Number 401 |

Diciembre 2014

Mexico

Ayotzinapa shakes the country

Ayotzinapa has caused a political earthquake with constant aftershocks that reveal the cohabitation of the governing political
class and organized crime. It has put all the institutions in disarray and revealed how violence is destroying Mexico. The publics
opinion of who is responsible for this crime is clear: It was the State!

Jos Rubn Alonso Gonzlez

The Cocos tectonic plate in the Pacific Ocean south of the state of Guerrero continually pushes against the North American
plate with repercussions in central Mexico that make the country one of the most earthquake-prone areas of the world. On the
night of September 26-27, Guerreros Iguala municipality was the epicenter of an earthquake whose magnitude is still unclear
but it has shaken the country to its core, with aftershocks in all sectors of society and even international repercussions. This
earthquake has put the Mexican State, the governing class and official institutions in disarray because it has revealed the stark
truth about modern-day Mexico.

How they disappeared them

On the afternoon of September 26, a group of students from the Ral Isidro Burgos rural teacher training college in
Ayotzinapa, a community of the Tixtla municipality in Guerrero, went by truck to Iguala to raise funds for their educational,
cultural and political activities. One such activity was to participate in acts to commemorate the 46th anniversary of the October
2, 1968, Tlatelolco student massacre and oppose the launch of Mara de los ngeles Pineda Villas bid to succeed her husband,
Jos Luis Abarca Velzquez, as Igualas municipal president.
Leaving the city that night, they were intercepted by Iguala municipal police officers supported by Cocula municipal police at
different points near the Mexican Armys 27th Mounted Regiment and a federal police operational base. The police fired at the
youths, killing three immediately and seriously injuring two more. At least another 43 were arrested and taken to police facilities.
They then disappeared. According to the testimony of 22 Iguala municipal police and 14 Cocula officers arrested in connection
with the incident, the young people were handed over to members of Guerreros Unidos, one of the chief organized crime
groups in Guerrero and Morelos. Thirty-three days later, based on testimony by two detainees, the Attorney Generals Office
announced that the students had been murdered, their bodies burnt and the remains dumped in a river.

It was the State!

The events caused immediate national and international outrage. Mexico became the center of attention, particularly for
students from public and private institutions who expressed themselves through social media and took to the streets in a totally
horizontal, leaderless movement. They called for strikes in universities and other education institutes and were supported by
international solidarity with an increasing number of creative slogans such as those of the third #GlobalAction for Ayotzinapa on
November 20: What will a country harvest when it sows bodies?, It was the State!, They were taken alive, we want them
back alive!, We arent all here, 43 of us are missing!,, Wake up, were being massacred!,, I think, therefore I am
disappeared, Being young and revolutionary is a death sentence in Mexico, Dignified rage. Justice for Ayotzi and the people,
We dont understand this dialogue, We are all Ayotzinapa, Dont be indifferent to my pain, Justice for Ayotzinapa, The
country has been turned on its head, They wont disappear us, Stop state terrorism, They took everything from us, including
fear, I dont dance to the sound of repression, Tragedies dont only happen at the theater, Im a student and Ayotzinapa
hurts me, Their anger is ours too, Theres no justice in my country!, Shoot ideas, not bullets, Neither forgive nor forget!,
Assassins and police are the same scum! and The terror comes from the State!
Ayotzinapa reopened the cracks where violence hides. The students werent the only missing people. Official and extra-official
lists of disappeared, with and without names, reemerged. Edgar Cortez of the Mexican Human Rights and Democracy Institute
declared, Without doubt, the case of the missing 43 is set against the backdrop of thousands of people who have disappeared
since the last presidential period. The official figure is more than 22,000 missing people. There are other higher estimates but
even this official number is scandalous.

Tlatlaya set a precedent

A few days before the Ayotzinapa affair, accounts circulated that contradicted official versions of an alleged confrontation
between criminals and Army members in a grocery store in San Pedro Limn, a community of the municipality of Tlatlaya in
Mexico state in which 22 people died the night of June 30. An Associated Press report questioned whether there actually had
been such a confrontation. Survivors later testified that the dead were victims of an extrajudicial executions. With that the
National
Human
Rights
Commission
intervened
and
found
evidence
that
at
least 15 of the 22 dead had indeed been executed. It also found that evidence had been manipulated through pressure on

witnesses by Mexico state governor Eruviel vila, successor to President Pea Nieto.

