also known as 'Papas Fritas,' has stolen and burnt $500 million worth of “pagares,” or debt papers. He then uploaded the video onto social media, claiming he had “freed” students by setting the papers alight.
The artist made his claim in a video that went viral on May 12, where he says that debt owed to the Universidad del Mar is now worthless.
The ashes of the burnt legal papers were later confiscated by
police after they were displayed at the Centro Cultural Gabriela
mistral (GAM) exhibition.
“It’s over, it’s finished. You don’t have to pay another peso
[of your student loan debt]. We have to lose our fear, our fear
of being thought of as criminals because we’re poor. I am just
like you, living a shitty life, and I live it day by day – this
is my act of love for you,” Tapia says in the five minutes
of the video, parts of which were translated by the Santiago
Times.
The theft and subsequent destruction of the documents happened
during a ‘toma,’ or student takeover, of the campus.
Authorities began closing down Universidad del Mar last year due
to financial irregularities, and while most of the students had
to find an alternative school, the university is still collecting
student loan payments. Now the owners of the university will have
to sue each of the individual students – a very time consuming
and costly process.
El arte que avanza junto a las luchas del pueblo, es una arma cargada de futuro. http://t.co/SR6T3eaQbY#PapasFritaspic.twitter.com/pL49d7vW8B
— Fabián Navarrete (@Rusiohead) May 14, 2014
Papas Fritas’ video comes after tens of thousands of students
protested outside the National Comptroller’s Office of Chile
(General Accounting Office). It also follows a petition by the
National Association of High School Students which demands that
Nicolas Eyzaguirre carry out his legal responsibility to sniff
out and sanction educational institutions that are making a
profit.
There have been widespread protests in Chile since 2011, with
students calling for reform of the university system and for
free, high quality education. Newly elected President Michelle
Bachelet waged an election campaign promising widespread change
to education – but two months on, tens of thousands of students
have again taken to the streets demanding she follow through on
her promises.
Eyzaguirre is under pressure to put an end to profits being made
in public education establishments. Although profit-making in
education is outlawed by law, more than half of Chile’s students
now attend publicly subsidized universities, which are privately
run and for-profit, making Eyzaguirre’s task all the more
difficult.
Seven institutions are already under investigation by the
education ministry and Eyzaguirre will soon reopen probes into
four more, El Mostrador newspaper reported.
On Thursday, several students from Arcis University stripped down
to their underwear and jumped into a fountain outside the
presidential palace in protest that their university was heading
down the same path as Universidad del Mar, where the debt papers
were stolen from.
Students from Universidad del Mar may actually get away with not
repaying a single peso, as attorneys representing them will argue
that the contracts were fraudulent in the first place. And Tapia
may also get away lightly, as a clause in Chilean law means that
because he has admitted what he did, he may get a suspended
sentence and serve zero jail time.