1 Killed in Mexico Strike Clash Fri, 4 Feb 2000 08:16:13 -0500 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit 1 Killed in Mexico Strike Clash By Jose Luis Magana Associated Press Writer Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2000; 4:01 a.m. EST MEXICO CITY - Students opposed to a 9-month-old strike at Latin America's largest university threw rocks and bottles at classmates occupying the campus, trying to evict them from a university-affiliated high school. One person was killed and 37 others were injured. Brandishing poles and pipes, the two groups battled for most of Tuesday at the Justo Sierra high school, which is part of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Strikers remained in control of the university's main campus. "This has been a day of profound sadness for the university," said Rector Juan Ramon de la Fuente. "Violence is the antithesis of the university." The skirmish began early Tuesday when 200 students opposed to the strike forced their way onto the campus of the high school. Tossing rocks and waving sticks, they forced the strikers to abandon the high school, which they have held and barricaded since April 20. Soon after, 150 adults - who de la Fuente said were members of the university's security force - arrived in two buses in an apparent effort to help the anti-strikers defend the campus. By late afternoon, more strikers arrived. Brandishing poles and tossing rocks and chunks of concrete, the strikers retook the campus. They then began beating people, hitting unconscious men with poles and rocks, and kicking their heads. One man was killed by stab wounds to the chest, said ambulance driver Antonio Ramirez. At least four of the wounded suffered skull fractures. Three striking students were arrested outside the school and charged with possession of gasoline bombs. The strikers confiscated rolls of film and video cassettes from journalists reporting on the violence. Four hundred federal police - whose ranks include soldiers under civilian command - took control of the school late Tuesday. They rounded up the strikers without resistance and took 148 of them to jail in buses. Interior Secretary Diodoro Carrasco said the university had requested the police intervention, despite statutes that bar police from entering university grounds to preserve academic freedom. Outside the school, hundreds of strike supporters chanted "Stop hitting them! Don't take them away!" Strikers remained in control of the university's huge main campus several miles away, and refused to reopen it until officials meet their demands for guaranteed admissions and a loosening of academic standards. The strike began in April to protest plans to raise annual tuition from a few cents to $140. Administrators withdrew the fee increase, but students later demanded sweeping policy changes. Copyright 2000 The Associated Press ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-02.04.00-08:16:10-30185