Ayotzinapa Students to meet with EZLN

By: Gabriela Coutiño

Thousands of Chiapanecos participated in the meeting with students and family members of the 43 disappeared of Ayotzinapa. Photo: Moysés Zúñiga

The “Daniel Solís Gallardo” National Information Caravan, consisting of parents and relatives of the disappeared normalistas [1] in Iguala Guerrero, will hold a private meeting with comandantes of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and members of the Good Government Juntas.

Omar García, a student at the Raúl Isidro Burgos Teachers College said that they arrived in Chiapas for the purpose of meeting with all the organizations and groups that have shown solidarity and accompaniment to their demand that the 43 students kidnapped and disappeared last September 26 are located.

“One of the objectives of the caravan is the meeting with the Zapatista National Liberation Army, which has carried out two public demonstrations in solidarity with the parents and students of the Ayotzinapa Teachers College.”

In its first day in Chiapas, the Caravan held a private meeting with civil society organizations and human rights defenders. They explained that sufficient evidence does not exist to permit recognizing that their compañeros were murdered and incinerated like Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam said.

Before thousands of people that gathered in the San Cristóbal de las Casas Peace Plaza, one of the mothers of the disappeared said that they have received testimony from people that assures that their sons were taken from one place to another for days after their disappearance.

“The people that the attorney general pointed to as the alleged material authors were detained days before our children disappeared, it could not have been them. I saw it in the newspapers three days before, they could not have left the prison,” said the mother one of the 43 disappeared.

For their part, members of civil society and humanitarian organizations issued a pronouncement wherein they expressed their solidarity and accompaniment with the Ayotzinapa movement and the locating of the 43 disappeared students.

“What happened in Ayotzinapa is not an isolated act; forced disappearance is a mechanism that the Mexican State has used to silence and contain social movements.”

Manuel de Jesús Mendoza Vázquez, representing Section 7 of the National Coordinator of Education Workers, (CNTE, its initials in Spanish), called for “civil insurgency” actions in support of Ayotzinapa. These include not participating in the November 20 [2] parade.

[1] “Normalistas” are students at a rural teachers college.

[2] November 20 is a holiday in Mexico celebrating the Mexican Revolution