Mexico, A Toxic Mix of Crime, Corruption and US Collusion

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Jimmy Franco Sr.

The recent kidnapping and likely murder of 43 Mexican students from a teachers college in Ayotzinapa Guerrero has inflamed the anger of people both within Mexico and abroad. In this incident, local politicians ordered the police to attack and shoot protesting students and then handed 43 of these young people over to an allied criminal gang who kidnapped them. The missing students have yet to be found and are presumed to be dead while their remains and any evidence of this horrendous crime have most likely been destroyed and covered up. Other such deadly attacks upon small farmers and their organizations by politicians allied with wealthy landowners and criminals have also been commonplace in the state of Guerrero which is governed by the supposedly ‘leftist’ PRD party. This violent and grisly act that was committed by these oligarchs  against these young people was intended to intimidate and silence the voices of protesting students and this incident is symbolic of what is left of a shattered Mexican democracy. The growing financial and political complicity between government officials and criminal gangs and their blatant use of terror and violence is aimed at stifling the rights of the Mexican People to enact social change through democratic means. Other victims of this violent trend within Mexico have included numerous journalists, politicians seeking reform, trade unionists and human rights advocates. This deadly attack and kidnapping of these students is a clear example to the world of the blatant lack of democracy and rule of law that now exists within Mexico. Such growing lawlessness on the part of government officials and gang cartel members combined with a consistent growth in financial inequality and unemployment throughout the country has also exerted a downward push on people’s standard of living and on the economic well-being of their families.

Mexico to ‘Reform’ Education, Too | Labor Notes

Mexico to ‘Reform’ Education, Too | Labor Notes

PRD conflicts

The PRD, Mexico's ostensibly left-center political party, continued to self
destruct this week as party bosses fought over the official candidate in
Iztapalapa, Mexico City's largest barrio with 6 million inhabitants. You'll
remember the PRD as the party that was unable to organize clean internal
elections last year. Two party factions have been battling ever since for
control of lucrative posts and federal funds. In anticipation of this
summer's mid-term elections, the factions agreed to a tentative peace, but a
fight over control of the huge Iztapalapa delegation broke the agreement in
spectacular form. Long time party hack and "New Left" leader Rene Arce
wants his wife, Silvia Oliva, to run the delegation, while the "United
Left," aligned with former presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador, prefers Clara Brugada. Internal PRD organs controlled by the
United Left gave Brugada the candidacy, but Oliva challenged the decision in
Mexico City's Electoral Tribunal, a state agency with heavy PAN influence,
where she was awarded the official candidacy this week. Now Lopez Obrador
is asking the electorate to vote for the Workers Party candidate, who would
turn the post over to Brugada if he wins the election. Party officials are
threatening to expel Lopez Obrador from the PRD for supporting a rival party
- but not until after the elections. Apparently the appearance of "party
unity" is more important than a nasty battle over the widely popular Lopez
Obrador's status. If this all seems impossibly complicated, imagine what
voters will have to sort out in July, or what the Mexican public has to face
every day as the political class literally disintegrates before their eyes.

From the Mexico Solidarity Network news bulletin, June 15-21