With the situation changing so rapidly, the best I can do is reblog from those in Oaxaca.
The looming federal police attack on the people and striking teachers of Oaxaca, Mexico has begun. There are reports of between six and eight demonstrators killed Sunday morning at the teachers-peoples highway blockade in Nochixtlán, northwest of the city of Oaxaca. The eight dead that the movement is confirming are Oscar Aguilar Ramírez, 25, Andrés Sanabria García, 23, Anselmo Cruz Aquino, 33, Yalit Jiménez Santiago, 28, Oscar Nicolás Santiago, Omar González Santiago, 22, Antonio Perez García, and Jesús Cadena Sánchez, 19. They were shot and killed when police opened fire with live ammunition on the blockade. At least 45 others have been hospitalized with injuries, the majority gunshot wounds, and 22 have been disappeared.
BACKGROUND ARTICLES:
This piece will focus on currently developing events. For information on what led to this situation, please see the following articles:
- The first two weeks of the teachers strike (May 15-30)
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Orlando, Veracruz… and the Bishops
The massacre at Madames’ bar in Veracruz three weeks ago (22 May) was initially written off as “narco-violence” both here and abroad, then promptly disappeared in the media. It took another gay bar massacre… this one written off as the U.S.’s favorite rationale for mass murder, “middle eastern terrorism” basically overlooked by the media (both here and abroad) until the Pulse massacre made gay bar massacres a thing.
While it is much more difficult to report on crimes here (reporters, for their own — and their family’s — protection often limited to “official” sources) and we don’t even have the body count, as in Orlando, it’s obvious the “official explanation” is, at most, only a small part of the story. The “official story” given out about the disappearances of the Ayotzinapa students, which makes one suspicious of official stories in general, reportage on the event overlooked the tense political situation in Veracruz, and… only after the fact… noted the toxic effects of (largely imported) homophobic propaganda here.
Although the Catholic Church hierarchy here has come under fire for its reactionary positions (even by the Pope, who openly criticized the Bishops, and snubbed Cardinal Rivera during the recent Papal visit) in post-Orlando media coverage, the “after-the-fact” claim that the Church swung the recent election away from the PRI, based on Enrique Peña Neito’s support for a same-sex marriage clause in the Constitution, is far fetched.
As it is, Peña Neito’s call is more turd-polishing than anything. Gay marriages have been the law of the land since 2010, but because of an anomaly in our Constitution, the Supreme Court cannot order states to change their own laws. However, the Supreme Court ruling is binding, and every federal judge in the country must grant an amparo (injunction) to any same-sex couple who seeks a marriage in a state where such marriages are still not permitted. When the abysmal state of human rights in Mexico under the Peña Neito administration became a story, and started to filter into foreign media, his call for a constitutional change was a painless way of giving him a “liberal” image.
In reality, while sane-sex marriages are performed in all states but Hidalgo (which recognizes marriages in other states), where laws are still on the books limiting marriage to opposite-gender couples, it has more to do with political inertia or party politics than to any real objections to such marriages. The poor showing by the PRI had more to do with widespread corruption (especially in Veracruz) than any presidential pronouncement.
The Bishops who have allied themselves to the political elite and the status quo, can read the writing on the wall. With the “Confessional Party”, PAN morphing with the “liberal” PRD, and the Papacy (along with much of the faithful) looking for a change in leadership in the Church, need an issue to rally the people (and maintain their influence). Interestingly enough that they’ve had to ally with the Mormon hierarchy, the more conservative Evangelicals and the Orthodox on this, but it shows me that gay marriage — a done deal in all but Constitutional mention — never has been, nor will be, more than a minor controversy.
While anti-marriage voters are only a minority, in pushing the issue (if the Bishops were indeed, as they now claim, making this a political issue — which would be illegal by the way) the Churchmen are giving support the the most homophobic among us. The arguments against same-sex marriage that I’ve seen, seem to be cut-n-pasted from U.S. propaganda. The foreign groups mentioned in Jenaro Villamil’s Proceso article (original here) tie back to groups like “National Organization For Marriage” that depend on U.S. contributors to keep themselves in business. Gay marriage having become a moot issue in the U.S. (aside from die-hards who are every day less and less relevant to anyone) exporting their causes at least keeps their board of directors employed a bit longer.
