Public Opinion
The strikers took advantage of the situation to resist additional graduation requirements such as tougher examinations and time limits for graduation. When this resistance became more widely known among the general public, community support decreased and the press turned their backs on the strikers.
On June 2, after three months of the strike, president of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo spoke about the importance of the issue and what he termed the "brutal aggression against the university that is hurting the enormous majority who want to study to get ahead". The next day, about fifteen thousand students held a rally at a stadium in Ciudad Universitaria to support the strike and hurl insults at Barnés. The same day, female professors held banners on overpasses asking motorists to turn on their lights if they opposed the strike; thousands did so.
Strikers took their public displays to the heart of Mexico City, interrupting traffic for hours. City residents blamed Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, then Head of Government of the Federal District and hopeful Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) presidential candidate in the 2000 elections, since many former student activists were members of the PRD. By the end of the semester only about 162,500, or 65% of the student population, were able to complete their work for the semester.
Consulta, a polling firm, estimated an 83% of community support to the raise in tuition before the strike, versus only 55% support after the strike began.
Read more about this topic: 1999 UNAM Strike
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