Ya Me Canse’

The Daily Llama / Blogroll, Media, Social Commentary / May 18, 2022 / 0 Comments

In 2014 we spent a week’s stay in the Yucatan Peninsula along what corporate hospitality markets as the “Mayan Riviera”. Once past the glittering opulence of the seemingly endless row of resort developments along the Caribbean beaches of the state of Quintara Roo, one sees the reality of how the indigenous Mayan people live in the selva, under thatched roofs of woven palm fronds covering small one room makeshift cinder block hovels. Many work in the area’s only real industry, tourism; existing on incomes of less than $5 a day.

But simmering under the tropic skies of this vacation paradise, was the anger and frustration of the tour guides, shop owners, and campesinos toward the Mexican government concerning its inaction at dealing with the horrifying news of the disappearance of a group of young students some weeks before that year. From talking with several locals, this was a common occurrence and not an isolated incident.

From The Guardian we gleaned this report.

The news of the disappearance of 43 students from a rural teaching college in Guerrero state has outraged the entire nation. Investigators say Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa, ordered police to confront the students, who had gone to Iguala to raise money and had commandeered passenger buses for their use. The couple reportedly feared the students would disrupt an event being led by the wife.

Iguala police fired on the students in two incidents, killing six people. Officers then allegedly turned over 43 arrested students to a local drug gang. Murillo Karam said members of the gang confessed to killing the students before burning their bodies and tossing the ashes and bone fragments into a river.

In October 2021, YahooNews contributor Jeremy Kryt posted the following article excerpted from The Daily Beast:

Transcripts of newly released text messages between a crime boss and a deputy police chief have finally lifted the lid on the mystery of 43 students who went missing one night in southwestern Mexico.

The messages indicate that the cops and the cartel worked together to capture, torture, and murder at least 38 of the 43 student teachers who went missing in September of 2014. The students were all enrolled at the Rural Teachers College in the nearby town of Ayotzinapa, and so they became known as the Ayotzinapa 43.

Mike Vigil, the DEA’s former chief of international operations, told The Daily Beast: “The story of the massacre of the students in Ayotzinapa is like a Hollywood movie, but the events are real. They involve collusion between the police, army, organized crime, and a massive coverup by the Mexican government.”

Unfortunately, the tragedy of Iguala is far from an isolated incident. More than 93,000 people have gone missing during Mexico’s long drug war—and more than 90 percent of those cases have never been solved.