From by Simón Sedillo, El Enemigo Común
Ayotzinapa Presente. Photo by: Brenda Burgoa
The Mexican federal government has pronounced all missing 43 Ayotzinapa students dead. Parents and supporters continue to ignore any official declarations in the matter because the government only has DNA evidence proving the death of one student. Austrian experts have declared the supposed evidence used to declare the death of the remaining 42 inconclusive and impossible to work with.
The sad truth is that average everyday folks in the USA are just not paying attention.
The disappearance of 43 rural education students in Mexico has struck an international chord elsewhere however. “Disappearance” as a concept is a tough pill to swallow anywhere. When it comes to Latin America, disappearances are not just a painful past; they are an ever painful present, and an extremely terrorizing future.
Disappearances, in particular, state sponsored disappearances, are Latin America’s terrorism. The disproportionate number of acts of state sponsored terrorism against the general population versus acts committed by non state actors has rendered the entire Latin American consciousness immune to institutional declarations about law, order, justice, and, well, terrorism.
The 43 disappeared students are a real problem for the Mexican federal government.
They are not a problem because it is absolutely horrific that 43 students can “disappear” in 2014.
They are not a problem because the mayor’s wife of Iguala, Guerrero gave the order to “teach them a lesson.”
They are not a problem because there is evidence that local authorities, federal police, and the military itself have been implicated in the disappearance.
They are not a problem because one of the students cell phone tracking device led to a final destination in a military base in the state of Guerrero.
They are not a problem because now over 300 bodies have been recovered from mass graves in Iguala alone, 4 months into a citizen initiated search.
They are not a problem because over 25,000 people have disappeared in Mexico in the last 10 years.
The 43 disappeared students are a problem because the story has gained a tremendous amount of traction, not just in the mainstream media around the world, but in the consciousness of average everyday citizens all over Mexico.
The disappeared students are a problem because all official government declarations about the case have lost all credibility, unraveling pathetically on multiple occasions.
The disappeared students are a problem because since the disappearance, 8 massive marches have taken place in Mexico City despite an official ban on unpermitted marches.
The disappeared students are a problem because since the disappearance, the town hall in Iguala, the state government offices, state political party offices, and the front door of the nation’s capitol building have been set on fire by students, teachers, and average everyday Mexicans fed up with this reality.
The disappeared students are a problem because they overshadowed Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s visit to the United States.
The disappeared students are a problem for the Mexican federal government because they simply will not disappear.
Disappearances are acts of terror not intended for the disappeared.
Disappearances are acts of terror intended for those left behind. Disappearances are intended to terrorize entire communities, if not entire countries, into submission and into silence. Disappearances are about controlling entire populations with fear.
The problem with the 43 disappeared rural education students from Ayotzinapa is that what was actually disappeared is the fear used to control entire populations. The students’ parents have declared that voting in electoral politics in Mexico is the same thing as supporting the organized crime cartels the government accuses of committing this heinous crime.
Behind closed doors nothing has changed. The same cynical and criminal workings of a government which is capable of disappearing 25,000 people in 10 years are still functioning at full throttle. 43 students that simply will not disappear have done nothing to stop the corrupt narco-government responsible for tens of thousands of deaths over the last decade in a never-ending and hypocritical so called “drug” war.
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