The interim chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Miguel Muñoz, notified the El Josco Bravo Agroecology School on October 4 that he was canceling the collaboration agreement that let the school train new farmers at the Finca Alzamora in Mayagüez and at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Gurabo. In a brief communication, the new administration cited its displeasure with the large number of participants, the use of parking lots and classrooms, and visits by third parties to university grounds.
The school said it was caught by surprise and has had no direct communication with the interim chancellor since he took office a few months ago. The agreement was signed in 2016 by Raúl Macchiavelli, former dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences, and renewed in 2024, keeping the school on campus for 10 years and at Gurabo for nine, during which it trained more than 500 new ecological farmers.
School director Ian Pagán Roig, a Mayagüez alumnus, expressed frustration that the agreement ended under an agriculture professor, noting many UPRM agronomy graduates leave the country for lack of farm-sector opportunities. Professor Alana Toro-Ramos said the school restored the highly degraded Finca Alzamora plot over 10 years. The school says it remains willing to dialogue to resume the agreement.