DATE=1/6/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=MEXICO UNIVERSITY (L-UPDATE)
NUMBER=2-258875
BYLINE=GREG FLAKUS
DATELINE=MEXICO CITY
CONTENT=
VOICED AT=
INTRO: In Mexico City, 25-hundred federal police have
occupied the main campus of the National Autonomous
University of Mexico, known as UNAM, taking into
custody more than 400 striking students. As
Correspondent Greg Flakus reports from Mexico City,
the action puts an end to a strike that had closed
down the largest university in the Americas for nearly
10-months.
TEXT: It was shortly after daybreak in Mexico when
federal police, dressed in riot gear, moved over and
around barricades to seize the UNAM campus. They
reported no serious incidents of violence, and Mexican
Attorney General Jorge Madrazo says the police have
respected the civil rights of all detainees.
/// MADRAZO ACT (SPANISH) ///
He says the action was taken under orders from a
federal judge and the operation has been carried out
in a strictly legal fashion.
Televised images of the action showed police escorting
militant students from the campus to buses that took
them to nearby prisons.
Among those arrested was flamboyant strike leader
Alejandro Echevarria, known as "El Mosh." He and a
small group of militant leftists known as the "Ultras"
took control of the strike-council leadership in
recent months and expelled more moderate members who
favored a negotiated end to the strike.
Meanwhile, parents of some jailed strikers have taken
to the streets near the Attorney General's office,
demanding that they be released.
/// MAN SHOUTING (SPANISH) ///
One man told reporters to go to the president and tell
him the students should be freed because they were not
guilty of anything.
Last week, Mexican authorities charged more than 170
strikers, including "El Mosh," with crimes after a
violent clash at an UNAM-affiliated high school. Last
month, a referendum in the university community
resulted in overwhelming support for an end to the
strike, but militant leaders refused to leave the
campus.
UNAM Rector Juan Ramon de la Fuente met for 12-hours
Friday with representatives of the strike committee in
a failed effort to end the protest. The strikers also
carried out a march to the city center to demand the
release of more than 250 of their compatriots who were
arrested at the high-school disturbance.
The strike began April 20th over a proposed tuition
hike, but after that proposal was set aside strike
leaders added more demands. They also took to the
streets off campus at various times; stopping traffic
and attacking students who tried to hold classes at
other locations. In December, several-hundred
strikers attacked the U-S embassy with rocks and
homemade bombs in a protest over globalization.
(SIGNED)
NEB/GF/RAE
06-Feb-2000 13:48 PM EDT (06-Feb-2000 1848 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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