Victory on Campus, Crisis in the Independence Movement: The Resolution of Anti-ROTC Conflict in the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, 1970–71

Since its founding in 1903, the University of Puerto Rico has been a key space for the growth and evolution of political and social movements in the archipelago. While known for its trajectories of anti-colonial activism, the institution relied on the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) for funds to grow and acquire legitimacy within US-American norms. Pro-independence organizations historically rejected military education, seeing it as a form of imperial intervention in Puerto Rican higher education. As anti-ROTC protest intensified in the context of global anti-Vietnam War movements, pro-independence student collectives would come to disagree on the degree to which their struggle would rely on violence to achieve their goals. This paper will explore the evolution of the anti-ROTC campaigns of two pro-independence organizations, the Federación de Universitarios Pro-Independencia (Federation of University Students for Independence/FUPI) and the Juventud Independentista Universitaria (Pro-Independence University Youth/JIU), from 1970-1971. I argue that these groups’ anti-ROTC efforts mirrored evolving approaches to confrontation within the Puerto Rican independence movement off campus. As administrators protected military education and called on law enforcement to curb student dissent, the FUPI, which was aligned with the anti-electoral Pro-Independence Movement, would come to see clashes with colonial state institutions as a key component of the struggle for the archipelago’s national liberation. Meanwhile, the JIU, which collaborated with the Puerto Rican Independence Party, would argue that violence delegitimized the struggle for Puerto Rican independence and hinder the growth of their ranks. This paper will show how the FUPI and the JIU’s differing postures shed light on both internal clashes within nation-wide pro-independence collectives and the ways in which activists responded to increasing government repression. These disagreements would change the course of activism both on campus and nationally, affecting the effectiveness of pro-independence actions, preventing collaborations, and shifting organizational membership.