By The Star Staff
Union leaders Joselyn Velázquez Rodríguez, Eva Ayala and Josué Mitjá González were placed under arrest Monday during May Day protests in San Juan’s financial district after crossing a perimeter set up by police and blocking passage to Ponce de León Avenue.
Protesters and police officers clashed on Juan Ponce de León Avenue at the intersection with Roosevelt Avenue in Hato Rey. Police officers positioned themselves at the intersection, preventing the passage of protesters who wanted to reach the Seaborne building on Luis Muñoz Rivera Avenue, which is where the office of the Financial Oversight and Management Board is located.
Mitjá González is president of the Electrical Industry and Irrigation Workers Union (UTIER by its Spanish acronym), Velázquez Rodríguez is the general coordinator of Jornada: Se Acabaron Las Promesas, and Ayala is the president of Educamos.
Police officers warned the protesters that they could not pass in front of the Liberty building on the Golden Mile, a route for which the protesters claimed the right of way as they had used it in the past for marches to the Seaborne Building.
The detainees were taken to the Hato Rey Oeste police station, where they were processed and later released.
On the occasion of International Workers’ Day, various organizations marched from the Department of Labor and Human Resources in Hato Rey in the direction of the oversight board’s offices on the Golden Mile.
Francisco Santiago, a legal representative of Mitja González, reportedly said the Puerto Rico Police Bureau had not informed him regarding where the detainees were located during the demonstration, despite information indicating that they were at the Hato Rey Oeste barracks.
Santiago insisted that police were violating the rights of both the UTIER president and the other detainees by denying them access to the legal representation to which they are entitled.
The protesters left the intersection where the arrests took place to take another street in the direction of the Seaborne building. An individual in a green van made a close approach to the barricades placed by police, but eventually backed down.
In addition to the aforementioned, other organization participating in the protests included the Puerto Rico Teachers Association and Puerto Rico Teachers Federation, Puerto Rican Association of University Professors, General Workers Union, Brotherhood of Non-Teaching Exempt Employees, Puerto Rican Workers’ Syndicate, UNETE and Colectiva Feminista en Construcción.
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