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F.U.D.E. Visits Greater Hartford Area

by Paul Karolczyk

Frente Universitario por la Desmilitarizacion y la Educacion
(University Front for Demilitarization and Education), also known as
F.U.D.E. visited the region as guests of the CCSU Progressive Students
Alliance and Latin American Student Organization. F.U.D.E. (pronounced
FOO-Day) is an anti-war student group from the University of Puerto
Rico that is struggling for demilitarization of the islands of Vieques and
PuertoRico. The group was represented by Mari Gelpi; a Hispanic studies
major from Dorado, and Cacimar Cruz; a history major from Mayaguez. Mari and
Cacimar met with students and residents to share the story of
F.U.D.E.’s struggle against the militarization of Vieques and the University of
Puerto Rico.

F.U.D.E. gave a feature presentation during a March 10th anti-war
rally at Central Connecticut State University’s Semesters meeting hall.
The “Puerto Rico says No to War” rally honored the Latino community’s
struggle against militarization. Over one hundred supporters packed the hall.
Students, faculty, activists, and friends united for the rally, which
included education, music, poetry, food, and positive vibes. During
their weeklong stay in Connecticut, F.U.D.E. met students at New Britain’s
Pulaski Middle School, CCSU, Amherst College, Trinity College, and Yale.
F.U.D.E.’s dialogue extended to the Conversations on Race study circle at New
Britain’s Spanish Speaking Center, and also to WWUH’s studio where Progressive
Students Alliance members from CCSU and the University of Hartford
interviewed the group.

F.U.D.E.’s Mari and Cacimar along with Millie Guzman–Young; a
student organizer from CCSU PSA and LASO; answered questions on the struggles
of F.U.D.E. and student activism. The following quotes are from the
interview:

Q. “Millie, why did you invite the F.U.D.E. students to the
university?”

Millie: “I invited F.U.D.E. to the university to get more students
active, so that they could see what these students have done, and hopefully get
inspired because they have accomplished so many things…”

Q. “Mari or Cacimar can you tell us more about F.U.D.E. and describe
some of its activities?”

Cacimar: “…the front was created to demilitarize our country and our
university, and to educate our people about the consequences of
militarism, and it was founded in a historical moment when we were living with the
Vieques struggle, and we organized this front to make it our job to
maintain a struggle in our university and to eliminate the ROTC program.”

Q. “Can you tell us about the background of the Vieques struggle?”

Cacimar: ”the Vieques struggle is not a recent struggle; it’s an old
struggle. Since the 1940’s when the U.S. Navy expropriated the lands
of the Vieques people, that was the initiation of the struggle because the
military expropriated in a violent manner; the military forced us to the middle
of the island, the population of inhabitants went from 30,000 to 8,000
because the people moved out to other islands like the main island of Puerto
Rico or the smaller islands like the Virgin Islands; the struggle was very
hard. In 1979 they arrested Vieques leaders and one of them, Angel Rodriguez
Cristobal was killed in a Tallahassee federal prison cell. With the
death of David Sanez Rodriguez, a worker on the base, who was supposedly
accidentally killed by imprecise bombing exercises, all the people, not
only in Vieques, but in Puerto Rico too, united…different religious and
political ideologies united under one just cause that was the demilitarization of
Vieques island. Vieques suffered a lot from military exercises that
included warfare training to invade Granada, Panama, and recently Iraq.
The military used the land not only to invade other countries, but they
used napalm, depleted uranium, Agent Orange, and heavy metals that caused
contamination and pollution of the air. It was a fierce attack against
the land and the health of the people…”

Mari: ”and also the military raped women and kids, and that caused a
struggle between the civilians and the military, and so the military
stopped going into civilian areas, and the struggle had to be fought because
that was violent…”

Cacimar: “ our people became conscious of what was happening on
Vieques and that’s what united us against the militarization of the island. We
took them out in 2003, and that was a big victory for our people because
this wasthe world’s most powerful navy…this was not only a victory for Puerto
Rico, but a victory for all the people that supported us, including in the
U.S.”

Q. “Where do you think the University of Puerto Rico’s
administration’s loyalties lie?”

Cacimar: “they have no loyalty to the university community; they don’t
have loyalty to the students, they have loyalty to the government, including
the federal government, we have to admit that our country is a colony of
the United States, so our university is a colony of the government and all
the way up, that’s the reality of our university.”

Q. “Can you describe how F.U.D.E. occupied the ROTC building on the
University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez campus, and what have your daily
activities been since then?”

Mari: “We started the encampment on Sept. 15, and I’d like to make
clear that the encampment is inside the campus. We are in a building that
was going to be reconstructed for the Air Force ROTC, we have Air Force and
Army ROTC buildings, and we took advantage of the construction and built the
encampment so that we can demand the demilitarization of our
university, we are there 24/7, we study, eat, and sleep there, professors hold classes
there, and we have cultural activities there…and we are still there to
this day.”

Q. “Had you presented your issues to the administration previously
about
your concerns about the ROTC program on campus?”

Mari: “Before the encampment we had always done marches, protests,
pickets, conferences, etc….”

Cacimar: “I presume that the administration knew about the struggle
because it’s an old struggle. Now the administration has gotten more involved,
and that’s the difference; the administration is getting more involved with
the issue because we made it an issue all over the country…now the
administration hears us…they used to think we were just a bunch of
protesters who made a little noise but didn’t do anything, but now they
know we are serious, because we are firm in our demands, so they take us
seriously.”

Q. “Do you have any final comments?

Mari: “I would like to encourage you here in the states to unite
yourselves, to make every struggle count. As university students you
should unite in organizations and take on any struggle that you can, it can be
with problems in your university’s environment, and what affects you here
affects people all over the country because we are not individuals; we are part
of a society in which everyone is affected, so unite yourselves and don’t be
intimidated by the government or the system, even if it takes up your
life, even if it takes prison…continue your struggles and make this a just
world.”

Millie: ”We really wanted to bring F.U.D.E. here because they are a
great example to so many, these students have done so much and the have
succeeded, and they are important for us to learn from, not only for the Latino
community but for students and everyone else, we should follow their
examples, let’s unite; let’s get together, and let’s march on March 20
in
New York City against the war in Iraq.”

Thanks goes out to all the students, faculty, poets, musicians,
activists, and friends who put their positive energy into making a great event on
March 10. A partial list includes the high school students, CCSU & UHa PSA,
CCSU LASO, SCSU SAWC, OLAS-ECSU, MECC, Rafael Rodriguez Cruz, Adolfo Rivera,
Craig Maschinkoski, Stan Heller, Hector Carrion, Eduardo Rocha,
Sagacity, Native Son, Urban Poets Society, CCSU workers, an unidentified media
technician, and everyone else. To contact F.U.D.E. send email to:
FUDE_RUM@hotmail.com. For updates about CCSU PSA visit:
http://www.americanissues.com/ccsupsa