In a country where violence has become the new normal, the nine months since the disappearance of 43 students in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero have been marked by protests from a very discontented public. In less than ten years, there have been more than 23,000 disappearances and 100,000 deaths in the country, but Ayotzinapa tipped the scale. This new social mobilization makes it clear that the people disapprove of the government’s response and want new opportunities and methods for political participation. But which paths should we take in order to build them?
The demand “vivos se los llevaron, vivos los queremos” (“alive they took them, alive we want them back”) is still ringing strong, even though government institutions would prefer to close the case. Ayotzinapa awoke us to the fact that this was not an isolated case, that corruption at every level has allowed it to happen (reflected online by the phrase #FueElEstado – “It was the State”), and that Mexicans have had it with the impunity and violence that reigns in their country.
