The university autonomy that failed

The case of the only public university of Guatemala

Abstract

Students, faculty, and administrative staff from the San Carlos University of Guatemala (USAC) have been occupying the educational centers of the country for more than 300 days. They protest against the electoral fraud to the rectory, the last chapter in the loss of autonomy of the university. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. It was the straw that broke the camel's back in a country where almost 60% of the population lives below the poverty line, only 4% can access higher education and less than 1% obtain a postgraduate degree. This article reviews, through the collection of testimonies from the USAC, one more example of the loss of autonomy of public universities in Latin America, increasingly weaker due to co-optation by corruption, mafias and criminal organizations, and oligarchies, in this specific case, in Guatemala.