Borderland Beat |  |
- Who are the Normalistas? Radicals? Revolutionaries? Communists?
- Mexican Teachers set up tent city in support of missing normalistas
- FBI Informant Met Drug Lord El Chapo Guzmán In Mexican Mountains
| Who are the Normalistas? Radicals? Revolutionaries? Communists? Posted: 18 Oct 2014 11:23 PM PDT
The Government has tried to spin a perception that the students from the Escuela Normal of Ayotzinapa fall into one of the categories above; "Radical, Revolutionaries, or Communist". A "normal" school is a college, usually a 2 year college, to train high school graduates to become teachers. The use of the term to describe teachers colleges goes back to the 16th century. In the US, the term has mostly been dropped from the name of the school and they are typically called Teachers Colleges. In Mexico the term is still used and they are mostly located in poor areas and the students are mostly from the indigenous communities. Students at those schools are typically called "Normalistas". What seems to be missing from all the confusing and sometimes conflicting stories on the massacre in Iguala and the aftermath is any mention of who these students are, and what their disappearance (I have no doubt they've been murdered) means. These kids were the best and the brightest of very poor families, most of them from indigenous communities. It was a sacrifice on the parts of their families to even send their sons (and most were young men, though a few are women) to lose their labor while the students themselves lived in appalling conditions BY CHOICE. There were not pampered college kids… these were young men and women on a mission. We are told by the government and the media (following the government spin) that these students were "radicals", But if you look at the big picture, they are radical only in the sense that educating the poor is a radical idea, and educating minorities is "radical". If the rural normal schools have a reputation for being on the political left, whose fault is that? Who else have supported the schools, and who else is providing the material support (like books for their libraries, let alone food for their cafeteria)? And, given the "support" given to rural people and the indigenous in this country by the government and a large part of society as a whole, what would one expect? When "education" is being re-defined as job training and not as a way of means of liberating one's self, students feel they have a right to rebel. And… in this political and social climate… to liberate one's self, and to see one's role in life as assisting others in their own liberation is a "radical" act, a defiance of the State and of the prevailing economic assumptions.
That these students are actually very conservative (simple "peasants" seeking to preserve their culture, but within the modern world) is lost when we see on the walls of the school those posters and murals of Che or Lenin or Emiliano Zapata.. but what other models are presented to them? What neo-liberal — or social democratic — model would make room for their survival, or accept their way of life? What has representative "democracy" given them? As journalist and author of several books on Mexico, Richard Grabman stated; "I'd be tempted to torch a statehouse myself if my representatives were not just doing nothing (I'm used to the U.S. Congress), but actively working against my survival, and appeared to actively participate in the destruction of my family, my culture and the future". Keep in mind the immediate cause of the massacre in Iguala was the students going there to raise money for a trip to Mexico City to join the national protests scheduled for Oct 2 to commemorate the Tlatelolco Massacre. There is a war in this country against the indigenous, and the campesinos. Whether the fight is over water, or electrical power, or minerals, or narcotics, it has less to do with access to the product than with who stands in the way of "progress", and what they are able to say or think about those who have access. Those that teach, those that speak up, those that refuse to acquiese in their own destruction, are the ones being "disappeared" or murdered.
