The city of Neuquén, “Capital of Human Rights”, a non-arbitrary statement that has historical precedents over the years. In this chapter we are going to deal with a struggle that the students of the then Provincial University of Neuquén faced during 1970.
In December of that year, hundreds of students, teachers and graduates started a hunger strike against the atrocities that occurred during the de facto government and in demand of the nationalization of the house of higher education.
They maintained that until it was nationalized, The entire university community would enjoy fewer rights than in the rest of the universities in the country. That day in December, the visit of the de facto president, Roberto Levingston, was scheduled. The provincial government called for official events and declared an administrative holiday.
The students decided to move their protest tothe steps of the Cathedral so that the presidential motorcade had to pass in front of them. When that happened, Levingston asked for his car to be stopped. He approached the students to question them about the conflict, and they turned their backs on him without answering, shouting in unison. “Action, action, nationalization.”
The episode, published in national newspapers and magazines, was known as “El Espaldazo”, a more than clear gesture in defense of Human Rights.