<nettime> Mexico:UNAM seized by police;hundreds arrested,Feb 6, 2000

[rdom <rdom@thing.net>]

 TO THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO
 TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

 Today the special forces and the federal police raide the U.N.A.M. That

 is how the government dialogues! That is how they treat students who
 demand a free education for all Mexicans. 

 The images disseminated by the press speak for themselves. Did you see
 any "terrorists"? Any "dangerous criminals"? Any dialogue? No for a long
 time us Mexicans have not seen any of these things. But we do see
 violence, poverty, and a president that has broken his word every time he
has used it. Who is the criminal? Who is killing our people through
 starvation? Who is that takes free education away from the people? 

 The occupation of university city began around 6:25a.m. today Sunday
 Feb.6 with the incursion of some 3,000 soldiers dressed as police, all of
 them belonging to the Federal Preventive Police and under the order of
 the federal government. 

The was no violence and this because the General Strike Council has
 always rejected violence, and the images distributed by the press will
 verify this. 

How many political prisoners does the "president" of Mexico need to
 understand that we are sick and tired of this? How many?!!! 

 Brothers and Sisters we are in an emergency situation, the movement has

 just begun. Our University is occupied once again by the police, let us

organize to stop this atrocity. 

FREEDOM FOR THE POLITICAL PRISONERS!  FOR A PEACEFUL RESOLUTION TO THE
CONFLICT AT THE UNAM!  LET US STRUGGLE FOR WHAT BELONGS TO ALL OF US
MEXICANS!  LET US ALL STRUGGLE FOR WHAT BELONGS TO ALL OF US OR THEY WILL
TAKE IT ALL AWAY FROM ALL OF US! 

The Internet Commission of the General Strike Council
 Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

+++++++++

MEXICO CITY, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Mothers wept as hundreds of students from
Latin America's biggest university were rounded up on Sunday in a peaceful
police raid that ended a nine-month strike. 

"Let our children go!" said one of about a dozen mothers who gathered
outside a university building where students had camped for months.  "They
are not criminals," cried another. 

Acting on a mandate from a federal judge, 2,400 unarmed federal police
smashed through student barricades. They swarmed across the sprawling
campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) early Sunday
and arrested more than 500 strikers. 

"All is lost!" shouted one student boarding one of many buses ferrying
those arrested to detention centres. 

The strikers left liquor bottles, condoms, dirty dishes, women's
underwear, marijuana and Molotov cocktails in a lightly damaged university
building they had renamed after Argentine-born revolutionary icon Ernesto
"Che"  Guevara. 

Anti-government slogans daubed university walls, while doors, windows and
furniture were smashed, although there was no serious structural damage,
witnesses said. 

Local television showed dazed-looking students being led away in handcuffs
from the university, offering no resistance. 

Some of them were still defiant despite the police action. 

"The fight continues. It's not over!" shouted strike leader Alejandro
Echevarria, an outstanding political sciences student, as he was taken
away, witnesses said. 

Echevarria is known to the Mexican public as "El Mosh," a reference to the
so-called mosh pit or crush of dancers who gather in front of the stage at
many rock concerts. 

Interior Minister Diodoro Carrasco said the operation had been conducted

peacefully and students confirmed this. 

The strike started in April when the university unveiled plans to hike
enrollment fees for most of its 270,000 students to the equivalent of $69
a semester from a token two cents. The proposal was later withdrawn but

students extended the strike, calling for sweeping reforms to the way the
university is run. 

++++++


Fzln news summary Thurs. Feb 3 2000

** ATTACK GROUP CALLED COBRA, RESPONSIBLE FOR THE VIOLENCE: STUNAM

The Workers Union of UNAM (STUNAM) denied responsibility of members of
this organisation for having participated in the acts of violence occuring
in the National Prep School 3, after identifying the aggressors as an
attack group called Cobra - whose departure from the school was demanded -
under the command of Brigid Navarrete, general director of community
protection. 

Agustin Rodriguez, leader of STUNAM, condemned the violent entry of the
Federal Security Police (Policia Federal Preventiva, or PFP) - which "is
at the service of government repression"  - at the prep school, as well as
the National Nursing and Obstetrics School (ENEO), the University Centre
for

Cinema Studies (CUEC) and the General Preparatory School Headquarters, in
the recent past.  http://unam.netgate.net/jornada/stunam.html

** IF WE ARE REMOVED WE WILL CONTINUE THE STRIKE "FROM EXILE": CGH

In the event of police intervention in the rest of the premises of the
UNAM, the student movement will continue "from exile", regrouping in the
National School of Anthropoligy and History (ENAH), Mario Benitez, member
of the General Strike Council asserted, on making assurances that the
strike will not be lifted until the solution of the six points of the lsit
of demands and the liberation of the 251 arrested. At the same time, in
accordance withy the social and syndical organisations, the CGH resolved
to demand the resignation of the rector Juan Ramon de la Fuente. 

