[News] More Arrests at Univ of Puerto Rico

[Anti-Imperialist News]

More Arrests at Univ. of Puerto Rico

By Wil Cruz

Published January 12, 2011 | Fox News Latino
<http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/01/12/arrests-university-puerto-rico/>

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/01/12/arrests-university-puerto-rico/


As many as 10 students have been arrested at the 
University of Puerto Rico, the latest in an 
ongoing struggle between activists and officials over an $800 special fee.

Students were taken into custody for bringing 
fliers inside of the Rio Piedras campus, a 
violation of university rules, reported El Nuevo 
Día, a Puerto Rican daily newspaper.

Col. Sergio Rubín, a police official from the San 
Juan region, said any person who enters a 
classroom with the intention to interrupt is a crime, the paper reported.

"The information we have is that they were 
interrupting the classes," he said. "We arrived 
there because of a complaint by the university security."

The arrests come a day after students allegedly 
committed acts of vandalism – allegedly breaking 
glass and throwing smoke bombs – throughout the 
university. No arrests were made on Tuesday.

The alleged vandalism was widely condemned, but 
student leaders from the General Council of 
Students (or CGE by its Spanish-language 
initials) distanced themselves from the violence.

In a statement, the group said the unauthorized 
disruption "was not supported by CGE" and 
"doesn't represent the sentiment" of their 
struggle, Primera Hora, another Puerto Rican newspaper, reported.

Further, the statement said the vandalism 
"presents a negative image that does not support this movement."

Still, student leaders vehemently opposed the 
arrests for peacefully entering the university 
with fliers – an act they carried out only after 
receiving permission from sympathetic professors. 
They weren't trying to provoke police officers to 
arrest them, leaders told Primera Hora.

Giovanni Roberto, a student leader who spoke to 
Primera Hora, added that police used excessive force.

The clashes Tuesday and Wednesday come just weeks 
after 17 protesters were detained at different 
campuses at the university. A similar strike in 
April over the $800 fee and other issues 
paralyzed the university for nearly two months.

University officials have maintained that they 
imposed the fee to help close a gaping budget 
deficit. Its budget had already been slashed from 
$9 billion to $7 billion a year.




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