As in the U.S., as the legal position of GLBTQ people has improved, there has been an increase in violent backlash. Part is due just to less reluctance to report violence directed at persons because of their sexual orientation, but also due to the tendency to turn to more and more violent reactions as one’s beliefs are marginalized.
What happened in Orlando appears to have been a perfect storm — a self-loathing gay man (perhaps the result of religious intolerance, in his own religion, and more to the fact, against his religion) who was also known to be prone to violent, having easy access to high-powered weapons. What happened in Veracruz is harder to figure out (access to the types of weapons used being much more difficult than in the United States, though that’s where they come from) but in both, the intersection of organized homophobia in a politically tense climate cannot be overlooked, nor should it be.
I urge everyone to read Villamil’s “La Santa Homofobia en México” (Proceso, 14-June-2016) or the English translation by Rebecca Nannery, “Mexican Catholic Church Promotes Homophobia” (Mexico Voices, 16-June-2016) for an overview of the issue.
Additional sources:
Desde de Fe
Lifesitenews.com
Jornada
El Universal
Be careful what you wish for
In a recent state-wide contest of some note, it was expected that the left-wing insurgent might win, or might at least come very, very close. I am referring, of course, to the Governor’s election in Veracruz (what else could I possibly be thinking of?).
In Veracruz, the two establishment candidates (first cousins) — Hector Yunes Landa of the PRI (and allies) was supposedly facing off against Miguel Angel Yunes for the PAN-PRD coalition. While billed as a knock-down, drag out contest between the establishment, the major media here and abroad tended to overlook the very strong polling (at one point leading) by left-wing candidate, engineer and school teacher, Cuitláhuac García Jiménez. Coming in a strong third (nothing to sneeze at) was something of a disappointment for García’ MORENA party, although it surprised some political writers here (and was completely ignored by the usual suspects in the U.S. media, who didn’t even bother noting that the conservative PAN was running in a coalition with left-of-center PRI.
With the outgoing PRI governor considered a crook at best, it really was no shock to anyone when the PAN-PRD cousin was declared the winner, with 34.5 percent of the vote, to 30.5 for PRI-etc. No shock to anyone, but with PRI having run the state … basically for as long as there has been a PRI… the knee-jerk reaction was to claim fraud at the ballot box… something the main parties have all been known to engage in, so not without merit (though it is like the pot calling the kettle black).
Funny thing. With ballots being examined, it looks like García and Morena received many more votes than were initially reported, and García’s 26.3 percent of the electorate may actually be much higher. Unlikely to be enough to put the left in control of the governorship, but being the second party in the state (first… maybe) is not out of the realm of plausibility.
El Demócratia (Veracruz, Veracruz). OPLE concluye cómputo distrital de elección a gobernador, en Coatzacoalcos. 9 June 2016
Presencia (Acayucan, Veracruz). Recupera miles de votos Morena en recuento de votos del distrito 27. 9 June 2016
SPDNoticias. En recuento, Cuitláhuac podría obtener la victoria. 8 June 2016.
Truthdig. California Election Tally May Be 3 Million Votes Shy. 9 June 2016
Wall Street Journal. Mexico’s Ruling Party Loses Gubernatorial Races in Several States. 6 June 2016.
LADIES…. please!
No doubt Aguascalientes state congressional deputy Norma Guel Saldívar (PRI) was just feeling generous. There she was, along with her brother, the PRI’s former state chair, and now a federal judge, distributing “dispensas” — food boxes — to the deserving masses, when they were rudely interrupted by PAN candidate Norma Zamora Rodríguez. Well, it’s not like the Guels were exactly passing out cash bribes, though Ms. Zamora had to spoil the afternoon charity benefit by calling FEPADE, the Fiscalía Especializada Para la Atención de Delitos electorales (Special Prosecutor for Electoral Crimes). Rather unsporting.
Ms. Guel is the blonde in the polka-dot blouse. Ms. Zamora the one with the pony tail and brown slacks.
And now you know why bars are closed here on election day!
Death in Xalapa… politics as usual
At least six, and maybe many more (possibly as many as 20), people were murdered early Sunday morning at Madame,a popular Xalapa gay bar. A horrible crime, and with no real information being given out by the authorities, one can only go on speculation.
