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Colombia Students
As in the rest of Latin America, students had a
tradition of
political activism in Colombia. Nevertheless, their
importance in
Colombian politics was marginal until the "days of May" in
1957
when their protest demonstrations and efforts to enforce a
civic
strike played a key role in the overthrow of the Rojas
Pinilla
regime. Subsequently, their protests often centered on
university
issues but also included domestic concerns, such as
increases in
bus fares, and on international themes, especially antiimperialism . Although the students occasionally aligned
themselves
with other groups, such as labor, in seeking to promote
reforms,
most often they were unable to coordinate their activities
or to
create a powerful national organization. Government
repression and
division within the Colombian left, which affected student
groups
as well, inhibited the formation of a unified national
student
movement in Colombia during the 1970s and much of the
1980s.
Political activism was most pronounced among university
students,
primarily at the National University of Colombia
(Universidad
Nacional de Colombia--UNC) in Bogotá but also at the
universities
of Valle, Antioquia, Cauca, and Los Andes. Repression of
students
in the 1980s was not so severe as in the 1970s, when many
students
saw no alternative to joining the guerrilla ranks. In May
1984,
however, the UNC's Bogotá branch closed its doors to some
20,000
students following a protest in which security forces shot
10
students.
The principal problems facing the public universities
in 1987
included financial crises, deteriorating academic quality,
and a
lack of cohesive government policy toward state
institutions
(see Secondary and University Education
, ch. 2). A national
congress,
held by about 3,000 university and high school delegates
in Bogotá
in May 1987, and massive student rallies in the preceding
months
reflected continued student discontent.
Data as of December 1988
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