DATE=1/21/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=UNIVERSITY STRIKE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-258315
BYLINE=GREG FLAKUS
DATELINE=MEXICO CITY
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: In Mexico, there has been little reaction so
far from radical student strikers to a referendum in
which a large majority of university students and
workers called for the reopening of the the National
Autonomous University of Mexico, known as UNAM. As
VOA's Greg Flakus reports from Mexico City, the next
move may be up to the government.
TEXT: In Thursday's voting, close to 90 percent of
UNAM's students and faculty members backed a proposal
put forth by rector Juan Ramon de la Fuente aimed at
ending the nine-month-long strike. The university
community also called for an immediate end to the
strike so that classes can resume. The Mexican senate
voted its approval of the referendum process on Friday
and also supported the reopening of the institution.
But the group of hardcore Marxists, known as ultras,
who now control the student strike council, have shown
no sign of relenting. A group of more moderate
strikers handed over an UNAM-affiliated high school in
the state of Mexico on Thursday, but the main campus
of the university remains surrounded by barricades.
Many political analysts say the referendum results
give Rector De La Fuente the moral authority he needs
to press the radicals to abandon the strike. But
other observers say the strikers are unlikely to give
up unless the government deploys police units to
forceably remove them.
The government of President Ernesto Zedillo has been
reluctant to take that path, however, because of the
anger that remains over a massacre of protesting
students 32 years ago. This is also an election year
in which a violent incident could provide fuel to
opposition parties seeking to end the more than 70-
year-uninterrupted rule by the Institutional
Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
Early on in the strike, the militant students enjoyed
the sympathy and support of Mexico's major leftist
party, the Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD,
which controls the Mexico City government. But the
ultras threw out all moderates several weeks ago and
effectively turned their backs on the PRD as well.
Still, Mayor Rosario Robles has continued to say that
she will not authorize city police to use force
against the strikers. (Signed)
NEB/PT
21-Jan-2000 19:24 PM EDT (22-Jan-2000 0024 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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