(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #225 - Mexico: The torturers return to power (fr)

In Mexico, the Institutional Revolutionary Party mafia repeats its claims practices with 
impunity since the election of the new president, Enrique Pe?a Nieto. ---- On December 
1st, Enrique Pe?a Nieto (EPN) took office as President of the Republic of Mexico, 
restoring the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) presidential powers lost in 2000 in 
favor of the National Action Party, after 70 years of uninterrupted reign . To celebrate 
this, the PRI has violently suppressed the movement # 132 launched in spring 2012 by 
students and whose practices are similar movements Indignant es or Occupy. ---- Mafia PRI 
will thus be able to resume its claims practices with impunity: corruption, clientelism, 
repression, support for paramilitary groups, etc..

All this against the backdrop of neoliberal project progress North America, already well 
developed by the National Action Party (PAN) in recent years: rampant privatization of 
utilities (energy, education), mega imposed (dams, wind farms, mines) hard against social 
movements and indigenous. To accompany this, the massive use of military and police, 
arguing the war against drug trafficking, making Mexico one of the most violent in the 
world (60,000 deaths over the past six years).

To get the pill, EPN promises of social reforms and called the army and police to respect 
human rights. He even went so unlike his predecessor, to enact the "Law of the victims" 
nine months after his vote in parliament, considered by social organizations as a first 
step towards ending impunity.

Return to the primary

But it can not hide the true face of PRI back in power: EPN was governor of the state of 
Mexico during the police operation in Atenco in 2006 (2 dead, 27 rapes, dozens of injured 
and es- tortured-es), and Education Minister Emilio Chuayffet was Secretary to the 
Government during the Acteal massacre of 22 December 1997 (45 deaths, the majority women 
and children, killed by paramilitaries). In terms of justice and respect for human rights, 
so you know what to expect.

The PRI will nevertheless reckon with strong social movements, powered by the ras-le-bol 
of the war against narco by economic insecurity (eg with more than seven million young 
"neither-nor" who have neither work or studies), and weariness with the political system 
as corrupt.

Social movements in alert

# 132 The movement remains active life difficult for EPN during his travels, the Movement 
for Peace with Justice and Dignity continues to put pressure for a change of strategy 
against the narcos, and the Zapatistas decided to resume the voice, after a few years 
rather quiet busy building their project of indigenous autonomy in Chiapas.

Forty thousand activists and hooded parade - even silently - in the streets of San 
Cristobal de Las Casas on December 21 to commemorate the 15 years of Acteal. Then the EZLN 
issued a statement on 30 December, in which he discusses his strategy of silence that 
traditional media had the opportunity to bury the movement, and expresses his desire to 
reconnect with the social and indigenous organizations, national and international to 
continue his fight for justice, indigenous rights and autonomy. Nineteen years after their 
public appearance, reinforced by years of practical experience and self-es always decided 
to oppose neoliberal projects in Chiapas, the Zapatistas are quite a thorn in the side of EPN.

Jocelyn (AL Montreuil)