Cuba USA
- State Violence In Mexico And United States: Product Of Neoliberalism And Militarization
by David Brookssource La Jornanda Scholars, artists and activists held a forum at New York University to analyze the links between Mexico and the United States in the context of the violent events in Guerrero and demonstrations of protest against...
- Declaration Of Cuban Students In Solidarity With The Mexican Students
Source Juventud Rebelde Cuban students, faithful to our history of solidarity and internationalism, inspired by the example of Martí and the teachings of Fidel, strongly condemn the torture and crime and disappearances; we ratify that...
- Mexico Protests: Social Mobilization Versus Violence In The National University
By Javier FloresSource La Jornada These days two distinct forms of social reaction to the disappearance of students from the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa are being expressed.One of them is a form of spontaneous protest that shows the great dissatisfaction...
- Mexico Accounts For Its Oil But Not Its Disappeared: Un
Source telesur U.N. human rights official says the Mexican government ignored U.N. recommendations three years ago, questioning why the country can account for its oil stocks, but not its disappeared. A top United Nations human rights work group...
- Mexico Has Been In A State Of Crisis For Decades
By Deirdre Griswold Source Workers World Mexico continues to be rocked by massive protests after the disappearance of 43 students from the city of Iguala, Guerrero state, on Sept. 27. The youth had been handed over to local drug lords by police...
Cuba USA
Has popular outrage over Mexico’s violence finally reached a tipping point?
Source Panamerican Post
With protests in the wake of the Ayotzinapa disappearances raging across Mexico, analysts and observers are increasingly asking one question: has popular outrage over Mexico’s violence finally reached a tipping point?
Yesterday saw continued demonstrations, with protesters in Guerrero state setting fire to the state legislative building there, and students in Michoacan blocking roads and succeeding in temporarily shutting down access to the airport in Morelia, as Animal Politico reports. The day before, protesters in Acapulco did the same to roadways leading to the city’s airport.
Meanwhile, the wave of discontent with the level of violence in the country received an important endorsement from the Catholic Church. According to El Universal the Mexican Bishops’ Conference has released a statement expressing solidarity with the families of the missing 43 students and the other “thousands of anonymous victims,” and calling for an end to violence, disappearances and death.
The continued protests, which have shown no sign of stopping despite officials’ likely discovery of the 43 students’ remains and the arrest of those allegedly responsible for their murder, have led some to conclude that Mexico has reached the end of its patience for corruption and drug-fueled violence. More than one commentator -- see Ricardo Monreal Avila’s column cited in this recent Christian Science Monitor piece -- have referred to the current moment as “the drop that spilled the glass” or even the “real” Mexico’s Moment.
In Alma Guillermoprieto’s must-read overview of the disappearances for the New York Review of Books (which she has recently updated), the writer notes that it is unlikely the official explanation for the disappearances “will quell the relatives’ fury and pain, or soothe the outrage felt by so many Mexicans at the state of their country today.”
Writing for The New Yorker, Francisco Goldman offers a hopeful take on the near-daily protests in the country that have followed the disappearances, quoting the Mexican priest and human rights defender Alejandro Solalinde. From the New Yorker:
For Solalinde, the country’s turning point might have come during a five-hour meeting, on October 28th, between the family members of the missing students and the President in Los Pinos. The blunt talk and disappointment expressed by the families was widely publicized. “These were Mexico’s poorest people, who were used to imagining the President as someone unimaginably great. They discovered that our President is small. The little man of Los Pinos, small and weak. The myth of the strong government is falling. People see that our system is corrupt, decadent, weak. People are losing their fear of describing things as they are.”
Two sectors of society, Solalinde said, will drive change in Mexico: the youth and women. “These two, each on their own side, have been the most punished, abused, infiltrated, massacred, disappeared,” he said. “People are going to give their all. This movement isn’t going to stop.”
In spite of all the optimism regarding the potential for transformative change to come out of the protests, there is reason to be cautious. Mexico watchers said the same thing in 2011 about poet Javier Sicilia and his Caravan for Peace, which even succeeded in obtaining a televised exchange with then-President Felipe Calderon in which victims pleaded for an end to his failed security strategy. Very few substantial concessions then followed, which suggests outrage alone is not enough.
In an insightful column for El Universal, Mexican political scientist Mario Campos reaches the same conclusion. In order to make meaningful progress against impunity and insecurity, Campos argues that civil society organizations in the country must make sure that the protests are paired with legislative reforms. To him, this means “a kind of Pact for Mexico 2.0, only this time presented by citizens to the powers that be, and not the other way around as occurred in the first year of this government.”
- State Violence In Mexico And United States: Product Of Neoliberalism And Militarization
by David Brookssource La Jornanda Scholars, artists and activists held a forum at New York University to analyze the links between Mexico and the United States in the context of the violent events in Guerrero and demonstrations of protest against...
- Declaration Of Cuban Students In Solidarity With The Mexican Students
Source Juventud Rebelde Cuban students, faithful to our history of solidarity and internationalism, inspired by the example of Martí and the teachings of Fidel, strongly condemn the torture and crime and disappearances; we ratify that...
- Mexico Protests: Social Mobilization Versus Violence In The National University
By Javier FloresSource La Jornada These days two distinct forms of social reaction to the disappearance of students from the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa are being expressed.One of them is a form of spontaneous protest that shows the great dissatisfaction...
- Mexico Accounts For Its Oil But Not Its Disappeared: Un
Source telesur U.N. human rights official says the Mexican government ignored U.N. recommendations three years ago, questioning why the country can account for its oil stocks, but not its disappeared. A top United Nations human rights work group...
- Mexico Has Been In A State Of Crisis For Decades
By Deirdre Griswold Source Workers World Mexico continues to be rocked by massive protests after the disappearance of 43 students from the city of Iguala, Guerrero state, on Sept. 27. The youth had been handed over to local drug lords by police...