Pea
There will be no impunity

Nieto:

After the Ayotzinapa affair had already become the subject of street protests, President Enrique Pea Nieto finally addressed
the matter during a tour of Irapuato, Guanajuato, in central Mexico, mistakenly identifying Iguala as a state, not a municipality.
This slip was later corrected in the official version of his declarations.
Regrettably we cant ignore the events that have unquestionably caused great outrage in the municipality of Iguala, in the state
of Guerrero, he said. Last Monday, I spoke about and made clear to the public the instructions that the national government
has given regarding this matter, which has caused consternation and outrage not only here in Mexico, but also in different parts
of the world where people have expressed their condemnation and outrage about what happened in Iguala. This was a truly
inhuman, virtually barbarous act that cannot distinguish Mexico nor can such events as those in Iguala happen. For that reason,
I clearly indicated recently that I have met with the national government Public Security Cabinet to speed up our work so we can
deepen the investigation and find those responsible. This act cannot go unpunished. In brief, there is no room for even the
smallest degree of impunity.
We have to deepen the investigation and, no matter what, find those responsible, those who by their negligence or deliberate
acts allowed or covered up what happened in Iguala and unfortunately, if confirmed, the death of these young students. These
events, the facts being brought to light, the discovery of bodies in the graves that have been found make clear the degree of
barbarity and the inhuman character of this event in Iguala. This event is a stain on the collective, national struggle to bring
greater progress and development to Mexico. It causes outrage, so the President of the Republic is the first to express his
support for the justifiable demands for a full investigation and, more than anything, the identification of those responsible.
These are the instructions I have given to the Security Cabinet members so they speed up their work, their investigations, and
Mexican society can know very soon who was responsible for these painful, lamentable and simply unacceptable events. This is
the national governments firm commitment: to work diligently in full coordination with other government levels, by which I mean
state and municipal, each assuming its responsibility.
By calling on local governments to assume their responsibilities, the President was seen to be making an initial attempt to set
limits on the federal governments responsibilities.

We demand an immediate response

A month after the events, on October 29, Pea Nieto received the missing students parents and other relatives in Los Pinos
presidential residence. At the end of the meeting, he signed ten commitments and agreements and offered to renew the search
plan for the students, establish a mixed independent commission to investigate the events and implement a program to restore
the dignity of the countrys rural teacher training colleges as regards their infrastructure and other aspects, and provide them
with technical participatory support, as well as interim measures requested by the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights (IACHR).
A few days later, a video of the participation of one of the parents in the meeting with Pea Nieto was posted on YouTube. His
speech summed up everyones feelings and the raison dtre of the rural teacher training colleges as he called on the President
for action:
My name is Felipe de la Cruz Sandoval. My son was involved in the events at Iguala. Thankfully, he was one of the few who
escaped the polices criminal actions.
I hope you have listened carefully to the demands of each of the parents. In the first meeting we had with the interior secretary
and the attorney general, they asked us to trust them. I replied that I couldnt personally trust them. I hope they remember that I
didnt trust them and I still dont. Why? Because more than 30 days have gone by with no results, despite all the efforts you say
you are making. The truth is that the young peoples faces are here, and if my son hadnt been talking to me when these acts
were being committed, he too would be in the photo. Thank God he had the chance to call me just when they were being shot
at. He was with his classmate, Aldo, the student who is now in a coma. When his friend fell wounded he started shouting that
they were students.
We have definitely reached the limit of our tolerance and patience. We are using our final recourse as Mexicans to demand that
you, Mr. President, immediately respond, presenting the 43 missing youths to us.

Theyve killed potential teachers

Sandoval continued: What happens to the Mexican Armys role when it meets young people full of enthusiasm to become
professionals? If you dont know what a rural teacher training college is, then I can tell you that the Ayotzinapa Rural Teaching
Training College has a history of creating rural teachers who go to work with the people in the most far-flung communities.
Theyve killed potential teachers who could have helped in the countrys development. They destroyed their dream of becoming
professionals and their parents dreams of a better life together with their children.
I dont believe you cant give us an answer yet. How many days has the federal government waited to take up the case? Here,
today, we are giving you two or three days, no more, to give us concrete results. The students arent in the mass graves.
Definitely not. There are already too many bodies. Not 43, many more than that and to us that means that our children are alive.
They are alive and we want to see them alive. Our agony has been going on a long time. If you now see the anger and
desperation of each of the parents, I dont think you are going to sleep easily anymore. There are 43 youths disappeared by
force by members of the Iguala Preventive Police, with a municipal president you knew. You politicians know who each other is
and get along very well. So Mr. President, were demanding, the Mexican people demand, that you provide immediate answers.

