1999 UNAM strike who signed a statement saying they could not afford the new rates. A group of students quickly organized a protest, on the grounds that thousands of students would have to see their studies interrupted unable to afford tuition. With the support of the community, UNAM was shut down temporarily by the protesters during part of February and also part of March 1999. Ultimately on April 20, 1999, this group referred to itself as the Comité General de Huelga (CGH or "Strike General Committee") and declared a continuing, if not permanent, closure of the university. In June 1999, the 132-member government
Xavier Cortés Rocha Xavier Cortés Rocha Xavier Cortés Rocha is a Mexican architect and urban planner. He was also rector of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) for a short time. He was born in Tampico. Cortés graduated in architecture and later in urban planning at the Escuela Nacional de Arquitectura of the UNAM. He continued his studies in Paris. After 1968 he taught at the UNAM. In 1999 he became Secretary General of the UNAM, and was interims UNAM president from 12 to 17 of November 1999. From 2001 to 2009 he was director of "Sitios y Monumentos del Patrimonio Cultural"