Much has changed since the "Elvis" protests in 1958. What made the Elvis protests seemingly unimportant in 1958 was that the number of students at the time was relatively small, and students were still overwhelmingly from priviliged backgrounds, not particularly representative of the people as a whole. By 1968, with economic growth leading to a larger pool of families that could afford to allow their children to engage in economically unproductive work like seeking a higher education, and with even rural campesinos having benefited from rural electrification (and television), there were not only more students in 1968, but more and more campesinos and workers included in their family circle an educated "person of respect". WHAT HAPPENED IN 1968; THE GOOD AND THE BAD THE BAD THE GOOD Though the shameful actions of the government (which they tried to cover up) are what most people remember about Oct. 2, 1968, some good came from the events of that day. Legs were put under the "student movement". Some of their demands were met. Universities and Normal Schools were given more autonomy; meaning that students, teachers and administrators were given the power to run the schools without direct state interference. This meant that the students and faculty were given greater voice in what they studied and more control over their future. The military and police were removed from the campuses and there was greater freedom of speech and assembly. Fast forward to 2014. Over the next 40 years many of those rights gained at such a high price in 1968 were eroded. The education reforms of 2013 and 2014 in which teachers, administrators, students, much less the indigenous population had no voice in formulating. While the schools are in desperate need of better funding, and the teachers in need of better training and resources, the government has shown a tolerance for mismanagement and outright theft by the union bosses imposed on the teachers by themselves. Coupled with that is the imposition of curriculum changes meant not to create educated people, but workers. Removing humanities from the curriculum in favor of shortened classes meant to impart just the technical training needed for careers is one of the students' largest complaints. That, and as the nation's main source for teacher training and school administration, a recognition that merely training a student to present facts in a classroom (and to adequately pass standarized tests) is not education, and is meant to thwart the expectations of a better life for the next generation. In Guerrero, at what even by long-time Mexico hands like the Guardian's Jo Tuckman as "a famously radical teacher training college", it isn't so much the "radicalism" that has sent the students off campus and into the streets, as another of the 1968 factors. The Guerrero students are nearly all indigenous… from families in which a village maestro is as close to "person of respect" that the forgotten campesinos of this country can strive to become. If they are "radical" it is in the sense that indigenous people are always "radical" in fighting to preserve their traditions. These students reject a requirement to teach English, for example, less because of any (quite legitimate) sense that the requirement is for the benefit of foreign employers and foreign control of future workers, but because they recognize that their students are already at a disadvantge, often not speaking Spanish. And that they can't get texts in their own languages. And, as the future "men and women of respect" in their traditional cultures, they are expected to lead the struggle for their various people's autonomy In October 1968, the state's presumed intention in using massive force against the students was to end the student movement. It didn't work. The movement may have slept for a while licking it's wounds, but the "YoSoy132" movement showed it was still alive. The governments actions (and inaction) in Iguala may have ignited a fuse that set off a salvo that was heard around the world. Lets hope it is not forgotten and it forces some "radical" change. | |||||||
| Mexican Teachers set up tent city in support of missing normalistas Posted: 18 Oct 2014 05:10 PM PDT Borderland Beat republished from Fusion by Manuel Rueda-heads up from "Jeff" Big Thanks!  "43 Normalistas are dead, many were burned alive".....  said Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra, the internationally known human rights champion. He himself has been threaten, kidnapped and beaten because of his refusal to stay away from the business of organized crime. He was in exile due to death threats. In an interview this week he said; "From Sunday to today, I have had several meetings with witnesses, eyewitnesses, who suffered in the first and second attack, students, but there are other sources, who are not students that speak of a time before. They talk about that some were wounded, and they burned alive, ignited after pouring diesel on them. Others they were incinerated in a wood fire, some alive, some dead." "The first meeting I was given information directly, that was on Sunday. The second one I had yesterday in Mexico City. The first thing I learned is that there are witnesses, but are afraid to speak, if they talk, they fear they will be killed. "said the priest. Solalinde clarified that it is unknown whether young people could be in one of the pits that the Attorney General's Office (PGR) and the Union of Organized State of Guerrero (UPOEG) Towns found in Iguala. "We do not know. If they are in the pits, the Argentine forensic anthropology team has the technology,"but insisted:" But there is no hope that they are alive. " However, as of Wednesday the state and federal governments were not allowing the Argentine to assist in the identifications. The photo above, and below are from a protest march in Acapulco this week.  