Star

6 Monday, March 21, 2016 The San Juan Daily Star
Former Senate President Hernández Agosto Dies at 88
By JOHN MCPHAUL
jpmcphaul@gmail.com
The former president of the Puerto
Rico Senate, Miguel Hernández
Agosto, died Friday at the age
of 88 at Auxilio Mutuo Hospital in San
Juan, current Senate President Eduardo
Bhatia said.
“With much pain and sadness I receive
the news of the death today of don
Miguel Hernández Agosto.
The Senate and the country are in
mourning,” wrote Bhatia on his Twitter
page.
Hernández Agosto had been hospitalized
at the beginning of January
at the Río Piedras Medical Center after
suffering a fainting spell.
In August 2015, the former politician
had been hospitalized and operated
on for a brain clot which formed
after he fell at his home.
Serving as Senate president from
1981 to 1992, the former director of the
Popular Democratic Party left politics in
1996 after 26 years in the Legislature.
His widow, María Casanova, said
Hernández Agosto died at 4:15 in the
morning, after being hospitalized for
dehydration.
“I saw that he did not respond, the
doctor checked him, noticed a noise in
his lungs and said that we had to take
him to the hospital,” she said. “[His
condition] was very bad, very serious,
he lost consciousness. He had no movement.”
Casanova said Hernández Agosto
died “after fighting all his life like a
warrior, like a champion.”
“We had years of entering and
leaving the hospital,” she told Notiuno.
“He was a great person, a great husband.”
His remains will be transferred
to the Los Angeles Memorial funeral
home and possibly will lie in state in
the Capitol.
Miguel Hernández Agosto
Striking Students Picket Treasury, Call for Unified Front Across UPR System
By JOHN MCPHAUL
jpmcphaul@gmail.com
The University of Puerto Rico student
body began the third day of
an intercampus strike Friday under
the slogan “11 campuses, one UPR,”
forming a picket line in front of the island
Treasury Department at 6:30 a.m.
At around 6 a.m., Cybernews reported
that the students were gathered
in front of the main gate at the UPR Río
Piedras campus to march in a caravan
toward the Treasury to begin the demonstration.
The UPR student community is
demanding that the commonwealth
government take action to address the
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economic crisis and the crisis of governance
at the institution.
In various student general assemblies
last week a stoppage of 48 to 72
hours on seven campuses was agreed
to. The campuses that joined Río Piedras
were Humacao, Ponce, Utuado,
Bayamón, Arecibo and Mayagüez.
As student leader Coraly León
told Cybernews, the principal demands
are that Treasury make the
payments due the UPR, that Law 66 be
eliminated and that the government
lock in the 9.6 percent formula that
guarantees the public financing of the
UPR. The students have also demanded
the resignation of UPR President
Uroyoán Walker.
Though León said that Treasury
Secretary Juan Zaragoza has communicated
his willingness to meet with
the students, she added that “we want
a meaningful meeting.”
“We know that they are approaching
us for a meeting of a personal nature,
but we are not interested in such
a meeting,” León said. “We want a formal
meeting with representation from
the government and the UPR board of
governors,” the student leader said.
“We want that the space to be not only
for dialogue, but we also want it to be
a space where they can make decisions
and commit themselves to complying
with these agreements.”
The students have scheduled various
activities in the months of March
and April, especially holding an extraordinary
assembly to determine if
there will be a strike or an indefinite
stoppage if the government does not
accede to their demands.
“We will return from Holy Week
with a new perspective and renewed
force,” said Río Piedras student leader
Flores Hernández, who said she expects
more students from other campuses
to unite with the seven campus
on stoppage.
“Aguadilla did not join in the protest
or the stoppage, but they did make
statements in favor of demonstrations
that can be developed going forward,”
said Iván Vallés of the Mayaguez campus.
The student leaders emphasized
that, up to now, they have not communicated
with President Walker, though
they have been in contact with various
members of the board of governors.