In this country, only 4 out of 10 from
each generation get into university.
There haven’t been public universities
created since the 70’s, when the UAM
(metropolitan autonomous university) was created,
and then in 2001 the Autonomous University of Mexico City.
None of them have the capacity to take in
more than 5000 students a year; so it’s an elite.
And in this country, with all the poverty,
with all the displacement, who gets into university?
The demand that made the student
movement take off was the regulation
of payments that was implemented in the UNAM.
It intended to establish quotas to be
able to study at the university.
It contemplated the increase of educational
services- for example the study of languages,
the use of laboratories, the use of libraries-
that for all of us who participated in that
movement meant the beginning of
the privatization of the university.
And then once the movement exploded,
inside the student organization
that we formed, which was the CGH,
we added another 5 demands.
What happened in many schools
was that as soon as the proposed amendment
to the regulation came out, they formed assemblies.
In many cases, or in each school,
they saw that there’s an amendment to the regulation and whatnot,
and they begin to plan.
The only option we had to try to stop
the increase in fees was to paralyze the university.
This is where some older comrades
from the UNAM joined the fray,
and they brought the experience that we did not have.
And through discussions with these comrades the idea of ​​striking began to form,
as well as the way we were going to do it; and a date was set.
And that’s where I think the Zapatistas were key as well.
The EZLN, like the commanders, issue a communiqué and provided
the support of the Zapatistas,
and called on all the people that supported them, to support the student movement.
On the day that we launched the strike,
which was the night of the 19th of April,
more than half of the university population was in favour of the strike.
And we were here, ready to stay in the facilities
so that classes couldn't be held, and so that the strike could begin.
On the 30th of April, during the strike,
the university halls were overflowing with workshops, kids, and strikers.
First, (the strike) went through an absolute criminalization.
The media campaign was brutal.
Like, it really was, and we didn’t have
the resources that we have now like Facebook,
Twitter- that allowed you to access the masses.
The way to share what was going was
to go to the metro. Going with a brigade,
for me, was the coolest,
to like go to inform people why we were there,
and most importantly, gauge just how much the people supported you.
There was support, but that support was
also mostly moral support, or verbally like “yes, I stand with you”.
We also didn’t have a proposal of what they could do.
Of how they could truly support us and strengthen the movement.
I believe that the movement underwent a complete offensive of the state.
Yes, they used all the resources of
the Mexican state to attack the student movement.
There were comrades who were even disappeared,
and 9 months later, the UNAM as an institution decides to host a consultation.
And they put in De La Fuente as Rector.
And De La Fuente seemed like a rector who wanted to begin a dialogue.
He began to organize a consultation, in which he included
these proposals to be voted by the university community:
the general payment regulations will be annulled;
we will organize a congress; and we propose to end the strike.
De La Fuente made this seem like a sensible proposal.
The movement started with the quotas,
I am proposing that we are going to eliminate them.
The movement asked for a congress, I am proposing that.
We are going to make it happen. What else do you want?
And then comes the end of this mastermind move
that the rectory and the government made-
which was to invade, with paid thugs, the Number 3 Preparatory.
There were only 5 colleagues there resisting and guarding the facilities,
and this proved to be a provocation for the CGH.
When all the comrades who were in the other facilities of the UNAM learned about it,
our reaction was to go to rescue The Number 3.
Many of us, members of the CGH, arrived.
There was an exchange of blows, of throwing objects against these people
who were there invading the school.
The media replays these scenes of violence, and shows it to the population,
and the first contingent of the
Preventive Federal Police arrives- without weapons.
They enter, they detain, and in less than 72 hours we're in prison
accused of terrorism, criminal association, sabotage, property damage, aggravated robbery,
riot, attacks on communication channels...
so it was a very violent initial detention. And that was the beginning
that opened things up to where we are now,
in terms of violence towards women for example.
The type of brutality, how we were attacked...
I mean, a comrade ended up with a pelvic fracture from a blow.
In other words, now it is the systematic practice
towards the bodies of women in this type of detention.
And at that moment, De La Fuente calls us to a dialogue, but now under his conditions.
‘You’re going to appoint 10 representatives. We are going to meet in such and such place,
without radio, without television, without the media.
And what we are going to negotiate is the end of the strike.'
The representatives who attended this meeting did not accept that deal.
There, they knew well that the most active
movement organizers were going to be assembled,
and what they decided to do was send a very large group of unarmed policemen.
And this worked very well, because before the media,
the force was used in a rational way,
against a ‘rebellious, aimless movement’-
and that was accepted by the population in quite a drastic manner.
Finally, on February 6, there was a complete military operation
- with helicopters, tanks - that overtakes all of the university facilities.
This did not provoke any kind of outbreak, or mobilization.
And therefore I believe that the government of Cedillo,
De La Fuente resolved the conflict at a very low cost.
I think that you also have to learn when to face the state.
And when to not.
You have to learn that... because they broke us.
I really think that the rupture occurred under the logic of the state,
which relies on the burn-out of social movements.
Like, the co-optation didn’t work, or worked afterwards,
the repression didn’t either... but we’re going to burn them out.
If, as a student, as a person who has university education,
you want to make social changes - political changes -
you have to do them concretely.
Bring your knowledge, activate yourself with other people
to generate productive projects.
Educational projects that improve conditions for people,
even if it’s on a very small scale, but make it real. Something concrete.
And not so abstract,
like all this around generating a massive movement
with huge masses that
are going to bring down a regime.