[Mexico] Ayotzinapa: Some Key Information on the Massacre

by Diana Sady Colin G of GOS- México (LITci)
 

The 17 bodies of 28 found in Iguala could be the missing students

 
From the hill of Tlachinollan appeared dozens of charred bodies, the government of Mexico has done everything possible to to obstruct the investigations undertaken by the civil society: on October 11 they did not allowed access to the pits to the Argentine Team of Forensic Anthropology (EAAF, spanish acronym), a prestigious organization expert in human rights violations, who was called by relatives of the disappeared, and by some civil society organizations to make inquiries into the origin of the bodies.
 
The attitude of the Mexican government only increases suspicions that authorities are covering up the perpetrators and that the 43 missing, unfortunately, they could be found in such graves, already they have the Declaration of a hit man and a municipal policeman who told have delivered 17 normalistas to organized crime, but don’t know the whereabouts of the rest of the young.
 
Even so, parents and colleagues of the missing are still hoping to find them alive.
 
The massacre of the normalistas have caused indignation and rage in the Mexican population, but the horror is also present due to the death of Julio Cesar Mondragon “El Chilango”, young student who the municipal police plucked out the eyes and the skin of the face. This abominable action would be a move of organized crime,which in the state of Guerrero has been characterized by extremely violent actions against the human body, and it is the state that started the beheadings  in the port of Acapulco in 2006. However, there are several points which indicate that such action goes beyond terrorism exercised by drug trafficking.
 

Many elements are missing to assert that it’s drug trafficking

 
The official version is that the disappearance of students was by order of the criminal group “United Guerreros”, possibly linked to the famous cartel Beltrán Leyva, who, angry at having students from Ayotzinapa within one of its areas of operation, the city of Iguala, they disguised themselves as local police and killed young.
 
But there are several points that we must take into account, that make us think that “United Guerreros” could be just a smokescreen to divert attention from the real culprit, the Mexican Government:
 

1. The strange appearance of the criminal group “United Guerreros”could be merely an attempt to distract from state and federal governments, according to reliable sources, many people of Iguala had little knowledge of that organization.
2.  The beheadings and the dismemberment of the bodies are characteristic of military. Even though many of them have entered the ranks of drug trafficking, they only assault that way other cartels, civilians only get shot.
3.  The clandestine mass graves and charred bodies do correspond to the motives for drug trafficking, but Tlachinollan hill is very close to Igualas, and the days after  October 26-27th there were mobilizations to find the missing students; then, how much time did the criminals have to kill and incinerate his victims being in tens?
4.  Assuming the existence of “United Guerreros,” this group(still attached to the Beltrán Leyva) is not a cartel as powerfulas that of Sinaloa, Gulf, los Zetas or even the Knights Templar, who have international scope. If associations such as those already mentioned do not dare to do such daring step against the civilian population, why would a group of minimum scope take so much risk?
5.  When the drug traffickers desollan or they behead their victims it’s to give a warning or message, they always leave a written message explaining who they are and why they took such actions; in the case of the aggression against Julio Cesar Mondragon “El Chilango”, they went only up to a patrol and after mutilating him, threw him to the floor without any written message. Several days later, the Mexican authorities stated that the motives had been that “United Guerreros” had wanted to intimidate them that way, but it took long to “identifying” criminals.
6.  On October 8, after the federal police apprehended  22 municipal police officers, accused of involvement in the massacre, two “narcomantas” came forward in Iguala, calling for the release of 22 police officers, threatening to unleash a war where their demand were not met. The interesting thing is that the narcomantas appeared on the sidewalks of a streets in Iguala, bearing in mind that,since what happened to students, elements of the Navy and the army they patrolling that area.
7.  Only a day after the fateful September 27, the now fugitive mayor PRD (Partido de la Revolución Democrática), José Luis Abarca[Velasquez], appealed for protection. Currently media points to him and the Governor of Guerrero as the most responsible for what happened; it is unjust to do this, and not because they are innocent, but because it is to ignore all the State machinery which supports them and conceals.
8. Ayotzinapa was one of the normal schools(teacher’s colleges) which has always been characterized by their fighting spirit in their classrooms, it still teaches Marxism and civil organization. Reasons why, Governor Angel Aguirre(PRD) had already targeted Normal “Isidro Burgos” since the beginning of his mandate in 2011. He’s been found guilty by civil society, for the murders of the Normalistas of Ayotzinapa – Jorge Alexis Herrera Pino and Gabriel Echeverría de Jesus–who demonstrated on December 12, 2011 demanding more resources for the campus.
9. Why does the federal Government hinders the entrance to forensic anthropologists when they had already agreed to collaborate previously? A day later, the Governor makes a statement that they have hopes to find the missing alive, however leaves the enclosure quickly to avoid questions from the press.
10. The results of the report have been prolonged enough; on previous dates it had said they were going to appear on Wednesday,October 8.

Ayotzinapa could be another attempt of control by the Mexican State

 
With the case of Ayotzinapa, two political parties are on the verge of losing many points of credibility, the first is the Party of the Democratic Revolution, which mayor José Luis Abarca Velasquez and the Governor Angel Aguirre belong to, and whose presences are promoting a division increasingly more marking their party. The second would be the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which the current President Enrique Peña Nieto belongs to; he should shoulder the load of the responsibility for what happened, he distanced himself from what happened.
 
This raises suspicions about the culpability of the Mexican Government in what has happened, had it been premeditated or not. With this, both parties are playing the credibility and its future in the elections; then, why would you risk so much?, what is behind this?
We must not forget that Peña Nieto came to the Presidency with the shadow of electoral fraud; Since then he has led a state that lacks credibility, that the most hit sector has been the Mexican youth with lack of employment, educational opportunities and social security. An attack on students and activists from Ayotzinapa could be a way to inform the Mexican youth on the risks of political consciousness, in order to maintain the unfair stability of the Mexican political system.
 
However, if the former hypothesis is correct, the policy of terror would be ineffective and could overflow from their hands; the Mexican government has no moral about the majority of the citizens, since in the minds of the people rage can quickly replace fear.
 
On October 8 the organizations of US and President Barack Obama called on the Government of Mexico an arduous investigation into the deaths of 6 young people and the disappearance of the Normalistas, however, his position was more measured, almost indifferent, as the United States Government has shown disinterested to violations of human rights committed by the Government of Peña Nieto.
 
Obama harshly condemned the football player who hit his wife, the beheadings by the Islamic State to the British hostage, the aggression of Russia to Ukraine, the Government of Bashar Al-Assad, but never in this way to the Government of Mexico. Although it is somewhat risky to raise it for lack of sufficient evidence, a question to ponder as to what happened: does Washington know anything more of Ayotzinapa?