PUERTO RICO: Student division damages fees stand

Thousands of university students, professors, employees and supporters marched through the streets and avenues surrounding the Río Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico, UPR, in February. The "Yo amo a la UPR" (I love the UPR) march showed the deep hostility that a significant, politically unorganised sector of Puerto Rico has towards Governor Luis G Fortuño-Burset's politics regarding the university.

He and his cabinet supported the imposition of an annual $800 'stabilisation fee', the prohibition of any mass-gathering activities inside the campus and the use of excessive and illegal force by the state police.

The march came after numerous confrontations that have been occurring since December between students and the police both inside the campus and in the streets. More than 200 students and supporters were arrested, most of them as a result of participating in sit-ins at the entrances of the campus and the streets around capital.

The majority of the students arrested were not charged, with many inferring the police's purpose inside the campus was more to prohibit freedom of speech by attacking, torturing and illegally arresting students rather than to protect students' right to study and public property.

The torture consisted of pressing on the main arteries that transport oxygenated blood to the brain until the student lost his or her strength and could be easily subdued and arrested.

The Puerto Rico State Police Chief and former sub-director of the FBI in Puerto Rico, José Figueroa Sancha, called off the 'pressure tactics' after doctors claimed on television that this form of arrest could result in permanent neurological damage and even death. One leading police official later claimed that members of the police were not even trained to use these tactics. They were just given manuals which showed how to use them.

The protests, however, were not always peaceful.

There have been incidents in which students, in some cases hooded individuals who cannot be identified, have thrown smoke bombs inside classrooms to force other students and professors who preferred not to strike to stop their classes.

In other situations, students and hooded individuals have vandalised public property, which has triggered criticism from professors' and employees' associations, official student representative bodies, the press and the public in general.

This type of violence, no less cowardly and illegal than the heinous acts of the police and the thugs hired through Capitol Security to hurt students with wooden beams and metal pipes, has deeply damaged the student movement. The strikers' lack of consistency over calls for peace and dialogue affected their credibility as well as that of their leaders.

After the "Yo amo a la UPR" march, students' 'approval ratings' were back on track. The community once again used peaceful means to counteract the institutionalised violence of the government and to oppose the fees and cuts imposed by the UPR administration.

The march had such a strong impact that it provoked the resignation of the President of UPR, José R de la Torre, and the governor's decision to remove the police from inside the campus.

This impressive victory for the student movement did not last long. In a student assembly a motion to strike in a way that did not affect academic work was approved by a large majority, as was a motion for a one-day stoppage and a 'pause' in the strike.

The next day, protestors barricaded all entrances to the campus with desks and other materials, but other students were determined to enter, whether it was to take classes or to make a statement. Students who were against the stoppage arrived at the main gate and started to move the desks out of the way. Around Puerto Rico people witnessed signs of the division among the students.

Later that day, a group of professors from the school of social sciences tried to convince the students to let them in without any success. One professor was heard saying: "You guys are the new 'Fuerza de Choque'", implying that the strikers had been ironically acting like their arch-enemies, the Tactical Operations Unit.

Puerto Ricans also saw on television a violent quarrel between a professor from the English department and 10 or so students. This shameful situation worked in the governor's and the superintendent's favour. After only a week of the police leaving the campus, they were reinstated.

As if this wasn't enough bad publicity for the students, a group of them decided to interrupt a meeting between the Chancellor of the Río Piedras campus, Ana R Guadalupe, and professors in the school of architecture.

The mob, while yelling "renuncia!" (resign), attacked her by pulling her hair, pushing her, jostling her and throwing water at her. Security guards escorted the chancellor to one of their vehicles. Some protestors broke two windows of the pick-up truck, including the one on the passenger's side where she was sitting.

These students made the chancellor, a strong supporter of cut-backs, of the presence of police inside the campus and the $800 'stabilisation fee', look like a victim in the eyes of the public.

For the second time, the protesters' lack of consistency with regard to student calls for peace and dialogue damaged the credibility of the student movement and their leaders, who later said these violent acts were a result of the institutionalised violence against the students.

Ironically, the student movement celebrated International Women's Day the next day and later in the week took part in a protest calling for peace at UPR.

The attack, whether or not it was provoked by institutionalised violence, brought harsher criticism than ever before from newspaper editorials, blogs, professors and students in general. It is therefore unlikely now that the students will regain the support they need to get rid of the 'stabilisation fee'.

More importantly, the student movement in general has been so focused on the fee issue and the presence of the police on campus that it hasn't paid much attention to other university reforms being prepared by people close to the ruling political party.

Some people will say that the administration and the government defeated the student movement. I don't believe that's true. I think the student movement defeated itself. What we need to do now is pause, assess what happened and reinvent ourselves into a diverse student movement that all students can trust and follow.

* Omar Rodríguez-Ortiz is the creator, editor, writer and photographer of the online student-run newspaper Estudiantes de la UPR Informan and president of the student council of the school of education.