VivirLatino

Living & Luchando la Vida Latin@

Behind the University of Puerto Rico Student Strikes

June 27th, 2011

As Maegan and I get back into the swing of being back in our respective casitas, here’s a new video that came my wan from Al Jazeera English. They have just posted this video which is a “extra” of Fault Lines. Reporter Zeina Awad discusses how police interaction and violence towards Puerto Rican student protestors heightened when there was less traditional media/press present. Awad shares her experiences being present during demonstrations and police tactics in arresting and isolating some student protestors.

After being at the Allied Media Conference and working online for years, the idea that certain institutions, organizations, and governments think that “press” and “media” are only valid in certain ways is laughable. We knew of these abuses the moment they occurred because of “non-traditional” press and media. Perhaps these are reasons why so many of those institutions/governments/organizations are so against an open internet….

The video is below and in English with no transcript (sorry!)

Fault Lines currently has a story about Puerto Rico and the economy that may be of interest as well.

ACLU Delegation in Puerto Rico Finds Serious Violations of Civil Rights

May 5th, 2011

Earlier this week a delegation from the American Civil Liberties Union, which included interestingly enough, actress Rosie Perez and baseball player Carlos Delgado, as well as the head of the ACLU, Anthony Romero, Angelo Falcon of the National Institute for Latino Policy, and Juan Cartegena of LatinoJustice PRLDEF, concluded that the civil rights violations against students and labor activists by the government was worse than originally imagined.

From El Nuevo Dia :

“The necessity of maintaining the university open and assuring access to students cannot justify the excessive use of force we saw in the videos,” pointed out the director of the ACLU, Anthony Romero, who also recognized that students violated laws and damaged state property.

“When the government unleashes the power of the police on students who were meeting peacefully in a public place, that is anti-American, contrary to Puerto Rican values, unconstitutional, and against the law,” he said.

ACLU Asks US DOJ to Intervene in UPR Struggle

March 11th, 2011

Today being World Solidarity Day with the students of the UPR (find an event near you aqui), it seems fitting to report on the American Civil Liberty Union request that the U.S. Department of Justice intervene.

Yesterday the ACLU sent a letter asking for intervention in serious human rights and civil liberties abuses reported to be occurring against the people of Puerto Rico at the hands of the territory’s government. The ACLU asked that DOJ conclude its ongoing investigation of allegations of serious incidents of police violence and the suppression of free expression – including numerous reports of violent attacks against peaceful protesters and racially motivated police abuse – and take action to end these egregious practices.

Thursday in NYC : UPR No Se Vende! University of Puerto Rico Student Activists Panel

March 7th, 2011

STUDENTS SEEKING CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL EQUITY FROM THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO AND GOVERMENT, WILL DISCUSS THE ISSUES THAT HAVE CAUSED MASSIVE DEMONSTRATIONS SEEKING SOCIAL JUSTICE THAT HAVE CLOSED THE UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO. THE REPRESSIVE STRATEGIES BY THE UNIVERSITY AND GOVERNMENT WILL ALSO BE ADDRESSED.

DATE: Thursday, March 10, 2011

TIME: 7:00PM – 9:00PM

WHERE: New York University

Silver Building, Room 703, 33 Washington Place, NYC

NOTE: PHOTO I.D. REQUIRED – ADMISSION FREE TO THE PUBLIC

LIMITED SPACE CALL TO RESERVE SEATING

(CCCADI) 212-307-7420 EXT 3000
email : Tisch.arpo@nyu.edu RSVP by March 7

Student Leaders Include:

ARTURO OTLAHU RIOS, GIOVANNI ROBERTO CAEZ, LOURDES SANTIAGO NEGRON & PEDRO MANUEL LUGO.

AN EVENT OF THE CARIBBEAN CULTURAL CENTER AFRICAN DIASPORA INSTITUTE IN COLLABORATION WITH NYU TISCH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT OF ART AND PUBLIC POLICY AND MICA (MARYLAND INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE OF FINE ART)

A University Without Walls Project

Rep. Luis Gutiérrez today: “You Will Not Silence Them and You Will Not Silence Me”

March 2nd, 2011

Today Congressman Luis Gutiérrez gave an interesting speech at the US House of Representatives citing the ACLU report on human rights violations during student and community protests regarding the University of Puerto Rico called “Human Rights Crisis in Puerto Rico: First Amendment Under Siege.” Much of what the report shares Mala provided VL readers with last week from a educational meeting she attended in NYC with the ACLU. I received an email from a listserve I’m on sharing this video via a story where he has provided the full transcript of his speech available here.

