Voices of Mexico :: Unending repression

New episode of violence puts state where 43 students disappeared on alert

The Mexican state of Guerrero, where 43 students disappeared in September 2014 following an attack by the police, is once again the stage of violent repression by security forces. On June 7, the day of the country’s midterm elections, the city of Tlapa de Comonfort was besieged by the federal police.

According to reports by the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, the headquarters of Ceteg (Guerrero State Coordinating Committee for Education Workers) was raided and a group of teachers and another eight people were detained. The local population responded to the attack and was violently repressed with tear gas and firearms. The student Antonio Vivar Díaz was killed in the confrontation. Among the wounded, four are in a critical condition.

Conectas has joined the international effort to guarantee the integrity of the population of Tlapa and put an end to the repression that continues to afflict the state of Guerrero. In a letter to the Executive Secretary of the IACHR (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights), Emilio Icaza, Conectas requested that independent investigations be conducted into the case, that reparations be made to the victims and that the security agents involved in the violations be held accountable. In 2014, the IACHR established an interdisciplinary group of experts to monitor the case of the 43 missing students.

Click here to read the letter in full.

Copies of the document were sent to the Office of the Attorney General in Mexico, to the president of the National Commission on Human Rights and to various authorities of the Guerrero state government.