Video shows armed Cuban police breaking up student protest
By JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@elnuevoherald.com
Cuban anti-riot squads, with bayonets fixed on assault rifles, broke up
a protest by Pakistani students at a medical school in Matanzas earlier
this year, videos of the strike show.
``Our hand will not tremble in the face of any violence,'' a Cuban
official is heard warning the striking students in the video, broadcast
in the ``Maria Elvira Live'' program on MegaTV.
The Cuban official also says it was the second strike by the Pakistanis,
and that 15 leaders of the latest protest would be removed from the
campus and flown home.
The video shows black-clad anti-riot units pushing back a group of
students, but no violence during the protest, which apparently took
place earlier this year.
Their equipment included tear gas canisters, bayonets fixed on
Kalashnikov assault rifles, riot batons, dogs and helmets.
The protest took place at the Jaguey Grande Medical School, where nearly
900 Pakistanis have been studying under a scholarship agreement
negotiated following a devastating earthquake in Pakistan in 2005.
The video, apparently taken on cellphones, does not explain the reasons
for the protest, but a Pakistani student website reported in March that
a student strike in Cuba was sparked by the deficient medical education
and living conditions.
It was not clear if that was the same protest shown in the video, which
a ``Maria Elvira Live'' staffer said was received from a Cuban source.
The first part of the video was broadcast Wednesday, and the second is
to be broadcast Thursday night.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/09/1816183/video-shows-armed-cuban-police.html
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