Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño has begun withdrawing the police occupation of the main University of Puerto Rico campus in San Juan after two months. SWAT teams and riot squads took over the campus in December following a massive student strike against fee hikes and privatization. Hundreds of students have been arrested, and some have reported being beaten, including sexually harassed and tortured, in the ensuing crackdown. An estimated crowd of more than 15,000 marched against the police occupation last Saturday. Speaking on the House floor, Democratic Rep. Luis Gutiérrez of Illinois condemned the crackdown on Puerto Rican students.

Rep. Luis Gutiérrez: “I want to talk to you today about a part of the world where the rights of citizens of all walks of life to protest and speak their minds is being denied, with clubs and pepper spray, a part of the world where a student strike led the university to ban student protests anywhere, anytime on campus, and where, when the students protested the crackdown on free speech, they were violently attacked by heavily armed riot police. What faraway land has seen student protests banned, union protesters beaten, and free speech advocates jailed? The United States of America’s colony of Puerto Rico.”