[News] After Violent End to Yesterday’s National Strike in Puerto Rico, Activists Will March Again Today

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://remezcla.com/culture/violent-end-yesterdays-national-strike-puerto-rico-activists-will-march-today/ 



  After Violent End to Yesterday’s National Strike in Puerto Rico,
  Activists Will March Again Today

by Jhoni Jackson - May 2, 2018
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hundreds of protesters were tear gassed by police at Puerto Rico 
<http://remezcla.com/culture/san-juan-puerto-rican-flag-painted-black/>‘s 
National Strike Tuesday, and many others pepper sprayed, shot with 
rubber bullets, and struck with batons. The mayhem began shortly after 2 
p.m., and attendees – including elderly people and children – felt the 
effects of the chemical agent even as they fled. Many suffered injuries 
in the panicked rush to escape the Milla de Oro, the financial district 
of San Juan where the event took place.

Hours later, apress conference 
<https://www.facebook.com/rrossello/videos/1736950129674038/> was held 
by Governor Ricardo Rosselló that also included Héctor Pesquera, the 
Commissioner of Safety and Public Protection, and Police Commissioner 
Henry Escalera. The group responsible, they agreed, wasSe Acabaron Las 
Promesas <https://www.facebook.com/pg/seacabaronlaspromesas/>, a 
collective of activists organized two years ago in response to PROMESA 
<http://remezcla.com/features/culture/campamento-contra-la-junta-puerto-rico/>, 
the U.S. law passed to address the island’s $72 billion debt, and the 
subsequent implementation of a federal Fiscal Control Board of 
un-elected officials. Officials accused the group of antagonizing 
police, and throwing rocks and other projectiles – including acid. 
Fifteen officers were injured, they noted, and held up rocks allegedly 
used against police to demonstrate.

    Lanzan gases lacrimógenos en la Milla de Oro. #ParoNacional
    <https://twitter.com/hashtag/ParoNacional?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
    pic.twitter.com/qxyXfzjRIj <https://t.co/qxyXfzjRIj>

    — El Nuevo Día (@ElNuevoDia) May 1, 2018
    <https://twitter.com/ElNuevoDia/status/991381202333523970?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

So far, no proof has emerged that the protesters used acid. The use of 
rocks and other projectiles is true. Those on the receiving end, 
however, didn’t come unprepared: Police dressed in full riot gear with 
protective helmets with shields. They had gas masks, batons, and some 
had guns for shooting rubber bullets, too – and when the chemical clouds 
became inescapable, the vast majority of protesters only had bandanas 
and T-shirts to cover their faces. And some didn’t even have those.

Later in the day, a sizable group of police appeared in a residential 
street in Río Piedras, near the University of Puerto Rico’s flagship 
campus, in persecution of protestors.

    Según vídeo de un residente, la Policía llegó hasta un apartamento
    para arrestar a dos manifestantes.

    Vídeo: Edwin Caraballo pic.twitter.com/4ip9Z9jcrl
    <https://t.co/4ip9Z9jcrl>

    — Pulso Estudiantil (@PulsoEST) May 1, 2018
    <https://twitter.com/PulsoEST/status/991407836906303488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Throughout the day, there were at least 12 confirmed arrests 
<http://www.noticel.com/la-calle/7-fouls-de-la-polica-en-el-paro-nacional/737157435>.

Some of the primary issues denounced at the protest were pension cuts, 
the closure of 283 
<https://www.bustle.com/p/283-schools-in-puerto-rico-are-closing-teachers-say-the-reasons-are-super-suspect-8714451>public 
schools (in addition to the 179 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/us/puerto-rico-debt-schools-close.html> 
closed last year), the rolling back of labor protections, the 
privatization of government entities (the power authority, for one), 
university tuition hikes, corruption in Puerto Rico’s own government, 
and the US Fiscal Control Board and the colonial nature of the austerity 
measures that it has implemented.

Se Acabaron Las Promesas was not the only group present at the strike, 
of course. A slew more showed up: Labor unions, the Teachers’ Federation 
of Puerto Rico, La Colectiva Feminista en Construcción, LGBTQIA 
organizations, among others. So while the protest convened around La 
Milla de Oro, several different routes of arrival existed and not 
everyone convened at the stage set up for speakers and performers.

    The police in Puerto Rico just pepper spayed a peaceful gathering.
    #ParoNacionalPR
    <https://twitter.com/hashtag/ParoNacionalPR?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
    pic.twitter.com/2fNFQI5pEh <https://t.co/2fNFQI5pEh>

    — AnaMariaArchila (@AnaMariaArchil2) May 1, 2018
    <https://twitter.com/AnaMariaArchil2/status/991380498919247872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Se Acabaron Las Promesas, which began its march at the Department of 
Labor, planned to continue through the Milla de Oro, but a stronghold of 
police in riot gear blocked the group. Immediately after the chaos 
started, it posted on Facebook 
<https://www.facebook.com/seacabaronlaspromesas/posts/584960368527832> 
that it’d been negotiating passage with police when the tear gas attack 
occured.

This morning, Se Acabaron Las Promesas held its own press conference. 
When asked if members of its group launched the projectiles, Joselyn 
Velázquez, one of its two representatives replied, “The only person 
responsible for what happened yesterday is the incompetent governor of 
Puerto Rico.”

The group held strong to its claim that the police themselves incited 
the violence, stating that the governor had given instructions to allow 
the protesters to continue marching, but the police contradicted those 
instructions. The group elaborated on those prior negotiations, saying 
the discussions lasted 45 minutes to an hour, some of which took place 
directly with Police Commissioner Rivera.

“The people of Puerto Rico have the right to demonstrate and protest in 
their streets,” continued Scott Barbés, another representative of Se 
Acabaron Las Promesas.

He added that the people have a right to defend themselves against 
institutional violence.

“We are defending ourselves,” Barbés added. “The government is violent, 
the federal government is violent, the dictatorial control board of the 
United States congress against the people of Puerto Rico – that is the 
violence that exists.”

    Contra la Ley Promesa, por la disolución de la Junta de Control
    Fiscal, Contra el Cierre de Escuelas y la Privatización…

    Posted by Jornada: Se acabaron las Promesas
    <https://www.facebook.com/seacabaronlaspromesas/> on Tuesday, May 1,
    2018
    <https://www.facebook.com/seacabaronlaspromesas/photos/a.286644931692712.1073741829.284251645265374/585048271852375/?type=3>

The group called for another protest in San Juan today – this one 
launching from the beachside tourism hub of Condado. The same message 
from Tuesday – denouncing the “dictatorship of the Fiscal Control Board” 
and all its oppressive austerity measures, and calling for 
decolonization – continues, but it’s also demanding the dissolution 
ofActs 20 and 22 
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2015/01/27/puerto-rico-expands-tax-haven-deal-for-americans-to-its-own-emigrants/#7478d7d22735>, 
two tax incentive laws designed to attract wealthy investors and 
corporations from outside the island, essentially making the island a 
tax haven for the rich. Barbés stressed this march is not an attack on 
Condado or the people that live there, but rather an opportunity for 
tourists to understand firsthand what’s happening in Puerto Rico, and to 
express solidarity.

“We want the whole world, just like yesterday, to understand that here 
is a mobilized pueblo. And in Condado, there are tourists, and we have a 
right to tell the world, and we have a right to tell the people who 
visit us, that this is not a paradise,” Barbés said. “They have 
destroyed it. They’re looting it. They’re poisoning the ground and the 
air, and they lied to you just like they lied to us, Puerto Ricans, for 
120 years.”

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20180503/207587e5/attachment.htm>