Page Seven / La Paz
After the human avalanche that left four students dead and 85 injured in the coliseum of the Tomás Frías Autonomous University in Potosí, university students from La Paz, Tarija and Beni demand the departure of the “dinosaurs” of the leadership. In the last few hours, young people from different regions staged protests to demand that “the eternal student representatives” give way to the new generations.
In the last few hours, students from the Juan Misael Saracho Autonomous University of the Faculty of Economic and Financial Sciences of Tarija protested and peacefully closed the university campus to demand the renewal of the representatives of the Local University Federation (FUL).
“We are basic students of the Civil Engineering career (…) We do not know the first executive: Mr. Cristián Ávila Romero, alias El Pajarito. This person was not even elected by the students, but was handpicked,” said one of the university students who was part of the mobilizations, according to the La Voz de Tarija portal.
On Monday, an attack with a tear gas grenade in the coliseum of the Tomás Frías Autonomous University, in Potosí, caused the death of four students and left more than 80 injured. The main accused of the fact are four leaders, who were sent preventively to the Cantumarca prison. According to the Police and witnesses, this attack was planned due to fights by the FUL Potosina.
Days later, the case of university leader and operator of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) Max Mendoza, 52, came to light. This student did not finish his degree, he entered the “U” more than 30 years ago and earns almost 22,000 bolivianos, more than a rector, because he holds the position of national secretary in the Executive Committee of the Bolivian University (CEUB). In that position he traveled abroad and could even hire people.
According to the students of the Autonomous University Juan Misael Saracho, in Tarija, there are leaders of the FUL and of the student centers whose mandates have been extended. They indicated that they demand the resignation of these representatives and the launch of a new call to promote a leadership renewal.
Another student said that there are some people who have been in the “U” for more than 12 years, process their registration every year and do not study. He indicated that these university students dedicate their time to being leaders and doing politics.
In La Paz, students denounced that there are FUL leaders who have been at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA) for many years. Such is the case of Álvaro Quelali Calle, who has been a student for 20 years, according to the documentation from the university. He is studying mathematics at the Faculty of Pure Sciences.
A former leader of the FUL, who was in the management of Quelali, said that this university student exercises a third management outside the statutes, since the internal regulations provide for a maximum of two.
“There are excellent leaders, good leaders, there are bad leaders, there are lousy ones and I think that later there is Quelali and all his thread,” he told Cadena A.
Protests in Beni
In the department of Beni, dozens of young people protested this week and demanded the renewal of their leaders. They expressed their annoyance on Thursday, the day chosen for the election of the FUL of the José Ballivián Autonomous University, in Riberalta. On that day there were clashes and discussions between students. They burned amphorae with ballots and denounced -in addition- irregularities in the elections.
“The discontent is because the same leader was running for several years. The electoral committee has made the decision to annul (the elections) because there are comrades who have come to exercise their (right) to vote and realized that there is not even a seal of the committee on these ballots,” said a student who attended The elections.
“In an election it must bear the stamp of the electoral committee, full name and signature of the polling station delegate. We will be waiting for the new call, but first we are waiting for an assembly to define an electoral committee designated in Riberalta and that does not come from Trinidad”, indicated another student.
Carlos Alberto Nogales, the student who was disqualified, denounced that Madekadel Vaca, executive secretary of the FUL at the public university of Beni, has been a university student for 20 years and entered three careers, but has not finished any to continue exercising student representation.
FUL potosina and the struggles for economic and political power
“The FUL fulfills the function of evaluating and accrediting all the blocks of students that depend on the careers. In other words, they accredit all the student centers,” one of the teaching assistants at the Tomás Frías University told Página Siete, who preferred not to disclose his name.
According to the teaching assistant, the FUL is in charge of the economic administration of the students’ resources, these funds come from the registration fees. “Six Bolivians from each enrollment go to the FUL and each year the entity is in charge of managing that money,” he said. In the case of the University of Potosí, this amount amounts to about 144,000 Bolivians per year for the 24,000 students.
“That money is invested in carrying out projects, but since the FUL has hidden its finances, sometimes we don’t know what they spend on. That is the reason why some people are obsessed with becoming head of the FUL. Also, since it is autonomous, it can spend on whatever comes, ”he added.
