The "FECh" was founded on October 21, 1906, with the unconditional support of the Radical Party 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, playing a significant role in the fall of the Carlos Ibáñez del Campo dictatorship in the 1940s 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.