Cruel emblem: Mexico, the 43, and the 116,000
Dear friends,
September 26 marked a decade since the forced disappearance of 43 students of the Ayotzinapa teacher's college in Mexico in 2014. This is a case that became emblematic of the crisis of forced disappearance and paramilitary/criminal governance in the country and was covered by media throughout the world. As I wrote in a report for The Nation:
"As the AMLO [Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose presidential term just ended] administration retreated further and further from its commitments to resolve the case, the emblem of Ayotzinapa as an electoral device for Morena was emptied of its hope for justice for the disappeared, becoming instead a testament to the state’s abject refusal to meet even the most morally urgent demands of its people. There is little evidence that AMLO’s successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, plans to do anything differently. As a people’s struggle, however, Ayotzinapa will endure 'hasta encontrarles', as the movement slogan goes: until the disappeared are found."
I was interviewed about Ayotzinapa by the excellent Priya Kunjan for 3CR's Thursday Breakfast (in two parts), and a while back on the Obscuro podcast.
I also recommend the following recent reporting in English:
- Ten Years of Impunity: AMLO and the Betrayal of Ayotzinapa by John Gibler
- Ten Days of Indifference by Madeleine Wattenbarger
In the eye of the hurricane(s)
It's been even rougher than usual in the state of Guerrero, home of the Ayotzinapa school and the families of the missing, which include many more than the 43, who all bleed profusely into the whole number of disappeared in Mexico which is currently estimated at 116,000; more than 50,000 of these during the AMLO administration.
Hurricane John hit the coast of Guerrero on Friday September 26, destroying many rebuilding efforts from Hurricane Otis then less than one year ago. When the 'zombie storm' came back on Saturday September 27 I was in the capital, Chilpancingo, where I'd arrived the day before with plans to report on anniversary events at the Ayotzinapa school. Access to the school had already been cut off due to landslides on the highway from John's first round. We were all glad that most of the parents were in Mexico City, where they marched on the National Palace of government, which became the story I reported from Chilpancingo. Then, in the first days of October the mayor of Chilpancingo, Alejandro Arcos Catalán, was brutally murdered just 6 days after taking office, his body displayed for all to see in the continuing battle between armed paramilitary/organized criminal groups and the political representatives and state security forces they make pacts with for control of the municipality.
RIP J'tatik Marcelo
Rough! One could say the same about Chiapas, where I live. Here in San Cristóbal de las Casas on October 20, Indigenous priest and beloved peacemaker J'tatik (Padre/Father) Marcelo Pérez Pérez was assassinated after Sunday mass. This has generated even graver concern about the prospects for peace in a place being torn apart by, among other forces, a resurgence of the organized paramilitary violence that the world learned about through the Zapatistas and the Abejas of Acteal.
More reporting on this to come, as the heaviness of this event moves into whatever comes next. I find I am taking inspiration where I can, like in the obstinate beauty of the mountains that surround this city, and in the invincibility of the human desire for a dignified life free of violence.
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