Mexican Students’ Strike Closes Largest University

Striking students shut down Latin America’s largest university Thursday in a conflict that centers on admission standards and fees but also brings into focus discontent over government economic and social policies.

The strike began at midnight on the sprawling campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, which lies on the southern outskirts of Mexico City. Students hung red-and-black bunting over the entrances to buildings, blocked driveways, met to discuss strategy and collected money to buy food in anticipation of a long strike.

The campus, which is known for the huge mosaic murals that adorn some of its main buildings, was generally quiet as the great majority of the more than 300,000 students apparently stayed home.

Police Absent

No police or other government security forces were seen on or near the campus. A shoving incident was reported at the engineering school, where some students who opposed the strike tried to enter a classroom.

The striking students, grouped under the independent Student Advisory Council, were protesting plans by the university administration to tighten admission standards, regularize testing and raise fees. Talks with administration officials aimed at averting a strike collapsed Wednesday.

The student council is demanding that the reforms be postponed and that the issue be studied by an assembly reflecting all the university’s elements.

“The university is at a standstill,” council leader Carlos Imaz said. “We are defending the right to be university students.”

Demands Refused

The administration has refused the students’ demands, although the authorities have been willing to negotiate specific points. However, the administration insists that the University Council, which traditionally handles rule changes at the university, give final approval to any reform proposals. The University Council is dominated by administration appointees and supporters.

“The (strikers’) demands imply a grave transgression of the legal order in the university,” administration negotiator Jose Narro Robles said.

The strike echoes recent unrest among university students in Paris and Madrid. Although both sides in the Mexican conflict say they want to keep the issue limited to academic matters, debate over broader government policies and the country’s economic problems quickly surfaced in student comments.

“The government wants the economic crisis to fall on the poor who attend the university, and we’re not going to let it,” Antonio Santos, a student leader, said in an interview.

‘Keep Its Promises’

Imaz, responding to critics who charged that the student strike was illegal, said, “If we are guilty of anything, we are guilty of trying to get the government to keep its promises to clothe and feed and educate the people.”

Government officials accused the students of being reactionary and intransigent, words commonly applied to opponents of the government. The government is said to be concerned that the strike might spread to labor unions.

The university strike comes in the wake of Mexico’s biggest wave of student unrest in 19 years. Three recent student demonstrations have attracted thousands of protesters to the streets of the capital.