Asseamblissimo
little time so quick resumen...
Monday a student a student assembly was planned for 9am to discuss what was to be done in reaction to Jhonny´s assassination.
I got to Uni early for the assembly but the auditorium was spilling out the door before before It even began. It was still pissing it down. Impossible to enter i milled aound in the crowd outside charged with a sense of urgency and that things were startng to move.
The assembly decided to call a strike (bearing in mind this is purely made up of students and has not institutional status) so when over we all moved to the University administration to force the closure of the uni that day. The atmosphere was incredible. Hundreds shouting in unison for the resignation of the VC and the suspension of all classes that day. The chanting crowd crushed into the subteraneon feeling entrance area of the administration was a formidible force and with surprising speed the workers decended from their offices as such closing the uni.
Due to its size the assembly, now with possibility of gaining more people as classes were suspended moved to the sports hall where the assembly continued.
It adjourned the following day, tuesday, this time with close to 8000 participants, including students, academic and administrative staff, the president of the Supreme Council, the Governor Mr Angelino Garzon, theVice Chancellor, Ivan Ramos and the regional human rights vigilator (Defensor del Pueblo). The bulding felt as if it was being permanently struk by lightning, the chanting crowd insensed by the murder of jhonny silva yet vibrant and articulate.
The students were given the floor first giving testemonies of what had happened and making impassioned speeches as to thew way ahead. The level of participation was fenomenal in view of the number present and functional perhaps of a mainstream political system that is so overtly exclusionary. They were followed some hours later by the VC and finally the governor.
The sense that the people would not let this lie was reflected in the speeches of the authorities to a certain extent. Indeed, whilst the VC said little he made clear that the police had entred the university campus - which the police deny - and that he had not given the order (thus eager to vindicate himdself from what he percieved might deman his resignation). The governor took things further making a commitment to remove private security personnel from the university campus (a perenial problem due to their propensity to work as informants and colaborate with police rather than protect the university and its students) , the funding of two lawyers to take up the case of Mr Silva's death and the removal from the campus and reassessmentof the necessity of the Fundacion de Apoyo, a semi private institution within the university which acts a motor for further privatization.
The assembly accorded a march for tomorrow producing the following demands as objectives of the mobilization:
Monday a student a student assembly was planned for 9am to discuss what was to be done in reaction to Jhonny´s assassination.
I got to Uni early for the assembly but the auditorium was spilling out the door before before It even began. It was still pissing it down. Impossible to enter i milled aound in the crowd outside charged with a sense of urgency and that things were startng to move.
The assembly decided to call a strike (bearing in mind this is purely made up of students and has not institutional status) so when over we all moved to the University administration to force the closure of the uni that day. The atmosphere was incredible. Hundreds shouting in unison for the resignation of the VC and the suspension of all classes that day. The chanting crowd crushed into the subteraneon feeling entrance area of the administration was a formidible force and with surprising speed the workers decended from their offices as such closing the uni.
Due to its size the assembly, now with possibility of gaining more people as classes were suspended moved to the sports hall where the assembly continued.
It adjourned the following day, tuesday, this time with close to 8000 participants, including students, academic and administrative staff, the president of the Supreme Council, the Governor Mr Angelino Garzon, theVice Chancellor, Ivan Ramos and the regional human rights vigilator (Defensor del Pueblo). The bulding felt as if it was being permanently struk by lightning, the chanting crowd insensed by the murder of jhonny silva yet vibrant and articulate.
The students were given the floor first giving testemonies of what had happened and making impassioned speeches as to thew way ahead. The level of participation was fenomenal in view of the number present and functional perhaps of a mainstream political system that is so overtly exclusionary. They were followed some hours later by the VC and finally the governor.
The sense that the people would not let this lie was reflected in the speeches of the authorities to a certain extent. Indeed, whilst the VC said little he made clear that the police had entred the university campus - which the police deny - and that he had not given the order (thus eager to vindicate himdself from what he percieved might deman his resignation). The governor took things further making a commitment to remove private security personnel from the university campus (a perenial problem due to their propensity to work as informants and colaborate with police rather than protect the university and its students) , the funding of two lawyers to take up the case of Mr Silva's death and the removal from the campus and reassessmentof the necessity of the Fundacion de Apoyo, a semi private institution within the university which acts a motor for further privatization.
The assembly accorded a march for tomorrow producing the following demands as objectives of the mobilization:
- The resignation of Miguel Justi, Secretary of the MunicipalGovernment who authorized the entrance of ESMAD forces in to theUniversity campus and is thus directly implicate in the assassinationof Johny Silva
- The resignation of Colonel Gomez Mendez, Cali´s Metropolitan Police Chief
- The resignation of the Chief of the ESMAD riot squad (ESMAD – Mobile Anti-disturbances Squadron) who entered the university on the 22nd.
- That the perportrators of the crime be brought to justice