According to news reports, there were about 400 people in the bar at the time. The Madame’s hit may have been directed on one individual or group. That same Saturday night/Sunday morning, a bar in Orizaba was also hit, killing two, including the boyfriend of the late Anabel Flores, a reporter murdered by the Zetas a few weeks back. The Zetas are not careful about avoiding collateral damage, and it’s quite plausible the attack at Madame was meant to either take out a targeted individual (or group), or … as when other public venues have been attacked… to threaten the business’ owners.
Coming at the end of the week when GLBT issues have been a matter of public discourse, there is the nagging sense that there was something more than just another gangster rub-out writ large. The previous Monday, Enrique Peña Nieto surprised the nation by proposing that same-sex marriage laws be enacted nation-wide. The Supreme Court has already ruled that the states must change their marriage laws for constitutional reasons (since 2011, the Mexican Constitution has recognize equality before the law regardless of gender preference) and that same-sex marriages in any of the six states or the Federal District where same-sex marriages are already legal are valid throughout the Republic. It is only a matter of months before same-sex marriage laws are on the books in every state anyway.
The President’s support was seen more as a way of deflecting world-wide criticism of his administration’s dismal human rights record… and a way of moving the focus of media coverage away from unpopular educational “reforms”, the falling peso, chronic corruption scandals, missing students… In a sense, it’s worked, although even among the GLBT media figures, there is the recognition that this is more a cynical political ploy, and not a particular change of heart by a president who claims to be a “good Catholic”. Peña Nieto, in his announcement, noted that there was support in all political parties for the initiative.
True enough: other than token opposition by legislators talking about “family values” and the hard-right, the only party not to sign on is on the left, Morena. Even there, the opposition is less to marriage or GLBT rights than to who is pushing for the change. It’s just a given that if Morena proposes, the other parties oppose, and vice-versa. And Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as with many of his followers, are social conservatives, and has grown from non-existence to being on the verge of becoming the third largest party (and leading in polls to win the 2018 presidential elections) by focusing on those other issues, like missing students and dissenters from the neo-liberal ruling parties. And, Morena attracts not just the intellectuals and the artistic community, but also has its power base in Mexico City, where same-sex marriage didn’t prove as controversial as expected, and while still not all that common, met mostly with a shrug. As it is, AMLO has confined himself to sniping about his usual complaints, and … no fool when it comes to building coalitions wherever he can… has made nice with the GLBT community of late.
Veracruz State, the scene of the slaughter, is the one hold-out state where legislation explicitly forbids same-sex marriage. It is also in the midst of one of the nastiest (and most fascinating) elections I’ve ever watched. There, the right-liberal coalition (PAN-PRD) is running Miguel Ángel Yunes against the PRI’s Héctor Yunes. One would hate to be at their family dinners, with the two cousins hurling accusations of not just the usual corruption, but pedophilia, and other perversions as well. Perhaps it’s simply a matter of disgust with both the major party candidates, but it appears likely that Cuitláhuac García, of Morena, will be the next governor. With the present governor, Javier Duarte, widely known to be corrupt, and even the PRI offering to “investigate”, while the PAN-PRD Yunes cousin ups the ante by promising to send him to jail, García has the edge… wanting to send the Governor to Hell.
This election was widely expected to become violent, and — with Duarte assumed to have a hand in organized crime in the a state where same-sex marriage (and GLBT rights in general) are openly opposed — some suspect the Madame massacre may have been a “perfect storm” … political opportunism, organized crime, and just under the surface bigotry exploding in one night of gunfire.
Sources:
Autoridades mienten, más de 20 muertos en antro gay de Xalapa (Actualización). Regeneración. 24 May 2016.
Hiariat, Pablo. Y si Morena gana Veracruz?. El Fianciero. 12 May 2016.
Más de 15 muertos en balacera de Xalapa, autoridades ocultan información. Noreste (Xalapa Edition). 22 May 2016
Orsino, Guillermo. Un país violento pero gay friendly. Milenio 24 May 2016
Zavaleta, Noé. Ataques armados en discotecas de Veracruz dejan al menos 6 muertos. Proceso 22 May 2016.
