Crisis In Mexico

On Dec. 7, an Argentinian forensics group confirmed the discovery of bone fragments belonging to 19-year-old Mexican college student named Alexander Mora Venacio, and searchers near Iguala continue to find remains of bodies, which may or may not belong to other missing students.

Venacio was one of 43 male college students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College of Ayotzinapa. The students went missing in late September while on their way to a protest in Mexico City, after they were stopped and apparently kidnapped by local police in Iguala, Guerrero.

On Nov. 4, authorities arrested the former mayor of Iguala, José Luis Abarca Velázquez,  and his wife, María de los Ángeles Pineda Villa, for the murder of the 43 students, but some in Mexico believe federal authorities may have known about or been involved in the students’ disappearance and alleged murder.

“What this points to is the longtime collusion between the politicans at the municipal, state, and federal level with various groups of organized crime in Mexico,” said Dr. Jorge Garcia, Professor of Chicana/o Studies at CSUN. “It points to the lack of clarity, the lack of transparency, the lack of accountability, which leads to people not accepting at face value what is being said. We can not have any reasonable confidence or faith in what we’re being told.”

Many parents of the missing students say they also do not believe the official accounts of what happened. The Mexican Government reported in November that a group of drug cartel members had admitted to murdering the students and incinerating their bodies, and had been arrested.

“There are a lot of questions around this,” journalist and author Eileen Truax said, ” and I think the main problem is the lack of trust in the Mexican authorities and in any version they can give us regarding this issue.”

Truax said the Mexican government has a long history of corruption, and the association with the drug cartels by past and current administrations in Mexico is well documented. Many believe that the government is failing its people on multiple levels.

“This speaks to the complete and utter failure of the government in Mexico,” said Armando Gudiño, Policy Manager for the Drug Policy Alliance. “It speaks to the responsibility in what is without a doubt a failed system, that has not only failed these students, the parents, and all the people working very hard to find answers, but ultimately has failed the country as a whole. It has exposed the government for what it is, which is a total failure.”

The school attended by the 43 missing students is known to have political views that differ from those of the current government. That disagreement is cited as a possible reason as to why these specific students were targeted.

Moderator: Laura Camelo

Producers: Laura Camelo and Robert Zamora

Anchor: Strongman Osom

Reporters: Andrea Bautista and Roy Azoulay

Social Media Editors: Calsey Cole and Courtney Wallace

For further discussion and analysis of the crisis in Spanish: Crisis En México