and political history of Chile, playing a significant role in the fall of the Carlos Ibáñez del Campo dictatorship in the 1950s and in the university reform processes initiated at the Catholic University of Valparaiso in 1967. After the military coup d'état 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. 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. In June 2016, a group of Chilean students, affiliated with the FECh, and dissatisfied with the government of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, broke into the Church of National Gratitude during a planned protest. They ransacked the church and destroyed several items, among them a 9 foot tall crucifix. See also University of Chile Education in Chile 2011 Chilean protests References Students' unions in Chile 1906 establishments in Chile Student organizations established in 1906