MV Note: Following the Mexican Revolution and the writing of the Constitution of 1917, rural normal schools, teacher training colleges, were set up across Mexico to train youth from rural communities to become teachers who returned to their communities. A teaching position was a "right", guaranteed upon graduation, and the position could be passed on to another family member when one retired or died.From 11:00 AM until 2:30 PM, the students had in their possession six delivery trucks from Pepsi, Bonafont [bottled water], Coca-cola, Gamesa [cookies], Bimbo [bread] and Lala [milk], from which they stole the products for distribution among passers-by.
These actions followed a meeting they had with Alejandro Garcia, an official of the Secretariat of Government. They told him they were ready to release the vehicles parked in front of the Government Palace when he had accepted a draft of their petition and a meeting with the interim governor, Jesus Reyna Garcia had been agreed to.
But the official made it clear that the government would not yield to dialogue while under pressure, and he demanded the release of all the trucks in order hold a meeting with the Secretary of Government, Fernando Cano, and Jesús Sierra Arias of the Secretariat of Education, not the governor.
Unhappy, the students threatened to radicalize their actions and demands the next day, Saturday, April 27, and they began with looting the delivery trucks.
They stood for a few minutes in front of the state Congress Building, shouting slogans and warning that on Saturday they will continue with demonstrations like those of the last days, such as highway blockades and seizing vehicles. Around 2:30 PM the students allowed the drivers of the delivery vehicles to leave with their vehicles.
For its part, the government of Michoacán stressed the need to achieve a dialogue with the protesters, but this was conditioned on returning the trucks that still remain in the control of the students at their campus in Tiripetío [a few miles west of Morelia].
Until now the Attorney General (PGJ) has received 16 criminal complaints against the students for seizing eight buses and two Pemex tank trucks that still remain in their possession. Despite this, the state government has ruled out implementing an eviction operation at the Normal School in Tiripetío.
Fernando Cano Ochoa, Secretary of Government, said the instructions of Fausto Vallejo Figueroa, governor, currently on a sick leave, and Jesús Reyna García, is to focus on dialogue.
"We're trying to get the Tiripetío students to sit down at the table. We hope not to have to arrive at the actions that we had to take last year," he said, referring to the intervention of the Federal Police in October last year.
MV Notes: Police eviction of students who had seized control of the school itself led to violence, burning of busses and criminal charges against students.The normal school students assured that they don't fear the criminal complaints filed against them for theft and retention of passenger busses and company trucks. "The business people can take care of themselves," they warned. Spanish original