Repeating Islands

Dramatist and professor Roberto Ramos-Perea, General Director of the National Archives of Theater and Film and Dean of the Dramatic Arts Conservatory of the Puerto Rican Athenaeum, sent out a letter yesterday (May 14, 2010) protesting the government’s decision to refuse negotiations and to deploy police troops to evacuate the students with military force. [The university administration has also decided to suspend all classes until July 31 rather than to open a dialogue.] Here is the complete letter:

The students of the University of Puerto Rico, supported by their professors and the non-educational personnel have been to on a 22 day strike against the administration of the University of Puerto Rico, administered by the Government of Luis Fortuño and Marco Rodriguez Emma.

The reasons for the strike are 1) the elimination of the tuition exemption for athletes, artists, actors, and musicians, among others students of academic high performance;  2) the refusal of the University of PR, a state university, to share accounting records for more transparency; 3) the threat of privatization of the public university; 4) the corrupt handling of the fiscal deficit of 200 million dollars and the wasteful management of the university budget; and 5) the politization of the university processes and the limitation of student participation in the decisional processes of the university.

Yesterday, the students by overwhelming majority ratified their right to strike and today, the Government of Puerto Rico dawned with troops of the police at all the gates of the University, surrounding more than 300 students that are inside the barricades on the campus. They have been deprived of communication, water, light, and food. A father of one of the students has already been struck and arrested. The violent evacuation of the students strikers is imminent. It is 11:30 in the morning of 14 May 2010. Violent incidents throughout the day are expected. We promote an urgent appeal to the international community to be alert to these events and to help spread the word to all the necessary diplomatic venues, press, or human rights organizations to take part in denouncing this attack by the dictatorial government of the annexionists Luis Fortuño and Marcos Rodriguez Emma. This calls for THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY to be aware of these events that are going on in the nation capital of Puerto Rico, today colony of the United States.

Ramos-Perea ends his letter by providing his own email addresses (ramosperea@gmail.com  and rrperea@ateneopr.com) as well as links to Puerto Rican newspapers— http://www.primerahora.com/  and http://www.elnuevodia.com/ –and live streaming of the strike at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/radiohuelga.

Also see http://www.prdailysun.com/news/UPR-strike-flares-as-Police-move-in  and  http://dialogodigital.com/es