Frente pro Universidad Abierta (FUA) letter to Congressman Gutierrez

February 21, 2011

Mayagüez, Puerto Rico



The Honorable Luis V. Gutierrez

2266 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515-1304



Congressman Gutierrez,


I am extremely concerned regarding your recent remarks on the situation occurring in the University of Puerto Rico. As a student of the Mayagüez Campus, I have been doing everything possible to fight against my university being closed, vandalized and disaccredited by radical leftist groups.


I am currently one of the spokesmen for “Frente Pro Universidad Abierta” (FUA), a group that has been leading a campaign to keep all the campuses open and violence-free. As leaders of the opposition to the strike, we have been threatened, insulted and even physically harmed by those “students” that are part of the strike.


The student assemblies have become circuses that by no means function in a democratic way. Our civil liberties and rights have been infringed by those that you so passionately defended during your remarks. The police and authorities have done everything possible to defend our right to study and protect us from those that intend to harm us just because we have a different opinion or point of view.


Those students that you defended are responsible for millions of dollars of wasted federal aid funds, destroying public property, fellow students getting injured, forcefully getting people out of classrooms using smoke bombs, among many other harmful situations. The Río Piedras Campus has become a battlefield for those students that think of themselves as guerrilla soldiers.


With all due respect, you have defended those that are destroying my university, my alma mater, for misplaced political reasons. I sincerely recommend further review of the situation since you have placed the title of victims on those that are the oppressors, the striking students. Nobody knows what is really going on in the University of Puerto Rico unless you live it and experience it. We, the students, have had our fair share of violence towards us, but not from the government or the administration, but from our peers that supposedly are there to “defend our rights”.


I honestly hope that this situation is rectified in Congress as soon as possible. I am an American citizen too and, once again, my civil rights have been infringed by those that you so passionately defended.


Thank you for your time,


Eduardo A. Náter Ramos

Transportation Engineering Graduate Student, University of Puerto Rico – Mayagüez Campus



cc: The Honorable John A. Boehner

1011 Longworth House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515-3508



The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

235 Cannon House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515-0508