If you dont, if youre unable to respond, well have to appeal to international bodies.
The first point that came out of our meeting with the interior secretary and attorney general about a month ago is the same thing
were demanding today. More than 20+ days later the answer hasnt changed: Theres no news, we havent found them. But
theres no real search. All the parents who have gone with them have told us they walk around a bit and come back without
finding them. Starting from today we want youif you truly accept your responsibility and that of the people who appointed you,
because I didnt vote that timeto definitively answer those who voted for you, because many people here voted for you trusting
they were going to have a President of Mexico. This, then, is the demand: immediate answers. No more pretending to look for
them in mass graves. They arent in the graves, theyre alive. Who took our children? The police.

The fall of Igualas governing couple

A week earlier, on October 23, Guerrero governor ngel Aguirre Rivero stepped down, formally requesting a leave of absence,
following protests, demonstrations, highway roadblocks and fires that damaged Guerreros legislative and government buildings
and shopping centers. The local congress designated Rogelio Ortega, the Autonomous University of Guerreros former
secretary general, as interim governor in his place.
Six days after Pea Nietos meeting with the missing students relatives, the attorney general announced that Igualas now exmunicipal president Jos Luis Abarca and his wife Mara de los ngeles Pineda had been located and arrested at a house in
Ixtapalapa, Federal District, which, like Guerrero, is governed by the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). Abarca had
requested a leave of absence from his position on September 30, three days after the students went missing. He promptly
disappeared and a search began for him as a suspect in the murder of PRD member Arturo Hernndez Corona back in May of
last year. His wife was also sought in connection with an investigation into the financial operators of the criminal group Los
Beltrn Leyva. Other investigations related to the couple were also begun.
In the opinion of the priest Alejandro Solalinde, the Abarcas were not actually arrested in the Federal District. He thinks they
were arrested in Veracruz and subsequently planted in the Federal District. Images published by the attorney general of the
arrest of the Abarcas and their transfer and presentation to the press have been posted on social media. In those pictures, it is
notable that they had changed clothes, suggesting that the arrest had been staged.

Ive had enough of this

Despite these two eventsa political casualty and supposed arrestsin the pursuit of justice, social pressure and protests
havent died down. Rather, the focus of attention has shifted from Guerrero to the Federal District, the presidential residence and
the National Palace.
On November 7, just before Pea Nieto left for China and Australia, Attorney General Jess Murillo Karam met again with the
parents and other relatives of the missing students, this time in the hangar of the Iguala airport, to inform them about the
investigations. He then went back to Mexico City where he announced the investigations findings: the students had been
murdered, their bodies incinerated and the remains thrown into a river.
The press conference, which ended with the attorney general replying to the last question by saying Ive had enough of this,
led to thousands of candle-carrying young people descending on the Angel of the Independence monument in Mexico City to
renew hope and demand justice. They took up the attorney generals words Ive had enough of this, directing them as a chant
against him and Pea Nieto in front of the attorney generals offices and in the Zcolo. A group of agitators that mixed with the
crowd threw Molotov cocktails at the main doors of the National Palace, for some reason unguarded that night, causing them to
crack.
By then, Pea Nieto, en route to China, took advantage of a layover in Alaska to condemn the violence: It is unacceptable that
anybody should use this tragedy to justify violence. You cant demand justice with violence. I say again, Ayotzinapa is a call to
unity, reflection, peace and harmony; to identify mechanisms that will let us overcome institutional weaknesses but, more than
anything, to do that in peace and social harmony. We the Mexican people reject violence.
A day later, both the Aristegui Noticias team and Proceso magazine published a feature on the luxurious home of Pea Nietos
wife, Televisa soap opera actress Anglica Rivera. The house, valued at 86 million pesos (over US$5.8 million), was built by
Grupo Higa, one of the companies that won the contract to build the fast train line from Mexico City to Quertaro and also did
construction work for Pea Nieto in Mexico state when he was governor. The news caused more public outcry, mixed with ironic
and mocking commentary.

