Borderland Beat by DD
The marches and protests continue. Yesterday, Dec. 1, was the second anniversary of EPN’s assumption of power and the streets of Mexico City filled with thousands of people demanding the safe return of the 43 Ayotzinapa normal school students and the resignation of President Enrique Pena Nieto.
The march started from the central plaza, the Zocolo, at 3:PM and proceeded to the Angel of Independence where a stage had been set up. The march was led by the parents of the Ayotzinapa students and contingents were still arriving at 9:PM. The march was peaceful and included 5 observers from the UN High Commissioners Office, as well as inspectors of the National and Federal District Human Rights Commissions were also in attendance.
During the march yells of "We've had it up to here with this government!” were heard frequently. A man with a loud speaker repeated the mantra "The 43 was the straw that broke the camel's back. The 43 was the spark that ignited the fuse." “Out with Pena Nieto” was the common refrain.
Whether the seemingly continuous marches over the last 2 months has had anything to do with it or not, the marchers seem invigorated by the latest poll numbers of the EPN. Results from the latest presidential poll released yesterday showed Pena Nietos “favorable” rating had fallen to 38%.
Some 60 other anti-government protests rocked Mexico yesterday and saw solidarity from the rest of the world. In the border cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, activists cooperated to block the international bridge. Solidarity marches and activities were also held in Frankfurt, Los Angeles, Montreal, Cordoba, London and Brussels, among others.
Upon arriving at the plaza of the Angel of Independence Clemente Rodríguez, representing parents of the Ayotzinapa students, opened the round of speeches. Mothers, fathers and brothers of the disappeared, eyes overflowing with an infinite sadness, insisted that since the night of September 26 they do not want to eat and cannot sleep, because they wonder if their sons will be fed, if they will be tortured and only faith remains of recovering them alive.
Clemente told the crowd that; "We're all looking for them. (Former governor) Ángel Aguirre offered us a lot of money, but we told him to go to hell."
He also recalled the times they have met with Peña Nieto and Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, Secretary of Government Relations [SEGOB], without favorable results. When he added,
"Peña Nieto has to resign," the people started chanting,"Out Peña!"
Two representatives of the IPN [National Polytechnic Institute] read a lengthy statement in which they ask the society to begin to organize and prepare the national strike. The students joined in shouting for Peña's resignation, but they extended it by adding: "Everyone Get Out!"
The National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers (CNTE) announced a massive mobilization on Thursday, December 6th [Centennial Celebration of the entrance into Mexico City of Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa, heroes of the Mexican Revolution].
The National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers (CNTE) announced a massive mobilization on Thursday, December 6th [Centennial Celebration of the entrance into Mexico City of Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa, heroes of the Mexican Revolution].
Feminists also showed up carrying a huge collage made up of photos and names of each of the 43 disappeared. Representatives of Amnesty International and Greenpeace also marched.
People from Atenco , where a brutal assault on protestors took place when EPN was Governor of the state of Mexico, clambered up the stairs to the stage with their machetes held high. Painted on the blades was the slogan:
"Alive they took them, alive we want them back!"
Activists also demanded an end to government repression, the release of all political prisoners, and the exoneration of members of social movements whose cases have not yet been decided.
There were banners demanding justice for Juan Francisco Kuy Kendall, who died in the hospital eleven months after being shot in the head by the police with a supposedly non-lethal projectile during an anti-Peña Nieto protest two years ago.
They also demanded justice for Teodulfo Torres, aka “El Tio,” who was by Kuy’s side when he was shot, and who has not been seen since the day he was scheduled to testify in court about the attack on his friend.
This time there were no police protecting hotels and offices; instead, metal fences had been set up.
At about 8:00 p.m., the rally concluded after the protesters solemnly sang the National Anthem.
BUT THEN THE VIOLENCE AND REPRESSION STARTED
As the marchers dispersed and started their trek home, a tiny group of no more than 40 people, with their faces covered, carrying sticks, stones and firecrackers, began to wreak havoc on Florence Street.
The subjects were causing damage along Reforma Boulevard near Chapultepec-Centro. They set fire to some establishments, broke windows at banks and other businesses, and threw Molotov cocktails. This caused mobilization of hundreds of riot police, who made several arrests.
People returning to their homes were yelling "Fascists!" and "Paid by Peña" and "Infiltrators" and "Provocateurs" in addition to chanting: "No violence, no violence" referring to the trouble makers.
Many protesters panicked when the riot police appeared. The hooded ones ran toward the streets of Juárez neighborhood, while hundreds of people who were demonstrating peacefully, mostly college students, tried to organize to undertake a withdrawal as a contingent.
Among themselves, they shouted:
"Don't run! Everyone stay together!"
But just in front of the Senate building, about 400 youths were surrounded by the police.
The university students demanded:
"No violence, no violence."
Others confronted the riot police by shouting and claiming their right to freedom of expression.
On Paris Street dozens of uniformed forces tried to surround other university students, who managed to escape through a hole in the police ranks. Angered, the riot police threw punches trying to detain anyone in front of them. At that moment, they beat a woman who was passing by with her husband and sons.
A policeman hit her on the head several times with his baton until she collapsed. Three youths tried to defend the woman named Rosalinda Rojas Nieves, but other uniformed troops attacked and managed to detain them.
While there is no way right now to know who instigated the violence after the march and rally, the people involved in the peaceful demonstrations are justified in suspecting the government is behind these incidents of violence in order to discredit the demonstrators and give the public the impression that the marches are merely the actions of anarchists trying to destabilize the government.
That was the allegation made by EPN after the November 20 demonstration where attempts were made to burn the door to burn the door to the Presidential Palace. However, videos of that incident surfaced and has caused an investigation of the role of a General of the Army who was shown on the videos in plain clothes among the masked trouble makers. There is a growing suspicion that the government covertly instigated the violence to justify using force against the protesters.
The people also have not forgotten the massacre in 1968 at La Plaza de las Tres Culturas at Tlatelolco, where over 300 people, mostly students, were slaughtered by government forces. The government claimed that the unarmed students initiated the violence by firing into the mass of troops surrounding the plaza. History has brought out the truth that government snipers on top of buildings nearby fired into the troops to get them to attack the students. The government claimed it was only responding to the violence of the students and 20 “anarchists” were killed. Witness accounts and videos have shown that hundreds were killed. Some just disappeared that day.
The governments motive for attacking the demonstrators? The 1968 Olympic games were scheduled to start in 10 days and the government wanted no more protest to mar Mexico’s image. They pretty well succeeded in squelching the student movement at the time. No more demonstrations were held for a long time thereafter.