Hundreds of people marched in anger late Saturday to the Presidential Palace in Mexico’s capital after the government announced that the 43 students who disappeared seven weeks ago in the state of Guerrero have been murdered.
On Sept. 26, the students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal (teaching) School in the town of Ayotzinapa had traveled by bus to protest in the town of Iguala, 80 miles north. The students come from poor communities and the all-male school is known for its leftist outlook and political activism.
Acting on orders of the Iguala mayor, José Luis Abarca, and his wife María de los Ángeles Pineda, the local police fired on the youth, killing three students. As the remaining students fled, 43 were hunted down, captured and handed over to a notorious drug gang, Guerreros Unidos.
The mayor and his wife fled. After several days they were arrested in Mexico City for their role in the students’ disappearance.
For 43 days until yesterday, the parents of the students have kept a non-stop vigil, demanding their children be returned alive and denouncing President Enrique Peña Nieto for his inaction.
Tens of thousands of people in Mexico have marched in towns across the country for weeks with the slogan, “Vivos se los llevaron, vivos los queremos,” or “They took them alive, alive is how we want them.”
Yesterday, the Attorney General, Jesús Murillo Karam, announced to a packed press conference in Mexico City that three detained gang members of Guerreros Unidos confessed they murdered the students, incinerated them and scattered their ashes and bones into a river.
Murillo Karam ended the press conference saying, “I’m tired now.” (Ya me cansé.) That phrase has gone viral in the social media as #yamecanse. But this time, the people are tired of the murderous crimes without end.
The parents rejected the Attorney General’s claim when he said that identifying the remains may not be possible. Felipe, one of the parents and principal spokesperson, said, “As long as there is no proof, our sons are alive.”
The parents have reason to doubt. In the weeks since the students’ disappearance, dozens of bodies have been found in mass graves. None of them yet match the students’ DNA.
As Saturday’s march reached the presidential palace in the famous plaza, el Zócalo, the doors were torched, a sign of the national outrage felt by millions of Mexicans tired of the violence and brutal mass murder of the students.
In Chilpancingo, Guerrero’s capital, hundreds of students attacked the governor’s palace, throwing rocks and burning government cars.
Organizations and individuals are denouncing the government’s stance towards the drug cartels, which gives them impunity. Aided and abetted by police and military forces, this has led to an estimated 100,000 murders in Mexico in recent years.
Significantly, Jorge Ramos, a well-known Univision journalist and commentator from Mexico, effectively called for Peña Nieto’s resignation in a lengthy editorial several days ago.
A political crisis is unfolding for Peña Nieto’s government, who has done nothing to stem the wave of murders and remained silent for weeks in this latest massacre.
Adding to the national outrage is Peña Nieto’s insistence on traveling to China and Australia starting Sunday. Legislators of the three largest political parties are demanding he cancel his tour.
Mexico has been in a profound economic crisis for years now, with the NAFTA neo-liberal agreement wiping out much of the country’s national economy. Drug cartels have filled much of the void, growing enormously and creating terror in many regions of Mexico. Added to this is the huge market for drug consumption in the United States and the multi-billion-dollar money laundering by major U.S. banks of the drug profits.
More and more of Mexico’s state repressive apparatus — whether army or police or national guard — is joined with the criminal gangs in extortion and murder against the population.
The movement for justice for the 43 disappeared students and to uproot the intolerable crisis in Mexico has inspired youth protests and acts of solidarity in the United States and around the world.
Mexico’s popular struggle is growing in size and militancy, with the finger of blame pointing directly at the federal government.
We in the Party for Socialism and Liberation express our sympathies and fullest solidarity with the families of the students and the people of Mexico in their struggle for justice. We urge everyone to join in actions to demand Justice for Ayotzinapa.
