Borderland Beat Posted by DD Republished From KSAT
Written by Jessie Degollado
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| Screen Capture from KSAT videoof Omar Garcia |
SAN ANTONIO - The mass disappearance of 43 students that rocked Mexico last fall has triggered a call for action in the U.S. with a national tour including San Antonio.
Omar Garcia Velasquez survived the abduction and said he came to America for the first time in hopes of generating support for their continued demands for justice.
“We are seeking solidarity with the public,” Garcia said.
Garcia, who spoke Monday at the Guadalupe Theater and Trinity University, is among 16 students, parents and advocates divided into three groups traveling to 30 cities, converging in Washington and New York City next month, according to organizers.
They said the mother of one of the students will be joining Garcia in his leg of the tour.
Garcia described how he and 90 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College in the state of Guerrero were in two buses bound for a national day of protest dating back to a 1968 massacre allegedly by police and the military.
He said police in the town of Iguala opened fire as they chased them down.
“We yelled at them, ‘We’re students. Why are you shooting at us?’ But they didn’t stop,” Garcia said. “They said we were criminals.”
He said some of his companions were killed, others were beaten.
“No one helped us,” Garcia said. “Not even the military when they arrived.”
He said the soldiers even kept medical personnel from attending to the wounded.
Garcia said as 43 students were taken away, he and about 40 others escaped.
“We ran until we couldn’t run any further,” Garcia said.
He said now he and the others must live with their survivor’s guilt.
Looking at the photos of the 43 missing students, Garcia said he would give anything to switch places with them.
He said that is why “we are trying not to remain silent in honor of our companions who suffered.”
It is believed after the students were abducted, they were tortured and killed then buried in mass graves.
Three men were arrested, but Garcia said he and much of the nation remain skeptical of the investigation’s findings.
A protest Monday afternoon in front of the Mexican Consulate in downtown San Antonio accused the Mexican government of not seeking the truth.
“We are Ayotzinapa!” the protesters chanted.
Garcia said he urges Americans to join in their non-violent movement by staging peaceful protests of their own, launching letter-writing campaigns and using social media.
Given Garcia’s distrust of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, he said he would ask President Barack Obama to reconsider America’s policies with Mexico," to avoid becoming an accomplice in the crime we have in our country.”