This is not the first speech Rep. Gutiérrez has given on the matter, and I have no doubt we will be hearing more disagreement/complaints about his speech today from Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi as we have in the past.

What I appreciated the most from his speech was his challenging the idea that he has no real interest in Puerto Rico because “‘Gutiérrez was not born in Puerto Rico. His kids weren’t born in Puerto Rico. Gutierrez doesn’t plan on being buried in Puerto Rico… So Gutierrez doesn’t have the right to speak about Puerto Rico…” Gutiérrez’s response was “Let me tell you something — if you see injustice anywhere, it is not only your right but your duty to speak out about it.”

This resonates with me because I was not born on the island either, yet I believe the island is the Mainland, NOT the United States. There are parts of me that know I’m displaced in the US and that going home right now is not the safest option for me, or people of my immediate family, or of my chosen family. This does not mean our work and activism ends because of where we reside. I’ll leave further commentary for later, but for now check out his speech below.

March 11 : World Day of Solidarity with the Students of the UPR

March 2nd, 2011

March 11th, 2011 has been declared as World Day of Solidarity with the students of the University of Puerto Rico. There are events happening all over the United States and across the globe. While the U.S. gaze hasn’t really focused on the struggle of the Puerto Rican students and it’s larger implications, the world has.

Why March 11?

March 11, 1971 was one of the bloodiest single days in the history of the University of Puerto Rico. The main campus at Río Piedras was occupied by the Puerto Rico Police, unleashing violent confrontations that ended the lives of two police officers, including the then chief of the notorious Tactical Operations Unit, and one student.

Barely one year before, on March 4, 1970, during a student demonstration, student Antonia Martínez Lagares was shot dead by police. These tragedies influenced a series of decisions that helped reduce the intensity of on-campus conflicts during the following decades, including the removal of the United States’ Army Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), and an institutional commitment to resolving conflicts without police intervention.

Forty years later, the UPR community, led by the students, still struggles for a democratic and accessible institution, against the abusive and exclusionary policies of the latest colonial government. Among these, aside from its clear intention to privatize higher education as much as it can, said government has laid off over 25,000 public employees, and intends to build a gasoduct across the island that will displace entire communities and impact areas of high ecological and archeological value.

In this context, the Río Piedras Campus once again lived several months of police occupation, with the open support of the government and university administrators, in reaction to the strike democratically declared by the Río Piedras General Student Assembly, rejecting an unjust and arbitrary $800 hike in the cost of studying. The eyes of the world watched as Puerto Rico Police officers tortured peaceful civil disobedients with impunity, sexually accosted and attacked women students, discriminatorily harassed student leaders, and savagely beat people, even under custody, all before the television cameras.

There can be no doubt that the recent decision by Governor Luis Fortuño to withdraw the bulk of the police force from the Río Piedras Campus is a partial victory for the students, who with their bravery and determination have raised the political cost of sustaining that level of repression way to high for the government to afford. However, now is not the time to lower the guard. It wouldn’t be the first time that the Fortuño administration temporarily curtails its use of brute force, only to return even more violently under any pretext. We are convinced that if the Puerto Rico Police is not removed immediately, completely, and permanently from all UPR campuses, it will only be a matter of time before another March 11.

In addition, we are united by the firm conviction that the demands of the UPR community are just. The strike is still in effect, and the struggle (its current phase) will continue until the $800 hike is eliminated. In the longer term, we support a real democratization of the decision-making process in the UPR, so that it is the community that determines the best way to handle the institution’s financial and administrative problems.

For all of these reasons, Friday, March 11, 2011, fortieth anniversary of that fateful March 11, will be World Day of Solidarity with the UPR. On that day we will hold, in our respective cities, simultaneous demonstrations together with individuals and organizations that support just causes. At a time when the powerful voice of the brave Egyptian people and all arab nations is still ringing around the the globe, we are confident that the people of consciousness of the world will welcome this initiative and organize their own activities of solidarity on that day.

This post will be used to compile events for that day so that those who wish to support can. It will be updated regularly.

New York City

Friday, March 11 · 6:30pm – 9:00pm
Julia de Burgos’s Mosaic
106 St, Spanish Harlem
NYC
(Note : Mala will be at this event covering it for VivirLatino)

San Francisco

Friday, March 11, 4:30-7:00pm
24th/Mission BART Station Plaza in San Francisco

More on UPR Protests : Police Return to Campus on Governor’s Orders

February 24th, 2011

The police have officially returned to the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras on the orders of Governor Luis Fortuño. This is the regular police, who according to William Ramirez of the Puerto Rican ACLU, have actually never left the campus.