———–. “Cierro los ojos y… veo sangre”, cuenta testigo del ataque al antro Madame. Proceso 23 May 2016.
Peter Davies, a long-time resident of Mexico City, translated a look at the latest crack-down on those teachers opposing the so-called “educational reforms”
Enrique Enriquez Ibarra, General Secretary of section 9 of the CNTE in Mexico City stated that ¨in complicity with the government of Mexico City, the Peña administration returned to a practice of intolerance that we haven´t experienced in more than three decades. With verbal, psychological and physical intimidation our colleagues were forced to board buses that they had prepared to remove them from the country´s capital, with no assurance that they would actually be transported to their home state¨.
A police officer stated that they were deployed to ¨seal the streets adjacent to Plaza Santo Domingo. The colleagues that were staying overnight in the camp were cordoned off from two in the morning and noone was permitted to leave the plaza¨.
For the second time in less than 48 hours, the federal government ¨perpetrated two evictions¨, the first being in the early hours of Friday when the teachers were also forced, under the threat of a violent eviction, to pack up their camp which they had maintained in Bucareli Street since May 15.
The Federal Police operation to clear Plaza Santo Domingo was put together on Friday night and at one o´clock Saturday morning federal agents began their deployment.
Mr. Trump. On your Cinco de Mayo “Taco” Bowl.
by Laura Esquivel
How could I explain what a taco is to you, Mr. Trump? Maybe I’d have to start by explaining what a tortilla is, or better yet, what a corncob is. Beginning with how corn is planted, how it’s harvested, how it makes its way to our tables. Corn is a sacred food in our cultures. It is believed to have been a gift from Quetzalcoatl to men for our sustenance (I’m sorry, I might be going to fast, do you even know who I’m talking about?) It’s ok, never mind. The point it, corn is the base of our diet. We cook it in many different ways, all of them very nutritious and tasty. Immigrant farmers and day laborers —those you seem to despise so much—know how to plant it, harvest it, and bring it to their table to be shared in an act of reciprocity to the earth’s enormous generosity.
How to explain to you, in simple terms, what generosity is? Suffice it to say, I’m certain that those immigrants who have been forced to leave their lands behind and put their lives in danger to cross the border, wouldn’t hesitate for a second before offering you a real taco if you were starving. If they found you in the street, penniless, homeless, jobless and without friends. Because hey know firsthand the profound grief that a human experiences under those circumstances, and they would try to alleviate your situation. They would even do so without expecting anything in return, although I’m also sure that you might find a way to thank them. Or maybe you wouldn’t even know how to react. How can I explain to you the gratitude that surges from one’s heart after receiving help? Maybe the ones best suited to explain this to you through their own experiences would be the south Americans (not Hispanics) who cross Mexico on “The Beast” and that are fed by “Las Patronas”, those admirable Mexican women who cook for them. Do you know what I’m talking about? Do you know of this train? Of those women? Do you even know what hunger is? What about necessity? Abuse? Discrimination? The pain caused by watching someone starve to death? The profound injustice of an economic system that creates poor people only to mock them after? I would venture to guess that you don’t. You know nothing about this, just like you know nothing about so many other things.
I’ll leave you now, but before I go I just want to explain that the 5th of May is not even an official holiday in Mexico, and that I hope someday you’ll be offered a real taco.
Laura Esquivel (born 1950, Mexico City) is a novelist, essayist, and screenwriter. Her 1989 novel, “Como Agua para Chocolate”, is not only a literary classic, but a culinary one.
Left… behind?
Although same-sex marriage has been de facto legal everywhere in Mexico for a few years now, not all states have changed their marriage laws to reflect our Supreme Court ruling on the matter. Without too much fuss, state legislatures have been reforming their own laws over the last two years, Campeche being the latest. While there was a demonstration against the reform bringing about 200 people into the street, the measure easily passed with all but one legislator voting in favor of the change (which also prohibits marriage among minors). The one nay vote came from Adriana Ávilez Ávilez. Her rationale was that such marriages are “against morals and nature, like mixing oil and water”… the usual kind of thing you’d hear from a die-hard conservative.
