Rector [President] Jose Narro said the university holds the hooded youths responsible for property damages on the premises and warned that there will be no dialogue as long as the seizure lasts, and affirmed that the legal processes against the students will continue up to their final consequences.
"Students don't steal" Narro said during a press conference at UNAM. "Don't you dare, once again, plunder the nation's patrimony. Those responsible for this act should be held accountable for their conduct before legal authorities and before history," Narro said.According to Narro, the seizure of the administrative offices "with great violence" last Friday is affecting the new student registration process, as well as the process of admission exams and payroll.
The Rector reported that the seizure of the facility
"projects an image of the university that does not at all correspond to reality. ... Students ought not act anonymously, covertly and, even less, with the use of force.... There will be no impunity. ... "The rector announced that they are working on expanding the complaint filed with the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) for damage to the building, which has been designated by UNESCO as a Cultural Heritage of Humanity. ... However, Narro did not say he would use an eviction and called for following legal channels.
"We have the complaint filed in the PGR; it's up to the PGR to assess the facts. ... Faced with the imposition and violence, the response must be made with intelligence, adherence to the law and prudence," he said.In February, at the College of Sciences and Humanities (CCH) in Naucalpan, facilities were seized and there was a confrontation between students and workers in which they threw Molotov cocktail bombs and injured a student. Fifteen students were referred to the University Court, which he said "will give its verdict soon."
He also said that there is an investigation as to whether people outside the student community participated. "We are finding out who is responsible," he said.
The president asked the university community to demonstrate peacefully against the seizure of the facilities.
Hooded youths marched on Thursday down Insurgentes Avenue, one of the largest in the capital, to the University City Campus of the UNAM, where they destroyed the glass of the main facade and entered the administrative hall.
In the windows, they installed placards demanding free education, expressed their support for the teachers' movement of Guerrero, declared against the structural reforms promoted by the federal government, including education reform, and argued that University Court was violating the rights of students.
The hooded youths, who claim to be students of the CCH, also call for five of their companions, ... to be re-enrolled in the Naucalpan campus. They were expelled for engaging in vandalism and assaulting the staff of the institution during a rally held on February 1.
They also demand the withdrawal of the arrest warrants against the other CCH Naucalpan students who seized the general administrative offices of CCH [on the main UNAM campus in Mexico City] in February in protest over the expulsion of the five students.
...Meanwhile on Friday, the UNAM's general counsel, Luis Raúl González, condemned the damage to the institution, which he described as "contrary to university principles."
The hooded youth declared to the media that they will not leave the establishment until a dialogue with the university authorities is established. But González warned the young people that there will be no dialogue so long as there is violent behavior and the facilities are seized.
"I urge you to cease and desist and vacate the premises of the rectory, and that whatever approach you take is through the legal framework provided by the university," said the lawyer in a document given to the complainants.This Sunday, heads of faculties, schools and institutes demanded the immediate return of the rectory tower, and showed their support for the rector, Narro, "in the conduct of the University and in the solution of this problem."
Despite the seizure of the rectory, classes continue at Mexico's leading public university and the vicinity of the area is calm, according to the news agency Notimex. Spanish original