WED MAR 09, 2011 AT 03:07 PM EST

March 11 - Day of Solidarity with Puerto Rican Students

By Deoliver47 for LatinoKos

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A call for support.

Demonstrations are being held across the US and around the globe, to show solidarity with the
students of the University of Puerto Rico.

teach-in New York on the 10th.

From the Monthly Review:

Networks of sympathizers with the ongoing student strike at the University of Puerto Rico
announced today that they will stage simultaneous demonstrations in solidarity with the UPR in
cities around the world on Friday, March 11, 2011, and invited all supporters to join them,
coordinating their own activities in their respective towns. Those interested in self-organizing
demonstrations can email redaccion@gmail.com to sign the Declaration, or visit redaccion-pr.net
for information on already scheduled activities. Event organizers urged people to send in videos,
and/or statements of support, from their demos. The full text of the Declaration follows.

Latino sites, and mailing lists across the US have been in contact with the Puerto Rican
organizers and are disseminating the following message (translated from the message at
RedAcción, Puerto Rico :

A CALL TO CONSCIENCE AND HISTORICAL MEMORY

WORLD DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE UPR

“Antonia, Peoples never forgive.“

-Antonio Cabán Vale "El Topo"

March 11, 1971 was one of the bloodiest single days in the history of the University of Puerto
Rico . The main campus at Río Piedras was occupied by the Puerto Rico Police, unleashing
violent confrontations that ended the lives of two police officers, including the then chief of the
notorious Tactical Operations Unit, and one student.

Barely one year before, on March 4, 1970, during a student demonstration, student Antonia
Martínez Lagares was shot dead by police. These tragedies influenced a series of decisions that
helped reduce the intensity of on-campus conflicts during the following decades, including the
removal of the United States ' Army Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), and an
institutional commitment to resolving conflicts without police intervention.

Forty years later, the UPR community, led by the students, still struggles for a democratic and
accessible institution, against the abusive and exclusionary policies of the latest colonial
government. Among these, aside from its clear intention to privatize higher education as much as
it can, said government has laid off over 25,000 public employees, and intends to build a
gasoduct across the island that will displace entire communities and impact areas of high
ecological and archeological value.

In this context, the Río Piedras Campus once again lived several months of police occupation,
with the open support of the government and university administrators, in reaction to the strike
democratically declared by the Río Piedras General Student Assembly, rejecting an unjust and
arbitrary $800 hike in the cost of studying. The eyes of the world watched as Puerto Rico Police
officers tortured peaceful civil disobedients with impunity, sexually accosted and attacked
women students, discriminatorily harassed student leaders, and savagely beat people, even under
custody, all before the television cameras.

There can be no doubt that the recent decision by Governor Luis Fortuño to withdraw the bulk of
the police force from the Río Piedras Campus is a partial victory for the students, who with their
bravery and determination have raised the political cost of sustaining that level of repression way
to high for the government to afford. However, now is not the time to lower the guard. It
wouldn't be the first time that the Fortuño administration temporarily curtails its use of brute
force, only to return even more violently under any pretext. We are convinced that if the Puerto
Rico Police is not removed immediately, completely, and permanently from all UPR campuses, it
will only be a matter of time before another March 11.

In addition, we are united by the firm conviction that the demands of the UPR community are
just. The strike is still in effect, and the struggle (its current phase) will continue until the $800
hike is eliminated. In the longer term, we support a real democratization of the decision-making
process in the UPR, so that it is the community that determines the best way to handle the
institution's financial and administrative problems.

For all of these reasons, Friday, March 11, 2011, fortieth anniversary of that fateful March 11,
will be World Day of Solidarity with the UPR.

On that day we will hold, in our respective cities, simultaneous demonstrations together with
individuals and organizations that support just causes. At a time when the powerful voice of the
brave Egyptian people and all arab nations is still ringing around the globe, we are confident that
the people of consciousness of the world will welcome this initiative and organize their own
activities of solidarity on that day.

We enthusiastically urge you to sign on to this Declaration, and send us video, images, and
statements of support from your World Day of Solidarity with the UPR demonstrations.

STRUGGLE YES, GIVE IN NO!

POLICE OUT OF THE UPR!
ZERO HIKE!

Events have been announced in Chicago by High School students :

Vivir Latino reports events scheduled for NY and SanFran:

New York City

Friday, March 11 · 6:30pm – 9:00pm

Julia de Burgos’s Mosaic
106 St, Spanish Harlem
NYC

San Francisco

Friday, March 11, 4:30-7:00pm

24th/Mission BART Station Plaza in San Francisco
More of the history

Antonia Martínez Lagares was a 21-year-old student at the University of Puerto Rico at Río
Piedras, native of Arecibo who was killed by a police officer. She was expected to graduate with
a major in Education.

On March 4, 1970, during conflicts caused when the Fuerza de Choque (Riot Police) was
dispatched to the Campus of Río Piedras of UPR to intervene against students protesting the
presence of the Reserve Officers Training Corps presence on the campus, Antonia looked from
her lodging's balcony, on the second floor above Ponce de León Avenue, while police officers
beat down other fellow students, she shouted at them "asesinos" (Assassins!). One of the police
officers looked up at the balcony, took out his gun and shot her. The bullet pierced her head and
injured in the neck another student that was with her. Antonia died soon after at Auxilio Mutuo
hospital.Celestino Santiago, the other wounded student, told the events and identified some of
the present police officers. After that, a police officer was accused, but was absolved on trial.
Later on, on the declarations of some police agents to the Senatorial Juridical Commission of
Puerto Rico on the investigations of the Cerro Maravilla Incident case, a police agent denounced
the cover-up by the Police Department and the FBI of the murder of Antonia Martínez, declaring
that in order to cover the case, a police officer that had nothing to do with it was accused so he'd
be absolved. The murderer was protected and has never been tried before a court for this crime.
Her death had a meaningful influence in those years' pop culture, and was taken as a symbol of
police abuse and oppression. In 2010, a mural commemorating the 40th anniversary of the killing
of Martínez was vandalized. Led by former political prisoner Rafael Cancel Miranda, activists
from various organizations supported a group of urban artists that restored the mural.

defaced mural

This video from the PIP is a visual documentary of the mural defacement, clips from the funeral
of Antonia, and the restored mural, with a song in homage sung by popular Puerto Rican
songstress Lucesita Benitez.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4vMgDI6GtQ&feature=player_detailpage