In a demonstration on the esplanade of the rectory, where the students
demanded the resignation of the recotr, Benitez - teacher in the Faculty
of Economics - called on the university authorities to renew the dialogue,
since it is the only way to resolve the conflict. "If Mr. De La Fuente has
anything to say, and every day we have more doubts, but if he still has
any vestiges of shame and honour, let him recognise what he and his
commissioners signed on December 10, that he sit down and negotiate, and

together, in a bilateral way, find a solution", he demanded. 

To the possible scenarios in the university, he defined the steps for the
CGH to follow: "Here we are, we are not leaving. If the police come we are
not going to be provoked, we are not going to confront anybody, we will
regroup in the ENAH".  http://unam.netgate.net/jornada/si.html

** "TERRORISM" INCLUDED IN THE CHARGES AGAINST 86 ARRESTED. 

The first 86 students sent up before a judge, shortly after the
confrontation last Thursday at Prep School 3, were accused of crimes of
damage to property, sabotage, malicious injury, deliberate robbery,
terrorism and riot. 

According to the Penal Code, in case of formal committal to prison made
against them, the teenagers will not be able to be released on bail, due
to the fact that the crime of terrorism is regarded as serious under
article 139, and which imposes a punishment of two to 40 years
imprisonment.  http://unam.netgate.net/jornada/consignan.html

** 76 MEMBERS OF THE CGH TAKEN TO THE COURT FOR MINORS


Yesterday 76 students from the General Strike Council entered the Minors'
Court, who were less than 18 years old and who were arrested at the events
in Preparatory School 3; accused of damage, robbery, and destruction of
public property.  They were taken in a truck from the commercial firm
Elite, number plates 5217, and immediately were sunjected to a medical
examination and were forced to get dressed in the regulation uniform; 
until 5 pm they began to make their initial declaration. 

At 3.00 pm on three official troop carrying trucks, approximately 150
personnel of the Federal Security Police entered the premisies of the
council, armed only with anti-riot shields and batons, while in the street
there was a rumour circulating that members of the CGH would arrive at the
premises to carry out a demonstration for the arrested minors.  The
trucks, empty, left immediately for an unknown destination. 
http://unam.netgate.net/jornada/envian.html

** ESCALATION OF REPRESSION AND VIOLENCE PGR NOW ASKS FOR 430 ORDERS FOR

THE CAPTURE AGAINS THE STRIKERS

The attorney General of the Republic yesterday asked the second district

court for penal matters, situated in the Northern Prison Centre, 430
orders for the capture for an equal number of memebers of the General
Strike Council and various social organisations for the crime of
'disposession', which is considered by law not to be serious, since one
can be released on remand. 

The dispatching of a single document to the abovementioned court does not
take into account the events occuring this Tuesday in Preparatory School
3, but goes back to beginning of the strike in the main School, and even
includes the occupation of academic and research premises, like others
outside the university campus, including preparatory schools, and the
national schools of Music, Plastic arts, Nursing and GynObstetrics, as
well as the Unversity Centre and Cinema Studies. 
http://unam.netgate.net/jornada/solicita.html

+++++++++

Marcos statement on UNAM strike ,Feb 6, 2000

To national and international public opinion,

  Terrorism, sedition, rioting, criminal association? How can one, seeing
that they accuse the striking students of all these things, not become
outraged? In the FZLN, we reject this legaloid farce and we condemn the
flagrant violation of the human rights of the arrested students, as well
as the repressive escalation that the authorities are preparing. 

  As for the thugs hired by the rectorship, we ask how much extra they are
paid for on-the-job risks? And as for the intervention new federal riot
police, as if we didn't have one with the local ones, we say nothing
either?  Where is the conscience in this country? Is it possibly that the
histeric screams of the right, widely defended by the large television
monopolies, we perhaps already view as rational arguments? Can it be that
the words of Jose Emilio Pacheco will come true: "Are we all today that
which we hated 20 years ago?" In the FZLN, we say no, it is not normal or
rational to animalistically repress the students by way of the military
police. It is a step towards fascism. 

  One who defends free, public education is not a terrorist. The
responsibilty for what happened belongs to he who does not fufill the
accords that he signed with a stamp which were carried out by peaceful
negotiation, launches ultimatums and prepares unilateral exits, uses hired
thugs, lies to the public opinion, and deploys soldiers against the
students. 

Immediate freedom for all of the UNAM politcal prisoners! Fufill the
accords signed on December 10th! 

CGR del Frente Zapatista de Liberacio'n Nacional-DF




#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net