What's Going On In Mexico?

Protests and marches are the norm in Mexico.  In fact it would be abnormal if there weren't any.  For more than a month the protests have been about the disappearance of forty three college students in September.

The students disappeared on September 26 when they were heading into the city of Iguala, in the state of Guerrero, to protest the corrupt administration of Mayor José Luis Abarca and his wife María. The mayor, his wife and the municipal police force have had close ties with the local drug cartel.  When the mayor learned that the students planned to disrupt one of his wife's events, he allegedly ordered the police to stop them. The buses and vans carrying the students into town were attacked by the police.  Six students were killed, twenty five were wounded and forty three disappeared.  The police supposedly turned them over to the drug cartel.  No one knows if they are dead or alive, although I am not optimistic.

Hours after the abduction, the mayor and his wife fled Iguala.  The Mexican Attorney General issued arrest warrants.  Sixty people have been arrested, including numerous police officers and the head of the local cartel, but the mayor and his wife were still at large.  Then yesterday (November 4th), the fugitive couple were discovered hiding out in an abandoned house in the Mexico City neighborhood of Iztapalapa.  It is not known whether or not they will shed any light on the whereabouts of the missing students.

Since the abduction there have been protests throughout Mexico and even abroad.  Some of the protests have been violent such as the one in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero, where demonstrators tried to storm the state congress building.  Most of the protests have been peaceful such as the mammoth march held in Mexico City while Alejandro was visiting me in Ohio.

During my days here in Mexico City, I have seen a few posters, but no sign of unrest.  Life is going on normally here; the city seems no different than it has on my previous visits.  Alejandro told me that there is going to be another march this afternoon (November 5th), starting at Chapultepec Park near the President's residence heading down the Paseo de la Reforma, the city's main boulevard, and ending at the Zócalo, the central city square.  Alejandro told me to stay away from those areas today.  I did walk over to the Paseo de la Reforma this morning, and everything seemed normal.  As I write this, the march should be getting under way.

The abductions are deplorable, but I am encouraged by the outrage of the Mexican people.  I think back to the tragic events of 1968 when hundreds of student protesters were gunned down by the government at the Plaza of the Three Cultures in Mexico City.  At that time the government tried to brush the massacre under the rug, and years passed before the full extent of the tragedy became known.  This time around the Mexicans are demanding justice.