Mexico Government: Ayotzinapa Further Reveals Corruption of Institutions

Sinembargo: Alejandro Páez Varela*
Translated by Amanda Moody

The recent report from the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR-IGIE) has uncovered more than just the farce of the "historical truth". Experts from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) had already said that it wasn't possible for 43 bodies to have been incinerated in the Cocula refuse dump. Now it is reconfirmed.

There were already reports about the constant presence of federal forces (Federal Police, intelligence, Army) in and around Iguala from September 26 to 27. That has been reconfirmed through the experts’ work.

There were already suspicions that Jesús Murillo Karam had forced fit the "historical truth"—adjusting, hiding and ignoring evidence, as happened regarding the clothing simply abandoned on shelves in Chilpancingo [Guerrero state capital].

A fifth bus had already been discovered to have been omitted from the PGR report and to have physically disappeared, perhaps forever.

But that’s not all that was opened up by the IGIE’s preliminary report. It also showed that the manipulated and contaminated Mexican institutions are not sufficient by themselves to put an end to impunity in this country. As well as blowing away the "historical truth", the report demonstrates the weakness of government institutions. It shows that in 21st century Mexico there is no reliable body of public servants operating in favor of victims. Justice, it is now clear, is anchored to the interests of the moment.

The report shows how necessary it is that, with the help of international agencies, Mexico take steps to recover the institutions that have served to exonerate perpetrators and conceal truth. The list is long:

• "Casa Blanca" [house of Angélica Rivera, president's wife];  
• ABC Nursery [fire in Hermosillo, capital of Sonora, in northwest Mexico, in June 2009, which killed 25 girls and 24 boys, possibly an act of arson];
• Casino Royale fire [in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, on August 25, 2011, an act of arson, in which 52 people were killed];
• Massacre of 72 migrants in San Fernando, Tamaulipas [in 2010]; 
• David Korenfeld [former head of National Water Commission who used government helicopter for vacation trip];
• Dismantling of Pemex [via the opening of oil exploration and extraction to private companies]; 
• Suspicious wealth of César Duarte [governor of Chihuahua, 2010-2016];  
• Dead of Javier Duarte [governor of Veracruz, 2010-2016; numerous journalists have been murdered during his term]; 
• Debt of Humberto Moreira [former governor of Coahuila, 2005-2011, ran up huge state debt];
• Higa Group and OHL [construction companies with likely corrupt deals with government]; 
• Tlatlaya [Army extrajudicial execution of supposed criminals];
• Apatzingan [civilians shot down during police operation in January 2015];
• Escape of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera [second time drug kingpin has escaped from maximum security prison]. 

They all make it clear that, by themselves, Mexican institutions will not be able to bring those responsible to justice. To the contrary, the guilty will always be at the best tables.

The report, I think, also marks a path for civil society. It is up to us to push, and push, and push until the Mexican State accepts its inability to deliver justice. It is up to us to push and push until the Mexican government agrees to an International Commission Against Impunity to review a pile of cases in which crushed institutions were unable to bring judgment in favor of truth.

The report brings many discoveries about the Ayotzinapa case. At the same time, it lays bare the Mexican government, its officials, political parties (almost all accomplices of the decomposition) and institutions already at the breaking point.

***

• IF Enrique Peña Nieto, Angélica Rivera and Luis Videgaray didn’t commit acts of corruption through the mansions delivered by the Higa Group (although the construction company has greatly benefited from loans and government contracts), then why isn't a real, external and independent investigation opened?
• IF the Mexican Army wasn't involved in any way in the disappearance of the student teachers (although the report of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts of the Commission shows that the military came and went at the scene last September 26 and 27), then why not allow personnel to be interviewed?
• IF Banobras [National Works and Public Services Bank is a state-owned development bank in Mexico; its core business is providing loans to municipal and state governments and financing development projects] acted according to the law in granting a loan of 2.775 billion pesos [US $165 million] to Autopistas [Expressways] de Vanguardia SA de CV—a subsidiary of Constructora Teya, which is a subsidiary of the Higa Group—for the private Toluca-Naucalpan tollroad (and for which 38 hectares [94 acres]of the [indigenous] Otomí's communal lands in San Francisco Xochicuautla, State of Mexico were expropriated), then why classify the information?
• IF David Korenfeld, former director of Conagua [National Water Commission] and special guest at the Third Presidential Report, paid the alleged fines applied by Peña's Government for misuse of one or more official helicopters, then why should this payment, or the complete logs of flights during his tenure, be classified as "reserved"?
• IF Mexico is not a dictatorship imposed by an elite simulating a democracy, while national wealth is shared out between them, IF Mexico is not the private project of a few bullies who steal and lie and kill—or cause to disappear—if necessary to maintain the status quo, IF this country does not belong to the few whom we pay from our pocket even for their damned holidays in official helicopters, then why do a few hide the information that belongs to ALL Mexicans?

The answer is always the same: because in Mexico you can get away with it, and there is absolutely no consequence.

Because there is not one single power that won’t bow before the power of the elite: no independent monitoring agencies. Transparency is simulated with set pieces and empty reports, and nobody says anything.

Because Mexico has been reduced to a private project led by the few who have imposed themselves on top of the interests of the majority. Spanish original

*Alejandro Páez Varela is a journalist and novelist. He is the author of the novels Heart of Kalashnikov (Alfaguara 2014, Planet 2008), Music for Dogs (Alfaguara 2013) and The Kingdom of the Flies (Alfaguara 2012) and collections of short stories and essays Batteries Not Included (Cal y Arena 2009 ) and Parachutes That Don't Open (2007). He wrote President In Waiting (Planeta 2011) and is a co-author of other journalistic books such as The War for Juárez (Planeta, 2008), The Aspirants 2006 (Planeta 2005) The Aspirants 2012 (Planeta 2011), The Lords of Mexico (2007), The Untouchables (2008). He was deputy editor of El Universal and of the magazine, Day Seven. and an editor at Reforma and El Economista. He is currently director of content at SinEmbargo.mx     
@paezvarela