There are people who want to provoke instability

On November 16, on Pea Nietos return from Asia, where he had participated in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum,
he responded to a question about the attempt to set fire to the National Palace: We will use all possible means for dialogue,
reconciliation and openness to avoid the use of force to reestablish order. Force is the means of last resort but the State has the
right to use it when all other means to establish order have failed. I am seeking and hope that it wont be necessary for the
government to have to act in this way in this case or for us to reach the point where we have to use the security forces.
Two days later, on a tour of Mexico state, the President took a stronger position, complaining about the criticism of his wife
because of her luxurious white house. In his view, the unrelenting public demonstrations were evidence of a desire to
destabilize his nation-building project: We have seen that, under cover of this pain, the parents suffering and the public
consternation caused by the painful and horrific events that investigations have shown took place in Iguala, violent movements
are trying to justify their protests under the shield of this pain. Protests whose objectives arent always clear. It would seem they
are motivated by a desire to cause instability, to generate public disorder and, more than anything, to undermine the national
project we have been promoting.
This was the first time Pea Nieto had claimed to have a national project. After nearly two years in government, the only thing
close to this is the Pact for Mexico signed on December 2, 2012, by the three main national political parties, the Institutional

Revolutionary Party (PRI), National Action Party (PAN) and the PRD. It has three main lines of action: strengthening the State,
democratizing the economy and politics by widening and effectively applying social rights, and the participation of citizens as key
actors in public policy design, implementation and evaluation. These three lines of action have in fact led to constitutional
reforms in education, energy, telecommunications, political and electoral transparency, justice, economic competition, and
treasury and financial matters. What they lead to in practice remains to be seen.

Pea, Mexico hates you!

Public outrage and protest continued to grow. In the run-up to the 104th anniversary of the Mexican revolution on November 20,
calls circulated on social networks for one more #GlobalAction for Ayotzinapa in solidarity with the parents of the missing
students, who had begun an information caravan through the country the previous week that was due to end in the capital. In
response, the Dept. of the Interior announced the cancellation of the traditional sports parade that terminates in the Zcalo in
front of the National Palace. On the 20th, more than 250,000 mostly young people marched from different parts of Mexico City,
with no major incidents. There were demonstrations in more than half of the country that centered their attention on Enrique
Pea Nieto.

There are dangerous mafias in this country

Two days later the National Indigenous Congress and the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) issued a statement about
the events in Ayotzinapa: We know that while the country is governed by criminals led by the supreme paramilitary leader,
Enrique Pea Nieto, those who raise awareness educating and defend education are murdered and disappeared and those who
protect water supplies for heroic, ancient people like the Yaqui tribe are in jail. The Mexican government is trying to minimize the
criminal repression against our student comrades as though they were just more crime victims, just as they have time and again
throughout the country. Just a few more deaths to be reported by the media, but we peoples who have suffered many types of
repression know that there are criminals in all the political parties, in the House and the Senate, in municipal presidencies and in
government palaces.
There are dangerous mafias in this country that call themselves the Mexican State. From their point of view we get in their way,
those of us who are the peoples who fight, who have been faceless and whose faces have been ripped off to make sure we
understand, we who are nobody, who see and suffer violence, who suffer multiple, simultaneous attacks, who know that
something bad, very bad is happening in this county, something called war, which is being waged against everyone. It is a war
that can be seen and is being suffered in its full dimensions by those at the bottom of society.

The bishops speak: Enough is enough!

On November 12, the Mexican bishops collectively addressed the issue and established their position during their second
annual assembly: We, the Mexican bishops, declare: Enough is enough! We want no more blood. We want no more deaths.
We want no more disappearances. We want no more pain or shame. As Mexicans, we share the pain and suffering of the
families whose children are dead or missing in Iguala and Tlatlaya along with the thousands of anonymous victims in different
parts of our country. We add our voices to the widespread demands that truth and justice bring about a deep transformation of
the institutional, judicial and political order in Mexico, ensuring that events like these are never again repeated.
In the midst of this crisis, we find hope in the awakening of civil society that, as never before during recent years, has protested
against corruption, impunity and the complicity of some public officials. We believe it is necessary to move from protest to
proposals. Nobody should be waiting like a vulture to fill themselves on the remains of the country. We need a peaceful
approach to ensure that everyone can participate and to build a country for everybody, prioritizing dialogue and transparent
agreements, with no hidden interests.
We are at a critical point. What is at stake is a true democracy that guarantees strengthened institutions, the rule of law and
education, work and security for the younger generation that shouldnt be denied a decent future. We are all part of the solution
that requires us to renew our hearts and minds, to be capable of truly brotherly relationships, sincere friendship, harmony and
solidarity.

Even Pope Francis speaks

During a general audience on November 12, Pope Francis spoke for the second time about the case of the Ayotzinapa students:
Id like somehow to say that I am with the Mexicans, those present and those at home, in this painful moment of what is legally
speaking disappearance, but we know, the murder of the students. He called the killings visible proof of the dramatic reality of
crime that exists behind the selling and trafficking of drugs.
The first time Pope Francis commented on the events shaking Mexico was two weeks earlier, at the end of his general audience
in Saint Peters Square: Today, Id like to say a prayer and lead your hearts towards the people of Mexico, which is suffering
the disappearance of its students and so many other related problems. May our brotherly hearts stay close to them in prayer,
during this time.