What makes that noteworthy is that Ávilez Ávilez is the sole representative of Morena, the left-est of the leftist parties. It’s a mistake to confuse leftism with social liberalism, especially when talking about Latin America, and especially in Mexico, where the economic theory (socialism) is much closer to the “traditional values” than other European-based theories. One can of course be both socially liberal and a socialist, but they are by no means synonymous. In a sense, perhaps our socialists should be considered conservatives, wanting to preserve the communal values and relative equality of traditional rural societies. Or, maybe Adriana Ávilez Ávilez is just a bit of a crank.
Ah, crap!
Which political party is full of crap? At our local doggie park, the answer seemed to be… all of them.
A late Día de la Madre post
Or, rather, mostly repost from 2008 (when I’d started to write a history of Mazatlan, which I never did for one reason and another).
Although the “Great Depression” of 1929 affected Mazatlan just as it did everywhere else, the real blow to the economy came on 23 March 1933 with the passage of the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution, repealing liquor prohibition. Mazatlan had profited from the “noble experiment” – two of the city’s most profitable industries – smuggling and brewing – were hit hard. Times were tough. Margareta Montes Plata was tougher. As a ringer on the Cerveceria Diaz de Leon women’s baseball team, Margarita’s ten pesos per game helped get her family though the tough times, but weren’t enough.
With nothing but a strong pitching arm (which she attributed to a childhood spent making tortillas by hand and wielding a machete on the family farm) was desperate to find some source of income. What was then the Teatro Rubio (today’s Angelina Peralta) was desperate for any kind of act that would bring in a paying crowd. When woman boxer Josefina Coronada offered to put on an exhibition match, who knew it would be the start of one of the more amazing careers in the history of women’s sports?
The amateur trained for a month, won the bout and Margarita, fighting under the name “La Maya” boxed throughout Mexico and the United States, fighting 28 men and 5 women (she said “I prefer to fight men, they punch better”) before her early retirement in 1936.
La Maya’s only real problem with boxing had been the presumption that a women boxer was not lady-like. One Mazatlan parrandaro (a guy hanging out) probably wished he hadn’t told her one day that she wasn’t a “real woman.” she knocked him out.
And she was a proper Mexican lady. Her retirement from the ring came when, after marrying bullfighter Jose Valdez, she was expecting her first baby. For some reason, her obstetrician thought boxing might interfere with pre-natal care.
He said nothing about bullfighting. Say what one will about bullfighting, matadors from racial minorities, matadoras and openly gay matadors have been part of the sport for centuries before other professional sports. But, with a growing family – she would eventually have five children – and the bullring circuit requiring too much time away from home, she settled for the less exciting world of bicycle racing.
Widowed in 1961, and starting to feel her own age, she took up truck driving for several years. Rather than retire, she bought a gasoline station with her grandsons, continuing to take an active part in the business well into her late eighties.
Losing my religion…
Being something of a Free Speech absolutist, I question the fairness of this (when proselytizers show up at my door, I find a simple “I’m not interested, thank you” works pretty well) but it seems to be a popular measure.
From Denuncias.mx (my translation):
The Senate is working on a new bill, designed to respect “dominciliary privacy” in religious matters.
The bill would provide for sanctions, and possible jail terms, for those who harrass people in their homes for religious reasons. This follows a recent survey which identified religious propaganda as a major concern in some communities.
People complained about proselytizers making them feel as if they were prisoners in their own homes, or waking people early on Sunday morning, or even threatening to return when told that the householder is not interested.
Under the proposed Ley para la Protección Doméstica, unwanted intrusion by vendors, bill collectors, and even the police would also be covered. Scheduled for a vote on 25 May, the law would provide for jailing the offender up to six weeks, if they return after being told not to, when the householder files a complaint with the public prosecutor.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Church of the Third Day, and the Church of the End Times, have all been mentioned a the most likely to be affected by the new regulation.
I know these kinds of regulations sound as if they’d be “unconstitutional”, and they probably would be (or at least challenged) in the United States, but the Constitution here gives one not just the right to religion belief of one’s choice, but also specifies the right to DISBELIEF. Subtle, but important.
Hoooray for Hollywood!
Unlike his famous father, this lad never starred in a Hollywood film, although his step-sister was in a few minor (and now forgotten) films. Hint: an early photo of this fellow, when he was about 9 or 10 years old, is often produced as being that of his dad. Know who he is?
mexfiles.net 