You all must have heard of Ayotzinapa by now. It's been in US papers as well as Mexican ones. It has been one year since the murder and "disappearance" of 43 students from the normal school in Ayotzinapa. The parents of the missing and dead have kept the issue in the headlines by their demonstrations and meetings and speeches. Peña Nieto's government has not been able to push past it. Unlike the clichéd belief that what's news today disappears tomorrow, Ayotzinapa, has remained front and center.
Yesterday Peña Nieto spoke at the United Nations. Maybe he was trying to discredit the Ayotzinapa families, perhaps not. They must have been on his mind in any case.
As reported in Aristegui Noticias,* "at the UN General Assembly, he called on society to be on the alert for populists who can 'take advantage of their fears.'
"He continued, 'With growing inequalities, a world economic crisis that hasn't eased up, and with the social frustrations these provoke, the world today is threatened with new populist movements on the right and on the left, the risks from both being the same.'
"Without mentioning names, he said that 'the twentieth-century already has lived through and suffered the consequences of people who are lacking understanding, a sense of responsibility and an ethical grounding and thus try to divide their people.´
"For that reason, he considered that ´societies must be alert facing those who take advantage of fears and concerns, in the face of those who sow hatred and rancor, with the sole end being to fulfill political agendas and to satisfy personal ambitions.'
"The president stressed that we must not repeat the errors that have caused so much pain to the world in the past.' Peña Nieto said that 'division is not the solution', and he fought to recover the value of trust in institutions.
"The president indicated that in the UN, 'Mexico is a nation committed to human rights and peace,' at the same time, he spoke about the challenge that climate change represents and urged an international response to the problems that illicit drugs cause in the world."
*Spanish Text and photo from Aristegui Noticias. I translated the text.
Just saying.
Whatever.