The following is the Fusion article Hundreds of teachers have set up a tent city in the main square of this state capital in southern Mexico, and say they will not leave until the government finds 43 college students who disappeared three weeks ago, after they were reportedly abducted by local police linked to a drug gang. The protest, which began on Monday, reflects the outrage many Mexicans feel toward politicians and law enforcement officials, whom they hold responsible for one the darkest crimes in Mexico's recent history. The crowd shows few signs of dissipating. "I don't just think I will stay here, I am driven to stay here, as are all of my colleagues," said Pastor Mojico, one of the teachers. "We all feel the necessity to stay here because of the outrage we feel. So it's not something to think about it, it's something that you feel and are compelled to do."  The students, from the Ayotzinapa rural teacher's college in the state of Guerrero, haven't been seen since Sept. 26, when they were attacked by police in the city of Iguala after they hijacked three buses during a protest. Three students were killed in the attack, and investigators suspect that the missing students were rounded up by police and handed over to a local drug cartel, who then executed them and buried them in clandestine graves. While several possible grave sites have been identified, DNA tests showed that one site didn't contain the students' bodies, and authorities have to announce the DNA results for the bodies found at two other grave sites nearby. At the Zócalo, a historical square in the heart of Chilpancigo, teachers sleep under nylon tents and cook whatever food is available to them in portable gas stoves. Showers are hard to come by, but they have occupied the city hall, have been using bathrooms there. "These crimes don't just affect the cities," said an elementary school teacher from Santa Cruz Copanatoyac, a municipality deep in Guerrero's eastern mountains. "Sometimes people disappear in our area or die because they are involved in organized crime, but [the missing students] were just kids who wanted to better themselves," said the teacher, who asked that his name not be published for fear of reprisals. Most of the maestros sleeping in the square are affiliated with teachers unions that have promised to occupy all 41 city hall buildings in the state until the students are found. They are known for leading militant protests against Mexico's education reforms, and economic policies like the privatization of the country's oil sector.Many hail from rural areas that are mostly inhabited by indigenous people.  For the full Fusion article follow the link above.... | |||||||
| FBI Informant Met Drug Lord El Chapo Guzmán In Mexican Mountains Posted: 18 Oct 2014 04:18 PM PDT Borderland Beat republished from Forbes  Mexican drug lord Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán Loera, imprisoned leader of one of the most powerful criminal empires, met with a confidential FBI informant in 2010, according to a federal prosecutor at the drug trial of a member of Mexico's ruling PRI party in U.S. District Court in New Hampshire. According to trial documents, Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Feith said on October 6 that during the meeting, "which took place in the mountains of Mexico, the CHS (confidential human source) was introduced to Guzmán Loera" by defendant Jesús Manuel Gutiérrez Guzmán, El Chapo's business representative for the U.S. Feith added that the meeting, which took place in April 2010, was not recorded and only involved the informant. In 2011, El Chapo Guzmán, Gutiérrez Guzmán (El Chapo's cousin), Samuel Zazueta Valenzuela, Jesús Gonzalo Palazuela Soto and Rafael Celaya Valenzuela, were indicted on one count of conspiracy to distribute drugs in New Hampshire. All but El Chapo were arrested in Spain in August 2012 after FBI agents intercepted a shipment of 346 kilograms of cocaine from Brazil. Gutiérrez, Zazueta and Palazuela pleaded guilty, but Celaya, who identified himself as the cartel's "attorney and financial planner," decided to stand trial. Celaya stands out from the group for his ties to the PRI, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's party. According to Mexican media, at the time of his arrest, Celaya was an active member of the PRI in the northern border state of Sonora. He tried to run for federal congressman but failed.  During Peña Nieto's 2012 presidential campaign, Celaya posted on Facebook pictures of himself with Peña Nieto and two now prominent PRI senators which were published in the Mexican media. While not denying ties to Celaya, the PRI said that during the presidential campaign Peña Nieto posed for thousands of photos with PRI members, but clarified that it "doesn't imply closeness or commitment." On Wednesday, Celaya was convicted of conspiracy to distribute more than 2,200 pounds of cocaine, plus heroin and methamphetamines by a federal jury in New Hampshire. While ties between organized crime and political parties, not only the PRI, are a known fact in Mexican politics, Celaya is the first PRI member to be convicted on drug charges in the U.S. in many years. Secret video and audio recordings used during the trial showed Celaya , fellow cartel members and undercover FBI agents, who passed themselves off as members of an Italian organized crime syndicate, conspiring to expand the gang's cocaine empire in the U.S. and into Europe. U.S. Assistant Attorney Feith said Celaya and other members of the cartel met over the course of three years in the New Hampshire city of New Castle, as well as in Madrid, the Virgin Islands, Miami and Mexico. The conspirators and undercover agents at first discussed shipments of 1,000 kilos of cocaine with one of the cartel members promising they could deliver 20 tons. According to court documents, Celaya's lawyers argued that he should be acquitted because he never reached an agreement with the Sinaloa cartel to move drugs, meaning there was no conspiracy. They also argued that New Hampshire was the wrong venue for the trial. Contrary to his co-defendants, Celaya turned down a plea deal that would have given him 10 to 20 years in prison, instead of the 10 years to life he faces after conviction. He is set to be sentenced in January. |
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