When students in Latin America break into international headlines, it is usually as the result of some mass demonstration or riot. The image the public forms is that of hordes of wild-eyed and threadbare fanatics who alternate fitful class attendance with assaults on the palaces of dictators, insults to visiting dignitaries, and the practice of arson on municipal transport. Even in Latin America the press is likely to give student activities only passing notice except in periods of unusual agitation. The student is painted alternately as hero, criminal, petulant malcontent, or the docile tool of subversives—often depending entirely on the political viewpoint of the newspaper concerned.