17.12.10

Académicos en Estados Unidos escriben al Attorney General

December 16, 2010 

Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. 
Attorney General of the United States 
The United States Department of Justice 
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 
Washington, DC  20530-0001 

Dear Mr. Holder: 

As Puerto Rican scholars teaching in the United States we have decided to write to you 
in order to express our deep concern with regard to recent developments at the 
University of Puerto Rico (UPR). For the past months, the University has experienced a 
continuing conflict that began last semester with a call for a strike by the students in 
response to an increase in academic tuition and related to fears about the future of 
public higher education on the island. Unfortunately, university administrators, 
professors, and students have not been able to negotiate a satisfactory agreement. The 
whole process has recently culminated in the intervention of Governor Luis Fortuño and 
the deployment of a massive police presence on the main university campus at Río 
Piedras and on other campuses in the system, including a private security contractor and 
fully armed SWAT units. 

On December 13, Chancellor Ana R. Guadalupe banned all meetings, festivals, 
manifestations, and all other so-called large activities on the Río Piedras campus for a 
period of thirty days. In our view, this represents a clear breach of fundamental 
constitutional rights. The justifications given by the Chancellor are that this measure is 
required in order to keep the campus open and to return it to normal operations. 
Furthermore, professors and workers are being asked (under the threat of punishment) 
to continue working despite the intense volatility caused by the police presence on 
campus. 

We remain very concerned that such use of force may in fact increase the potential for 
violence and continued tension, especially if the guarantees of freedom of speech, 
association, and assembly have been revoked. Both the United States Constitution and 
the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico guarantee these rights. Moreover, 
this week the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico (which, without the opportunity for serious 
public debate, was recently restructured by the government of Luis Fortuño in order to 
ensure a clear majority of judges in his favor) declared, in a disturbing resolution, that 
strikes will be prohibited at all UPR campuses effective immediately.  

We the undersigned write to you as scholars and citizens because of the potentially 
lethal conditions that we have described and that prevail at the UPR. That is why we 
urge you to intervene in order to: 

1. Guarantee the constitutional rights of freedom of speech, association, 
and assembly as stipulated by both constitutions and to see that the 
conflict is conducted under the strictest observation of human and civil 
rights for all parties involved. 

2. Procure the immediate withdrawal of all state and city police, private 
contractors, and other non-UPR security personnel from the University 
of Puerto Rico system currently under occupation. 

3. Call all parties to meet and have a truly productive dialogue. 


Respectfully yours, 

[Institutional affiliations for identification purposes only. Please respond to primary 
contacts.] 

1) Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, The University of Chicago [Primary contact] 

2) Ivette N. Hernández-Torres, University of California, Irvine [Primary contact] 

3) Luis F. Avilés, University of California, Irvine [Primary contact] 

4) Aldo Lauria-Santiago, Rutgers University [Primary contact] 

5) Arcadio Díaz-Quiñones 
Emory L. Ford Professor, Emeritus, Princeton University 

6) Aníbal González-Pérez, Yale University 

7) Luis Figueroa-Martínez, Trinity College 
Treasurer, Puerto Rican Studies Association (PRSA) 

