Tense Mood At U of Puerto Rico As Police Occupy Campus for First Time in Three Decades
Last night, just before midnight, riot police occupied the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras. Studentsprotesting a major tuition increase had ended a 48-hour strike shortly before. According to one source liveblogging events as they occur [Original|Translation], police “seized control” of the university early this morning. Ten of the university’s eleven campuses were shuttered for two months earlier this year by a student strike.
This is the first time in nearly thirty years that state police have been brought onto the grounds of a University of Puerto Rico campus. As one columnist [Original|Translation] writes this morning,
The university administration has thrown in the towel regarding the possibility of achieving a mediated solution to the conflict. … For decades, there has been a consensus in the country, which no one had