MASS
DEMONSTRATIONS ACROSS MÉXICO PROTEST CRIME
RATE
30 June 2004
A
recent wave of brutal killings in México has
provoked an unprecedented response across the country.
Hundreds of thousands of Mexican citizens rallied
in 10 major cities, calling for the government to
act to root out corruption and decisively combat criminal
organizations. The demonstrations are possible in
part because the Fox government is not the authoritarian
PRI government that had ruled for 7 decades, but they
are also a sign that Fox's promises to fight corruption
and crime were taken to heart, and the nation is disappointed.
President
Vicente Fox, for his part, praised the demonstrators,
saying "Society is right to affirm that governments
have only reached partial solutions in the fight against
crime and that we have to do much more." Mr.
Fox has gone after criminal gangs, including the notorious
Tijuana drug cartel.
The
demonstrations were sparked by the killing of Francisco
Ortiz Franco, an investigative journalist and editor
for the periodical, Zeta. The largest demonstration
was in México City, where according to the
New
York Times "A human flood of more than
200,000 people flowed through the capital's main boulevards
to its central plaza, the Zócalo, dressed in
white."
The
demonstrations were planned to be silent, as a statement
against violence and sign of solidarity, but a cry
went up from a few of "¡Basta ya!"
(enough already), and caught momentum. That is the
same slogan adopted by the Spanish anti-terrorism
movement that grew up around opposition to Basque
separatist terrorism. In some ways, it demonstrates
a possible parallel, whereby opposition to widespread
suffering and intimidation tactics is spawning a new
popular demand for peace and civility.
The
investigation is a key issue for the demonstrators,
who want answers and are tired of killings with no
final prosecution or punishment for perpetrators.
Mr. Ortiz had been investigating evidence surrounding
the killing a decade ago of Hector Félix Miranda,
a columnist and founder of Zeta. A group of
international journalists had been on the trail of
what they believed was a politically motivated killing.
The
newspaper had come to believe that the chief suspect
in the killing of Félix was a prominent political
figure and PRI mayoral candidate, Jorge Hank Rhon.
Hank has denied any involvement, but is now suspected
by Zeta in the murder of Ortiz as well. Mr.
Ortiz' sister-in-law has reportedly said she expects
the killing may be yet another unsolved crime. [For
more: NYT]
