The University of Chile Student Federation (Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile [abbr. FECH]) is an organization that represents all the students enrolled in undergraduate and post-graduate courses at the University of Chile. The student organizations of the different undergraduate schools are also federated within the FECH. Camila Vallejo Dowling

Camila Vallejo

Camila Antonia Amaranta Vallejo Dowling is a graduate student of geography from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Chile, and was elected president of the University of Chile Student Federation in November 2010 - she is the second woman to hold this post after Marisol...

, a graduate student in geography from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Chile, is the current president of the FECH - she assumed this post on November 2010.

The Federation defines itself as:

• Democratic and representative: because its representatives are elected via universal and secret ballot, freely and informed, seeking a maximum level of participation by those it represents via all the channels deemed necessary, creating spaces whereby students can express their concerns and actions.
• Autonomous: because its organization and decisions are independent of the university authority, from the government in office and of any other organization or authority..
• Pluralist and unified: because it gives the right for all ideological currents to be represented, which respect the principles, the nature and objectives of the Federation. The Federation must be one for the all the University of Chile, and it reject divisiveness and parallelism.
• In solidarity and compromised with the needs of the students, with social justice, and with the construction of a more just social order, one grounded in liberty, democracy, sovereignty, and self-determination; with the unity of all people, the defence of the environment, and the respect and promotion of human rights.

History

The FECH was founded on October 21, 1906, with the unconditional support of the Radical Party

Radical Party (Chile)

The Radical Party of Chile was a Chilean political party. It was formed in 1863 by a split in the Liberal Party. Not coincidently, it was formed shortly after the organization of the Grand Lodge of Chile, and it has maintained a close relationship with Chilean Freemasonry throughout its life...

 politician and University of Chile law professor Valentin Letelier - who served as rector of the university from 1906 until 1913. The goal of the organization was to defend the rights and opinions of the student body of the University of Chile and to grant social assistance to workers and the dispossessed. The FECh became the first federation in Chile and first student organization of its type in the Latin American continent. Throughout its history it has played a notable role in the social and political history of Chile

History of Chile

The territory of Chile has been populated since at least 2,000 BC. By the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors began to subdue and colonize the region of present-day Chile, and the territory became a colony from 1540 to 1818, when it gained independence from Spain...

, playing a significant role in the fall of the Carlos Ibáñez del Campo

Carlos Ibáñez del Campo

General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo was a Chilean Army officer and political figure. He served as dictator between 1927 and 1931 and as constitutional President from 1952 to 1958.- The coups of 1924 and 1925 :...

 dictatorship in the 1940s and in the university reform processes initiated at the Catholic University of Valparaiso in 1967. After the military coup d'etat on September 11, 1973 the activities of the FECh were proscribed and many of its leaders were subjected to persecution. Between 1978 and 1981 the FECH was replaced by a new right-wing student federation, the Federación de centros de estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (a.k.a., FECECH), this quasi student federation was directly controlled by non-academic rectors appointed by the military government of Augusto Pinochet

Augusto Pinochet

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...

. FECECh disbanded itself in 1984. During the 1980s the FECH played a leading role in student mobilizations in opposition to the Pinochet regime, and the numerous student mobilizations that have occurred since the return to democracy in 1990.