Puerto Rico students protest cuts to public education

“They are stealing our present. The UPR [University of Puerto Rico] is not for sale,” read a large banner at the gates of the oldest and largest of the 11 campuses that make up the University of Puerto Rico system. Early in the morning on Monday 18 October, students gathered to join the protests in front of Puerto Rico’s Capitol in San Juan, holding colourful signs: “They violated our past”; “They are stealing our present”; “They are mortgaging our future”, writes Rima Brusi for The Nation.

The trigger of these protests was a bill now before Puerto Rico’s legislature, PC1003, designed to implement the ‘debt adjustment plan’ presented by the Financial Oversight and Management Board, an unelected body imposed on Puerto Rico as part of the PROMESA Law passed by the US Congress in 2016.

Called simply ‘La Junta’ by most Puerto Ricans, and charged with ‘helping’ Puerto Rico structure its debt, this group has spent the past five years pushing austerity measures and consistently prioritising the interests of bondholders over the pensions and essential services needed by the island’s people.
Full report on The Nation site