According to El Nuevo Dia, the riot police have not been called to campus but remain on alert and nearby in case, according to Fortuño, “A violent group tries to bring violence and intolerance to the University”.

There were incidents of violence on campus yesterday due to some students blocking at least one entrance to the campus as part of a a strike action. The incident that I witnessed via video was a professor physically attacking students blocking the entrance and students responding in self-defense. The governor has called the student strike a “dictatorship”.

The violence of the police against the student protesters is the focus of close scrutiny of the Puerto Rican ACLU which released a report calling the situation a human rights crisis (PDF file).

Puerto Rico’s ACLU Identifies Pattern and Practice of Abuse Against UPR Students

February 22nd, 2011

Last night I attended an educational meeting at the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center in el Barrio NYC that featured William Ramirez, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Puerto Rico. The meeting was to update those in solidarity with the students and other protesters in Puerto Rico as to what is happening on the ground and what are some possible next steps, in terms of fighting back against the brutality that has been unleashed upon students exercising their constitutional rights.

Ramirez lamented the lack of U.S. media coverage of the goings on and expressed how Al Jazeera and the BBC have both been on the ground in Puerto Rico demonstrating that the international media seems more interested than U.S. media (a complaint VivirLatino shares). Ramirez urged the audience that grew to about 75 people, to compare how police in Wisconsin are treating protesters and the media coverage given to those actions to how police are treating protesters in Puerto Rico and media coverage (or lack thereof).

In response to the U.S. media ignoring the situation and various gag rules that have been put on students by the University of Puerto Rico, the students have rallied behind the slogan “Callar Jamas” – Never Silenced. Certainly the videos, images and first hand accounts circulating via social media and independent media networks is proof of this slogan in action.

Non-Voting Puerto Rican Resident Commissioner Says Gutierrez Disrespected Puerto Rico

February 20th, 2011

Remember that video of Illinois Democrat, Congressman, and Puerto Rican Luis Gutierrez denouncing the actions of police against the UPR student protesters? Well Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi said that Gutierrez insulted Puerto Rico, it’s residents and him.

“The speech was inappropriate and insulting to the people of Puerto Rico. I hope such action will not be repeated. But if it is, make no mistake: I will return to this floor again to defend my constituents – and the government they chose in free and fair elections – from all unwarranted attacks,” he said.

The resident commissioner said that comparing Puerto Rico to an authoritarian country not only demeans island residents but “the millions of men and women around the world who suffer under real dictatorships, who are truly oppressed, and who lack the dignity that comes only with genuine freedom.

The speech was inappropriate and insulting to the people of Puerto Rico. I hope such action will not be repeated. But if it is, make no mistake: I will return to this floor again to defend my constituents – and the government they chose in free and fair elections – from all unwarranted attacks,” he said.

Pierluisi also pulled the old “island vs. stateside Rican” defense, saying that Gutierrez representing parts of Chicago has no right to speak for Puerto Ricans. Except for one small problem. Pierluisi, who “represents” Puerto Rico has no vote. Doesn’t that sound democratic?

In Pierluisi’s defense, he was voted by the people of Puerto Rico to his seat. He shares political parties with the governor of the island and that party advocates for Puerto Rico to become the 51st state of the United States.

Updated to add that on Facebook someone started a group called :
A mi me representa Gutiérrez y no Pierluisi.

I am not a Gutierrez cheerleader but it’s brilliant.

Via / National Institute for Latino Policy

NYC Educational Event in Support of the UPR Protests

February 18th, 2011

For local peeps looking for a way to get more information on what is happening on the ground in Puerto Rico here is an event in NYC .

NYwithUPR Solidarity Group Presents:
——————————————
An Educational Forum
Puerto Rico: Privatization & the Human Rights Crisis

A TALK BY and WITH
William Ramirez, Director, ACLU – Puerto Rico Chapter

The Puerto Rico government’s recent firings of over 25,000 public
employees and spending cuts to public education are decisions that
have deepened the nation’s economic and social crisis. The government
aims to boost the privatization process of the basic services on the
island and has responded with intolerance and repressive police
brutality, including torture and sexual abuse. The University of
Puerto Rico (UPR) students continue to resist creatively, heroically
and valiantly. The university student strike continues to gain
momentum as more and more people and sectors join in solidarity.
Support the UPR students in their struggle against unjust tuition
increases, privatization and police repression!

Monday, February 21, 2011 – 6:30 pm
Taller Boricua’s Multi Arts Space at Julia de Burgos Cultural Center
1680 Lexington Avenue @ 106 Street(#6 Train to East 103rd Street)
For more info: www.VirtualBoricua.org or FaceBook group: NY with UPR