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| Their banner reads: "Mothers and Relatives of Disappeared Children on Hunger Strike" (Photo: Marcela Turati) |
Proceso: José Gil Olmos
Mexico City - The hunger strike is one of the last resources of a civil society to protest and demand justice. After this only immolation, bleeding or suicide remain, which are decisions that are usually taken when hope has already died.
In Mexico there have been cases of these decisions to protest against the indifference of authorities who watch how these demonstrations exhaust themselves, in this way seeking to break the will of those who demand respect for their rights.
On May 9 a dozen women and a few men decided to begin a hunger strike in front of the modern facilities of the Attorney General's Office to obtain an interview with President Enrique Peña Nieto and demand that he assign someone to be responsible for investigating the whereabouts of their relatives 'disappeared' in recent years.
On May 9 a dozen women and a few men decided to begin a hunger strike in front of the modern facilities of the Attorney General's Office to obtain an interview with President Enrique Peña Nieto and demand that he assign someone to be responsible for investigating the whereabouts of their relatives 'disappeared' in recent years.
They set up a series of camps along Reforma Avenue, one of the busiest tourist thoroughfares in Mexico City, a few blocks from the famous Angel of Independence, from the Mexican Stock Exchange, from the U.S. Embassy and from the many office buildings of international companies.
Every day hundreds of foreign and domestic tourists walk on that street attracted to pass by the tents carpeted with photos of disappeared women and men across the country. Their faces show shocked disbelief when they hear the terrifying stories of forced disappearances not only at the hands of criminal groups, but the police as well.
Perhaps this public revelation of government indifference is one of the things that most annoyed Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam, who waited a week before deigning to speak with the group on hunger strike to tell them he was willing to talk with them.
But what the relatives of the disappeared want is to speak directly with Enrique Peña Nieto to demand that he keep his word to resolve their cases, as he insisted on declaring when he was a candidate and then upon taking office.
Alicia Trejo, Atanacio Rodríguez, Ana María Maldonado, Dolores Rodríguez, Érica Montes de Oca, Nancy Rosete, Margarita López and Olga Reyes already show the effects of not taking food for seven days: changes in blood pressure, muscle pains from losing proteins, neuralgia, cramps, cold, etc.
Despite all this, they maintain their will to continue a permanent fast until they can speak with to Peña Nieto and demand justice for their husbands, brothers, sons forcibly disappeared by organized crime and by law enforcement.
The decision was not taken lightly, but grew as they saw with annoyance, anger, and finally rage that the new Peña Nieto government had neither the interest nor the ability to address this grave problem of thousands of disappeared persons throughout the entire country.
A month ago at the Secretariat of Government Affairs [SEGOB], a second-level official by the name of Velázquez Macarena insulted them saying that they were ungrateful because they didn't value the effort they were making to help them. [He complained] That because of them, he couldn't sleep.
A month ago at the Secretariat of Government Affairs [SEGOB], a second-level official by the name of Velázquez Macarena insulted them saying that they were ungrateful because they didn't value the effort they were making to help them. [He complained] That because of them, he couldn't sleep.
Then they learned that the Federal Police had appointed Fernando Bernal García to be responsible for meeting them. He is a tools technician, a graduate of the Polytechnic; and he has a CNDH Recommendation [Indictment] 2/2007 against him for a torture case against Señora María de los Ángels Balncarte.
On May 9, the group decided to go on a hunger strike in front of the PGR's modern building on Reforma Avenue. They consciously called attention to themselves rather than see themselves set aside in the street where the Secretariat of Government Affairs is located or put in a far corner of Los Pinos, the Presidential residence.
On May 9, the group decided to go on a hunger strike in front of the PGR's modern building on Reforma Avenue. They consciously called attention to themselves rather than see themselves set aside in the street where the Secretariat of Government Affairs is located or put in a far corner of Los Pinos, the Presidential residence.
A week later they are still there, on the sidewalk in front of the main entrance of the building where justice is sought, without eating, waiting for someone not only to listen but to resolve their cases as they were promised by the new leaders headed by Enrique Peña Nieto. Spanish original