The UN calls it inconceivable and the US worrisome

On October 29, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the US government considers the Ayotzinapa case worrisome and
should be investigated. The State Department had already demanded a transparent investigation at the beginning of the
month.
For his part, Ariel Dulitzky, the Chair-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, sees the
Ayotzinapa case as an extremely grave phenomenon adding that it is inconceivable that Mexico knows how much oil it
exports but cannot account for the number of disappeared people.

The epicenter: Ayotzinapa teacher training college

The Ral Isidro Burgos Rural Teacher Training College in Ayotzinapa is emblematic of these institutions. It was founded in
1926 through a program previously promoted by Education Secretary Jos Vasconcelos following the Mexican Revolution to

increase literacy through cultural campaigns and the training of basic education teachers in the most marginalized areas of the
country. Rural teacher training colleges were promoted Under President Lzaro Crdenas (1934-40), until more than 40 were
established in all parts of Mexico. Only 14 are still operational and all have limited budgets and depend on local government
funding following educational decentralization in Ernesto Zedillos administration (1994-2000).
Ayotzinapa has 39 teachers and 6 technical support staff for the 532 young people from peasant families who study there. It is
common for the students to conduct fundraising activities to pay for their educational and cultural activities by approaching local
people and highway travelers.
Ayotzinapa is a model of social struggle for Guerrero and Mexico in general. The rural teachers who trained there include Lucio
Cabaas Barrientos (1938-1974), Genaro Vzquez Rojas (1931-1972) and Othn Salazar Ramrez (1924-2008). All three
became revolutionary activists and both Vzquez and Cabaas became guerrilla fighters in the early seventies when Mexico
was engaged in the Dirty War against urban and rural social and revolutionary movements.

Guerrero: So poor, so violent

Guerrero stands out among Mexicos states in all negative indicators, according to the 2013 Mexican Democratic Development
Index, which is coordinated by the Confederacin Patronal de la Repblica Mexicana, an employers association, and promoted
and financed by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and PoliLa. With a score of 1.9 out of 10 for the four areas ratedrespect for
political rights and civil liberties, institutional quality, political efficiency and the effective exercise of power to governit is in next
to last place, better only than Tamaulipas.
Guerrero is one of the most violent and corrupt states in the country. With respect to security, it occupies the second worst place
in the national ranking and has the highest percentage of black numbers: unreported crimes. According to the 2014 National
Census of Victimization and Public Security Perception, conducted by the National Statistics and Geography Institute since
2011, 96.7% of crimes are not reported. In the remaining 3.3% of cases investigations are begun but only in 0.5% of the cases is
the alleged author brought before a judge.
And to top off its record, according to observations and studies conducted from 1990 to 2012 by the National Council for the
Evaluation of Social Development Policy, a decentralized body of the Federal Public Administration, Guerrero is the state with
the second highest proportion of poor people: 69.7%, only less than Chiapas where the proportion is 74.7%.

Mexico is still shaking

The social and political earthquake caused by Ayotzinapa has not yet ended. Mexico is shaking and the aftershocks of the
emergency generated by the tectonic plates of the cohabitation and alliance of the governing political class and organized
crime have produced a permanent shock.
In 2015, there will be local elections in more than half of the states as well as elections to renew the 500 members of the federal
House of Representatives. In nine of those states, including Guerrero, there will also be gubernatorial elections, and 16 local
congresses, the Federal District assembly, 933 local councils and 16 borough councils in the Federal District will be renewed.
As well as the gubernatorial race, Guerrero will renew its 81 local councils and elect 46 representatives, 28 directly and 18 by
proportional representation. Under the new electoral law, which is a product of the reform promoted by the Pact for Mexico, the
National Electoral Institute (INE), nee Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), now has greater powers to observe and intervene in local
elections from the make-up of the local electoral bodies to the management of the electoral process, which implies also being
able to observe the selection of candidates.
How will these candidates for governor, local legislators, federal representatives and municipal governments ask for votes when
the responsibility for current events is the system that maintains them, when the collective conscience has declared and
repeated it was the State?
Jos Rubn Alonzo Gonzlez is the head of the Social Sciences and Humanities Department of
the Atemajac Valley University (UNIVA), Zapopan, Jalisco.