Students from a Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, took control of four
radio stations for over thirty minutes on Tuesday, January 3rd, in
order to encourage citizens in Chilpancingo,
the state capital, to join its movement demanding punishment for two students
killed on December 12th.
The two students were shot during a demonstration in which
they had closed the Autopista del Sol – the highway between Acapulco
and Mexico city – near Chilpancingo. At the time, the students of the Raúl
Isidro Burgos school were demonstrating over a number of grievances ranging
from class size to administrative issues. Repeated efforts to meet with the
State governor, Angel Aguirre Rivero, had been frustrated.
During the most recent action the students from Ayotzinapa were
supported by normal school (teacher’s college) students from Chihuahua, Mexico
State, Oaxaca, Michoacán, and Coahuila (Saltillo). These students are all
members of the Federación de Estudiantes Campesinos Socialistas de México. They
arrived at the premises of the radio stations shortly after 12:30 pm and were removed
40 minutes later.
"We ask the public to join our movement to achieve the
removal of governor Angel Aguirre Rivero, who is responsible for the deaths of
our two colleagues," said one of the students.
The students, who are in their early 20s, took control of
radio stations Radiorama,
XEUAG, ABC, as well as the
government radio and TV station in Chilpancingo.
The students expressed solidarity with the relatives of a
gas station worker, Gonzalo Rivas, who
died from burns suffered while he attempted to put out a fire at his
station at the side of the highway during the demonstration. Some eyewitnesses
have claimed that it was students who set fire to the gas station, but this has
been denied by the students themselves.
It is possible that the fire was set by an “agitprop” demonstrator,
set into the mêlée by authorities in order to allow for an escalated response. It
was after the gas station was set alight that authorities opened fire on the
students. Since then, a debate has raged as to who was actually responsible for
the students’ death.
The number one demand from the students is the identity of
the officers who opened fire. Given the amount of photographic and video
evidence collected by authorities, it seems remarkable that this crucial information
remains unclear.
A major worry on the part of the students is that the governor
secretly wishes to close the school, though Ángel Aguirre Rivero has rejected
this accusation.
For more information, including a summary of events, go here.
Twitter: @TimothyEWilson
Email: lapoliticaeslapolitica [at] gmail [dot] com
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