January 24th, 2015

Arrival to Mexico City

I arrive fine, no problems to get into. Where I'm staying there is no Internet so the fluid communication is complicated. This city is huge. Today I could go around a bit. I could see that there is a fairly affluent middle class, there is not old cars (less than 5 years) in the street, and I could see many expensive sports cars, a lot of ostentation. As first sight it seems that Mexico City has nothing in common with the rest of the country. here the influence of Zapata and Villa revolution. You may notice small details, avenues called "Revolution" and "Insurgents", for example, a large library about the "Mexican revolution" (which I hope to come back when it is opened). It is possible to see the culture of the "Dead Day" (Día de los Muertos). The main characters are "skeletons", colorful bodies nicely dressed which according to some people it is a "mockery" of the bourgeoisie.
In addition to the police forces seen anywhere, when you spend time on a street you can see military trucks, with 6 or 7 police men at the back exposing their guns in their hands. "And why is this?" I asked. "Nothing, that's normal here" they replied me. for what I was told, in the villages, this is not the norm, besides the soldiers get off the truck and go into the houses as doing raids. This is normal, you can see it at any time.

In the press today the headline is about the disappearance of the Teaching Primary Education students. According to reports, researchers at the University of Austria -where the "bodies" of the students found were taken to- have little "hope" to identify the remains. According to the official version, the cartel boss Guerreros Unidos gave the order that there are no traces of murder and for that reason burnt and then smashed bones to throw them into the river. Three articles of the newspaper completed the main pages. The father of the disappeared student Mora Chora who have allegedly identified in these remains declared in an interview that he still does not believe anything the government says and he does not believe even in the Argentine experts in who he trusted because they did not participate in the removal of the remains and because when he was reported about his son death that the remains will be given to him. This never happened, which helps Mora Chora to doubt everything and confirm their participation in the Eighth Global Action for Ayotzinapa held on Monday here in Mexico City. This 26 mobilizations are prepared from 10 am. And it is expected that at 16 pm most of the people in "El Angel" where relatives of the 43 will lead the mobilization to Zocalo. On Monday I'll be there.