A year ago, Mexico seemed to be on the verge of a profound transformation of its political system. During the months of October and November of 2014, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on numerous occasions in a vast uprising against impunity and for social justice. The forced disappearance of 43 student activists from the Ayotzinapa teacher’s college by security forces in Iguala, Guerrero, ripped the veil off of the myth of Mexico’s supposed “democratic transition” and exposed the depth of the corruption embedded in the country’s political class. An enormous wave of international solidarity with the Mexican people spread from Tokyo to Chicago, from Ferguson to Paris and from Buenos Aires to London.
But nothing has happened. Not a single member of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s cabinet has stepped down. The Mexican Congress has not enacted any relevant legislation which could prevent the occurrence of another tragic act of political repression like the one which took place in Iguala. Only a handful of street cops and minor public officials have been accused for their responsibility in the Ayotzinapa disappearances. And the Mexican government continues to block independent investigators from interrogating the soldiers who were on duty the night of the massacre or allow them access to nearby military bases.
Meanwhile, the massacres, the repression and the impunity continue. On January 6, at least 16 protesters and members of community police forces were killed by federal forces in the State of Michoacán, most in cold blood. That very same day, Peña Nieto was in Washington meeting with his “friend” President Barack Obama, who took advantage of the occasion to ratify the US government’s blind support for the corrupt and repressive Mexican government. “Our commitment is to be a friend and supporter of Mexico,” he said. Obama even went so far as to hold up Peña Nieto as an exemplary human rights defender, asking him to help the United States to “promote human rights, democracy and political freedom” in Cuba...
