PHOTOS: Adrian Garcia, Veronica Torres, Ernesto Saavedra and David Ransom
McAllen, Texas— On March 17, 2015, marching two by two, families and supporters of “Los 43”Mexican prep-college students forced to disappearance and murder in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. The march was composed of parents, clergy, lawyers, professors, pro-immigrant groupings, students, veterans and labor groups from day laborers to domestic immigrant workers.
After listening to the parents of the Mexican students and key organizers of the march and rally the group went to the Federal Building. The group was calling attention to the complicity of the Mexican and the U.S. government this rash of genocide and organized State violence against the Mexican working class and the indigenous population, especially these college students.
Collusion between the Mexican military intelligence, corrupt State and municipal officials and criminal drug gangs in the forced disappearance of the 43 Mexican students is known and suspected.
How should the U.S. people, veterans of wars, conflicts and eras view the situation in Mexico as it pertains to organized State violence, genocide and the outright slaughter of the push for democracy in Mexico?
Have the U.S. people forgotten Coronel Oliver North, the CIA Iran-Contra affair and scandal? After the scandal was exposed, the CIA pulled out of Latin America. But they left the drug distribution network in the hands of the narcos and thus contributed to the crime, violence and drugs in the streets of southern California. How about the “dirty wars” in Central America where democratically elected governments were removed with the complete support of the U.S. State Department?
And, the massive land grabs by multi-national corporations, destruction of the environment, the suppression of peasant movements causing crime and poverty and an exodus to Mexico and eventually the U.S. in order to escape these horrendous conditions and possible deaths?
Is the situation in Mexico a future look at what the U.S. will be like as well as the messages coming from Los Angeles, New Mexico, Washington state, Ferguson, North Texas, Madison, Florida and in New York?
Yes we should support our Mexican working class brothers. In the last 20 to 30 years, Mexico has been on the road to militarization and has enough military capability to not only launch a war against its southern neighbor, but also to suppress its own people as well any progressive movement in Central America not agreeable with the U.S.
U.S. military assistance to Mexico as well as to Central America has changed from the “war on drugs” to the “war against the poor.” The northern and southern borders of Mexico have become militarized with the apparent excuse of fighting drug cartel wars along the frontera states.
Mexico serves as a “bulwark” against progressive government in Latin America but also as a conduit to the future.
