Comités de Defensa del Barrio: AYOTZINAPA September 26, 2014

The Red Flags of the Electoral Process in Guerrero, Mexico

By Tlachinollan on May 26, 2015

Removing the electoral propaganda in the Mountains of Guerrero

Two months ago, a committee of fathers and mothers of the 43 missing students of the Normal School Rural Raul Isidro Burgos, in the context of the 10th global solidarity action for Ayotzinapa, entered the premises of the National Electoral Institute (INE) and in strong terms called for President Lorenzo Cordova (INE) to cancel the upcoming elections.

They delivered a document that describes the serious problems that violate the public order and jeopardize the electoral process:

"Insecurity, lack of individual guarantees embodied in the Constitution, violations of human rights, murder and kidnapping of citizens and social activists, enforced disappearance of students and the strong penetration of organized crime in the government, where public institutions appear to be a nonexistent reality for the police and army, and where the all the ruling elites and the electoral parties themselves have done is worry about the next election, calling for the people of Mexico to participate in them although no true democracy is reflected ... The electoral parties act as if nothing has happened, with a cynicism that borders on audacity. These realities are evident in internal processes of distribution of the electoral positions, which is called an internal selection of candidates. They are only interested in achieving power to continue the exploitation of the national wealth, regardless of the social conflicts arising from their very own forms of corrupt government.

"The political and party system as well as the public authorities are primarily responsible for the situation (that exists) in the state of Guerrero, any attempt at elections in this in the state is a willful action which will not solve the social political crisis and address the lack of credibility in government, but instead to the contrary such elections would deepen further confrontation, violating the social fabric that upholds governance and public institutions, because there not exist neither shields nor controls to prevent illicit money from funding the campaigns for public office".

This brief scan that illustrates the social and political decomposition that our state is experiencing, and is not only corroborated every passing day, but the crisis deepens and makes life becomes impossible for thousands of the people of Guerrero. This has led to a large part of the population choosing to withdraw and leave for another time the public field of social activism, as a simple and extreme measure of self-protection. There is no sign in the short term that the situation will change, rather danger lurks everywhere and criminal groups are overflowing jeopardizing not only the population, but have brought into question the legitimacy of civil authorities and the military, as recently happened in Chilapa.

The openly declared war by groups of organized crime does not occur outside of the context of the electoral period, to the contrary, it is part of the struggle for political power and territorial control. As player among the actors in this turbulent scenario and amidst the troubled waters generated by such disparate interests, the electoral process is plunging us into the quagmire of violence without limits. In each region and electoral district the situation is red hot due to the actions of the political players in each location.

Nobody escapes the dangers imposed by those who have the real power, and no one can move freely about without getting approval beforehand. If these basic rules are violated, the result is to be put against the wall, because everything is under the control of those who know the terrain and have the strings of local power. There is no territory that is not controlled by the one or another of these factions, so the struggle is relentless and without any concession. No one can walk safely in this unfriendly geography if you are not willing to compromise and make agreements with the criminal business interests.

Lawlessness is rampant in the state and the consequences are fatal because lives are being lost. The shrinking realm of the current public authorities who have taken their turn in the process, is rupturing the legal basis on which the platform of political struggle is waged. As a countermove, the criminal groups empower themselves as they have the ability to move, to take over public spaces and barricade them against rival groups. In this struggle, civil and military authorities have retreated. They have chosen to lower their guard and have shown condescension towards the armed civilian self-defense groups who accompany their patrols. Not only is confusion growing among the population but distrust and fear, because there is no guarantee that security will come with government forces.

Not only are the actors of public security who are called to restore order participating in generating the crises and igniting the hot spots of Guerrero, but the same political parties and their candidates in these months of campaigning were also caught up because of the looming case of Ayotzinapa. They did not know either what to do or say, and just evaded the issue as they floated around it like a dead fish when addressing their captive party clientele. They would not leave the bubble of the party politics, and devoted themselves to tirades against political opponents, so there would be something to talk about in the media.

The mediocrity of the political class and the emptiness of their speeches have caused anger and bitterness among the population because there are no projections of strength and with foundation, no serious proposals to reverse the spiral of violence and contain the atrocious impoverishment of public life. The same political opportunists continue only raising a helping hand to one another of the same litter and are those who cling to a state of affairs that the vast majority of the population refuses to continue endure.

Viewing the past performances of all candidates, none of them managed to successfully face the remnants of the population that still offered attendance, nor had the sensitivity to voice the most pressing demands of the population. They ruled and legislated as always against the grain of society. The test of transparency is something that they are not given to as candidates, because none of them has yielded clear accountability for public resources that they had to manage, but rather they always moved in the shadows, because they needed to illicitly obtain funds to be contenders as candidates.

Another failed test for the candidates came as the state was being consumed by serious human rights violations. None of them came forward to defend the victims, rather they were to be found among the politicians and devious accomplices of the crimes of assassination of two students from Ayotzinapa at the Autopista del Sol and the murders of several social leaders.

To make matters worse, in the midst of this serious crisis of credibility and trust in the political process, the president of the National Electoral Institute (INE), Lorenzo Córdova Vianello was heard in public telling racist jokes in mockery of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico, exposing his delight in white supremacist Latino verbiage. The purported champion of democracy in Mexico openly exposed the vision he has of the Original Nations of Anahuac. His halo as a great intellectual trained in Italy did not hide his ethnic prejudices, rather it highlighted the Latino narrative of racial and cultural supremacy. His doctorate degree in Western academia, allowed him to feel justified to say in private what he really thinks as a public official regarding the indigenous peoples.

Spanish is not the mother tongue of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico, therefore according to the deductions of Córdova, it is they who are ignorant. Hipólito Arriaga Pote, Governor of the Indigenous Otomí Peoples who spoke in Spanish to Córdova, a presumed lawyer of democracy, and a public official whose responsibilities include the promotion of tolerance and plurality, was mocked by the INE official in a conversation that stank of pretensions of self-grandeur. In the conversation with his colleague Dr. Lorenzo of INE, he went on to fine tune the language of scorn, attempting to improve their racist jokes among friends whose public job is to protect the political rights of all Mexican citizens. The incident is an exemplary example of the ongoing dehumanization of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico, and the efforts of to depersonalize Hipólito Arriaga in order to stigmatize his indigenous identity.

This insensitivity and lack of respect for people who are carriers of the Indigenous cultural identity and languages of Mexico reveals the mood of a public official who is very far from being able to empathize and engage with parents of 43 young missing students of Ayotzinapa. The contempt shown by the class of political elites of Mexico to the population that is not of their social status, pronounces the sentence that these constituencies do not deserve any attention, much less shall interest be awakened to echo its demands in the public sphere, and take a stand to demonstrate a plural, tolerant and inclusive society.

The same political class that has squandered the social capital of the state, which they stripped away from a constituency that trusted their promises, has ignited the red flags of democracy in Guerrero. This regime of party elites has colluded with organized crime in the belief that in so doing the resulting diabolical political alliances would continue to allow them to politically control the population. Today it is the very fathers and mothers of families of those most affected by the regime who truly have the moral authority to redirect the citizen movement that is tired of so much abuse and fight for a fundamental political transformation. This is the reason and force that continues to inspire the fathers and mothers of Ayotzinapa to achieve justice and find their children alive.