On June 30, riot police in Puerto Rico attacked scores of protesters who were bringing a message to the Puerto Rican legislature as it deliberated on a new budget.
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Students, teachers and public employees were demonstrating to demand an end to cutbacks and layoffs carried out by the colonial pro-statehood government of Governor Luis Fortuño. The government’s privatization drive has left tens of thousands unemployed and many more fearing an end to their jobs and access to education.
In a crass move, senate deliberations on the new budget had been closed to the public by pro-statehood senate president Thomas Rivera Schatz in an effort to squelch public opposition. After much pressure, the senate was opened on June 30.
Students attempted to go inside to read a declaration in support of an agreement between the university administration and students, the result of a 60-day student strike. The student victory dealt a heavy blow to the Fortuño administration, which is trying to raise tuition, eliminate tuition waivers for poor students and privatize the prestigious institution.
The government has been trying to find ways to go around the agreement by appointing additional trustees who are loyal to the university board of trustees and announcing a new tuition increase effective the next term. The message to be delivered to the senate also called for an end to the massive public sector layoffs, severe cutbacks of social services and privatizations.
While public sector cutbacks number in the thousands, manufacturing jobs have also been shrinking dramatically over the past two years, with factory shutdowns like that of Bristol-Myers, Pfizer and R.J. Reynolds further eroding employment opportunities. Official unemployment rates in Puerto Rico have increased and are now at 17 percent. Official unemployment rates only include those actively looking for work. There are many more who are not counted after they give up looking for work.
The students carrying the message were denied entrance to the senate and instead were pepper sprayed and forcibly removed from the building. Riot police then attacked demonstrators and reporters with pepper spray, batons and even threats of shootings.
Puerto Rican newspapers featured the police assault on two of the demonstrators, Elisa Ramos Peña, 17 years old, and her mother Betty Peña. Photos showed police grabbing them by the neck and beating them to the ground as they try to shield themselves.
The following day both women were being treated for their injuries. They valiantly stated that they would continue to fight. Betty, a schoolteacher, stated: “The demands that we went to make yesterday are not just the demands of the students. They are the demands of the people. This country is ours, and as a community leader I have the obligation to demand a better future for my children and my grandchildren. It is about defending what is all of ours. This nation of noble and dignified people does not belong to corrupt legislators or the few.” Her daughter, a high school student said, “The pain that we feel today is nothing compared to our indignation.”
The colonial government has tried to undermine the mass, peaceful character of the demonstrations, claiming that socialists bent on destabilizing the government provoked the attack. While it is true that socialists are among the organizers of the demonstration, the demonstrators represent a large number of students—socialists and others —who are fighting education cutbacks. Moreover, the police attack was violent and unprovoked.
Fortuño , using veiled references to 9-11, has also pledged to limit access to public government buildings in the future and has hinted at imposing limits to demonstrations.
The police attack sparked generalized outrage on the island. Community organizations, churches and political and labor leaders all condemned the police assault on innocent protesters.
Demonstrators held a rally at the police headquarters July 2. Scores of people attended to demand an end to police brutality and the sacking of Police Chief Figueroa Sancha. Figueroa Sancha was awarded with the job of superintendent of police by Fortuño after his role as number two in command of the FBI in Puerto Rico overseeing the 2005 FBI extrajudicial murder of Filiberto Ojeda Rios, pro-independence fighter and leader.
Elma Beatriz Rosado, widow of Ojeda Rios, told the crowd that Figueroa Sancha’s hands “are stained with the blood of Filiberto.” University student strike leader Giovanni Roberto told the gathering, “We will continue to demonstrate in the streets.” Labor, community and pro-independence organization leaders also attended the demonstration.
Struggle intensifies
The struggle in Puerto Rico has intensified since the demonstrations in 2009 when the government announced layoffs of close to 14 percent of the public workforce. Unions and students alike rallied and took over major avenues to demand an end to these draconian measures that aim to take advantage of the capitalist crisis to saddle the Puerto Rican workers, students and their families with the rising cost of living in this U.S. colony.
But it was the strike at the University of Puerto Rico ,which shut down all 11 campuses and had the support of the vast majority of the 65,000-student body, faculty and the public, that galvanized the overall struggle and reunified the movement against the neoliberal government. The victory that was achieved has given people across Puerto Rico inspiration that through struggle further victories can be attained.
The next possible step, according to a number of different organizations in the current growing movement, could be a People’s Assembly that will demand an end to the neo-liberal austerity measures being imposed by the current governor. Such a step would signal a new stage in the struggle for independence and for workers’ rights in Puerto Rico.
