PUERTO RICO: Student victory unleashes backlash

As many Americans geared up for Fourth of July fireworks last weekend, the US territory of Puerto Rico roiled from a brutal civil rights showdown unleashed by a right-wing government seemingly hell-bent on destroying the recent, unprecedented victory of a two-month long student strike against privatisation of higher education at the University of Puerto Rico, writes Dr Maritza Stanchich for The Huffington Post.

While the economic crisis in Puerto Rico has been deepening for years, and the government has aggressively implemented a hard-line, unpopular neo-liberal agenda since its electoral victory last November, it appears as if the recent student strike victory touched off a firestorm, with a police attack on peaceful demonstrators at Puerto Rico's capitol building recently, injuring dozens, some seriously.

The University of Puerto strike concluded on 21 June after a tense, two-month shut down of 10 campuses in a system serving nearly 65,000 students, with an accord that by all accounts was an unprecedented strike victory. A widely-supported student movement coalesced against threatened erosion of broad public access to the widely-regarded state university, as well as its increasing privatisation.
Full report on the Huffington Post site