Demanding greater respect from state authorities, around 50,000 students, faculty and employees from dozens of University of Guadalajara (UdeG) campuses and departments converged on the Plaza de la Liberacion Thursday morning.
The protest went off peacefully, despite an intense war of words from both sides in the days leading up to the demonstration.
Rector Ricardo Villanueva condemned the “dirty war” being waged against the university, saying the dispute with Governor Enrique Alfaro has “gone further” than his “illegal” decision to overrule Congress and withhold 140 million pesos in funding for the UdeG Social Sciences Museum, and was now about the “dignity” of the institution. Prior to the protest, Alfaro paid for insertions in local newspapers, in which he lashed out at “the powers that for 32 years have controlled the university, blackmailing, extorting and using the student community as a weapon to obtain a space for power, as well as for personal economic benefits.”