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| Left: Ayotzinapa 43: Right: Tierra Blanca 5 |
Translated by Amy Johnston
The story of what happened in the death of the young people who were disappeared from Tierra Blanca in Veracruz could not be more horrifying. The case itself was filled with atrocious cruelty and cynicism from the police, but above all a terrible feeling of déjà vu: the modus operandi is exactly the same as it was in Iguala a year and a half ago. In both cases, the young people were kidnapped by the police, brought to local criminal cartel boss and then the felons tortured them, burned them and discarded their remains in order to hide any trail that may have been left behind.
Here we have the same story repeated: either someone in the Attorney General’s Office already liked this version of the "historic truth" that explains why we can't find disappeared people, or instead the criminals came back to do exactly the same thing, which, besides being a national shame, leaves the authorities in very bad shape.
It is inexcusable that, in another place in the country, in a different situation, the same thing happened again. As the President said, it would be unforgivable if El Chapo escaped again (yet the irresponsible people were forgiven). Therefore, it is also inexcusable that the murder which has most shaken up the country in recent years, the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students, continues to repeat itself step by step and there is no political responsibility.
If, as the authorities said, it was state police who kidnapped the young people (because in this case to say detained is a euphemism, a fallacy) and brought them to the local criminal cartel boss, the obligatory question is, had the policemen passed the trust control exams? [MV Note: Some of them had not passed but were still on the force.] If it turns out that they had passed, then we have a serious problem in the way we measure trust. But if they had not passed the exams, there is direct responsibility of the head of the state police of Veracruz and a further obligation of the Attorney General of the Republic to prosecute it. Up until now, the furthest the issue has gone is to a state police delegate [regional commnder]. Those high up cover up one another.
Even more serious is that this modus operandi of organized crime is treated like a modus vivendi, a pact between State forces and organized crime to “keep the peace”, or essentially, to protect mutual interests at the cost of the peace of the citizens. In a low but audible voice for all who want to hear, members of the PRI [Party of the Institutional Revolution] boasted that they know how to negotiate with organized crime, because they have done so for years. With the return of the PRI to Los Pinos [Presidential residence, in 2012], many expected that the old pact in which organized crime and drug trafficking worked for the State would be re-established. Sadly, it seems that the new modus vivendi is the State working for organized crime. Spanish Original
*Diego Petersen Farah holds a degree in Communication Sciences. An information analyst, he has worked as an editor, assistant director and director in different print media in Mexico. He is the author of the novel 'Los que habitan el abismo', 'Those That Inhabit the Abyss'. He is a regular columnist for sinembargo.mx @DiegoPetersen