8) Roberto Alejandro, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 

9) Harry Vélez-Quiñones, University of Puget Sound 

10) Ismael García-Colón, College of Staten Island, CUNY 

11) Áurea María Sotomayor-Miletti, University of Pittsburgh 

12) Antonio Lauria-Perricelli, New York University 

13) Wanda Rivera Rivera, University of Massachusetts, Boston 

14) José Quiroga, Emory University 

15) Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 

16) Daniel Torres, Ohio University  

17) Pablo Delano, Trinity College 

18) Denise Galarza Sepúlveda, Lafayette College   

19) Richard Rosa, Duke University 

20) Eleuterio Santiago-Díaz, University of New Mexico 

21) Ilia Rodríguez, University of New Mexico  

22) Ramón H. Rivera-Servera, Northwestern University 

23) Gladys M. Jiménez-Muñoz, Binghamton University-SUNY  

24) Luz-María Umpierre 
Poet, Scholar, Human Rights Advocate 

25) Sheila Candelario, Fairfield University 

26) Edna Acosta-Belén, University at Albany, SUNY 

27) Efraín Barradas, University of Florida at Gainsville 

28) Kelvin Santiago-Valles, Binghamton University-SUNY 

29) Víctor Figueroa, Wayne State University 

30) Juan Duchesne Winter, University of Pittsburgh 

31) Pablo A. Llerandi-Román, Grand Valley State University 

32) Irmary Reyes-Santos, University of Oregon  

33) Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé, Fordham University 

34) Ileana M. Rodríguez-Silva, University of Washington 

35) César A. Salgado, University of Texas, Austin 

36) Jossianna Arroyo, University of Texas, Austin  

37) Francisco A. Scarano, University of Wisconsin, Madison 

38) Jaime Rodríguez Matos, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 

39) Cecilia Enjuto Rangel, University of Oregon 

40) Elpidio Laguna-Díaz, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey 

41) Lena Burgos-Lafuente, SUNY, Stony Brook 

42) Ramón Grosfoguel, University of California, Berkeley 

43) José Francisco Buscaglia Salgado, SUNY, Buffalo 
Director of Program in Caribbean Studies  

44) Francisco Cabanillas, Bowling Green State University 

45) Lisa Sánchez González, University of Connecticut 

46) María M. Carrión, Emory University 

47) Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey 
Director Institute for Research on Women 

48) Agustín Lao-Montes, University of Massachusetts, Amherst  

49) Jason Cortés, Rutgers University-Newark 

50) Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Rutgers University 
President, Caribbean Philosophical Association 

51) Daín Borges, The University of Chicago  

52) Edna Rodríguez-Mangual, Hamilton College 

53) Ricardo Pérez Figueroa, Eastern Connecticut State University  

54) Licia Fiol-Matta, Lehman College, CUNY 

55) Frances R. Aparicio, University of Illinois at Chicago 

56) Luis E. Zayas, Arizona State University 

57) Hortensia R. Morell, Temple University 

58) Milagros Denis-Rosario, Hunter College 

59) Víctor Rodríguez, California State University, Long Beach 

60) Madeline Troche-Rodríguez, City Colleges of Chicago 

61) Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo, Washington State University 

62) Jorge Luis Castillo, University of California, Santa Barbara 

63) Rosa Elena Carrasquillo, College of the Holy Cross 

64) Juan Carlos Rodríguez, The Georgia Institute of Technology 

65) Susana Peña, Bowling Green State University 

66) José R. Cartagena-Calderón, Pomona College 

67) Amílcar Challu, Bowling Green State University 

68) Carlos J. Alonso, Columbia University 

69) Carmen A. Rolón, Providence College 

70) Amy Robinson, Bowling Green State University  

71) Consuelo Arias, Nassau Community College 

Puerto Rican Scholars in Canada Who Also Subscribe to this Letter 

72) Rubén A. Gaztambide-Fernández, University of Toronto 

73) Néstor E. Rodríguez, University of Toronto 

74) Gustavo J. Bobonis, University of Toronto 
  
cc: Thomas E. Pérez, Assistant Attorney General, United States Department of Justice 
Civil Rights Division 
Luis Gutiérrez, Congressman, Illinois 4th District 
Nydia Velázquez, Congresswoman, New York 12th District 
José Serrano, Congressman, New York 16th District 
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) 
Luis Fortuño, Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico 
Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner in Washington 
José Ramón de la Torre, President of the University of Puerto Rico 
Ygrí Rivera de Martínez, President of the Board of Trustees (Junta de Síndicos), 
University of Puerto Rico 
Ana R. Guadalupe, Chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus 


poder, espacio y ambiente's Fan Box