UNAM. Viva México, viva en paz.
We have had terrible months in Mexico; I don’t know how much has appeared about our country in the international media. The last incidents started on the last days of September, when 43 students at a school for rural teachers were forcefully disappeared (in our Latin American countries, this means they were taken by force and no authority can yet prove whether they are alive or dead; forceful disappearance is one of the saddest and most recognized traits of the brutal military dictatorships South America had in the 1970s) in the Iguala region (Guerrero state, South of the country) and three were killed on site. An Army regiment was stationed few blocks from there and refused to help.
And yes, we live in a country where (incredibly) this news by themselves would not seem so unheard of… But in this case, there is ample evidence they were taken by the local police forces, not by a gang of (assumed) wrongdoers. And they were handed over to a very violent gang afterwards. Several weeks later, with far from a thorough investigation, we were told they were killed, burnt and thrown to a river.
The Iguala city major ran away, and was later captured, but it’s not clear why he was captured at two different places. The Guerrero state governor resigned and a new governor was appointed. But this was not the result of a single person behaving far from what their voters would expect — It’s a symptom of a broken society where policemen will kill when so ordered, where military personnel will look away when pointed out to the obvious, where the drug dealers have captured vast regions of the country where are stronger than the formal powers.
And then, instead of dealing with the issue personally as everybody would expect, the president goes on a commercial mission to China. Oh, to fix some issues with a building company. That coincidentally or not was selling a super-luxury house to his wife. A house that she, several days later, decided to sell because it was tarnishing her family’s honor and image.
And while the president is in China, the person who dealt with the social pressure and told us about the probable (but not proven!) horrible crime where the “bad guys” for some strange and yet unknown reason (even with tens of them captured already) decided to kill and burn and dissolve and disappear 43 future rural teachers presents his version, and finishes his speech saying that “I’m already tired of this topic”.
Of course, our University is known for its solidarity with social causes; students in our different schools are the first activists in many protests, and we have had a very tense time as the protests are at home here at the university. This last weekend, supposed policemen entered our main campus with a stupid, unbelievable argument (they were looking for a phone reported as stolen three days earlier), get into an argument with some students, and end up firing shots at the students; one of them was wounded in the leg.
And the university is now almost under siege: There are policemen surrounding us. We are working as usual, and will most likely finish the semester with normality, but the intimidation (in a country where seeing a policeman is practically never a good sign) is strong.
And… Oh, I could go on a lot. Things feel really desperate and out of place.
Today I will join probably tens or hundreds of thousands of Mexicans sick of this simulation, sick of this violence, in a demonstration downtown. What will this achieve? Very little, if anything at all. But we cannot just sit here watching how things go from bad to worse. I do not accept to live in a state of exception.
So, this picture is just right: A bit over a month ago, two dear friends from Guadalajara city came, and we had a nice walk in the University. Our national university is not only huge, it’s also beautiful and loaded with sights. And being so close to home, it’s our favorite place to go with friends to show around. This is a fragment of the beautiful mural in the Central Library. And, yes, the University stands for “Viva México”. And the university stands for “Peace”. And we need it all. Desperately.
Comments
gwolf 2014-11-25 05:44:15
Sin mucho que agregar…
No quería dejar tu mensaje sin responder… Pero tampoco se cómo responder. El tema es increíble, y parte de eso es el dejarnos sin palabras a los que lo vemos desde las gradas. Y por suerte, sólo desde las gradas. Nos deja sin cómo hablar u opinar, porque trasciende nuestra lógica, trasciende lo humano.
Maria 2014-11-21 21:34:06
Este tema lo sigo con
Este tema lo sigo con especial atencion desde este lado del charco. Me entristece desde mi faceta como abogado, ya que no concibo como cada vez, a pesar de lo avanzados que creemos estar en algunos aspectos de la sociedad, cada dia hay mas atrocidades contra quien realmente deberia ser el centro y la razon de todo que son las personas y en especial jovenes y niños porque son nuestro futuro. Me horroriza ver que tampoco es el unico ni tristemente sera el ultimo caso de vulneracion de los derechos inherentes a la condicion humana, etre ellos el derecho a mostrarse disconforme con lo que se percibe o considera contrario a la ley sea esta una ley positiva o basada en la costumbre o en la equidad. Me causa estupor la pasividad de autoridades que deberian perseguir con saña a autores materiales en intelectuales de crimenes que considero son de lesa humanidad. Que estan recogidos en codigos penales internacionales y de todo el mundo como los mas atroces que se pueden cometer. Me duele el alma como madre de pensar que hay, en una parte del mundo que considero un pais maravilloso y admirable, 43 madres que han perdido a sus hijos y que no saben si alguna vez van a poder tener un cuerpo que poder enterrar para tener un duelo sano por la muerte mas contranatura que existe que es la de un hijo que no sobrevive a sus padres. Y como nacional de un pais donde no hace tanto tiempo pasaban cosas similares y aun no ha podido cerrar sus heridas me causa frustracion darme cuenta que el ser humano es una criatura que cada vez se valora y respeta menos a si misma y a sus iguales. Un fuerte abrazo desde el corazon, aunque ahora mismo el mio no lata feliz sino triste y enfurecido.
