{"id":2052,"date":"2011-05-10T13:19:40","date_gmt":"2011-05-10T17:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/cairo-in-mexico-city.html"},"modified":"2011-05-10T13:19:40","modified_gmt":"2011-05-10T17:19:40","slug":"cairo-in-mexico-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/cairo-in-mexico-city.html","title":{"rendered":"Cairo in Mexico City"},"content":{"rendered":"The U.S. media paid little attention to\n,\nbut 90,000 marching in the capital, Mexico City,\nfinally got the U.S. and world press’s attention.\n

\nIoan Grillo wrote in globalpost yesterday about\n\nMexico\u2019s Arab moment:\nProtesters demand the resignation of Mexico\u2019s top drug war official.<\/a>\n

\nBut while such stories have become tragically common in Mexico, this was\nthe first time the mourners could vent their grief in front of tens of\nthousands of sympathizers and TV cameras from across the world.\n

\nAnd in this media spotlight, the protesters made a new demand \u2014 amid\nthe failure of the government to provide security, they cried, the Public\nSafety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna must resign.\n

\n\n<\/a>\n\u201cWe don\u2019t want more dead. We don\u2019t want more hate,\u201d protest leader\nJavier Sicilia told the crowd. \u201cPresident Felipe Calderon \u2014 show\nyou are listening to us, and make the public safety secretary resign.\u201d\n

\nThe demand announced at Sunday\u2019s rally gave a new edge to a movement\nthat has been steadily rising amid the massacres and mass graves of\nMexico\u2019s drug war.\n

\nUp until then, protesters had come out with a mix\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\nof condemnations \u2014\nof the cruelty of cartels, abuses by the army and the failure U.S. war\non drugs \u2014 but not a clear solution.\n

\nHowever, rallying to topple a particular official is a tactic that\nhas successfully unified movements throughout history, from the French\nBastille to modern Cairo.\n

\nIn fact, many protesters in Mexico City\u2019s central plaza said they were\ndirectly inspired by the uprisings in the Arab world.\n

\n\u201cPeople are standing up to transform their societies in Egypt and\nin Syria. We have to do the same thing here \u2014 to change our country\nfrom the bottom up,\u201d said Ruben Bueno, a 42-year-old school teacher,\nwho said two of his valued students had been gunned in the violence.\n<\/blockquote>\nJavier Sicilia was there:\n

\n“Why did the president launch the army in an absurd war that has cost\n40,000 victims and left millions of Mexicans in fear?” Sicilia asked in\nhis speech in the plaza. “Everyday, we hear terrible stories that wound\nus and we ask ourselves, When and where did we lose our dignity?”\n

\nCalderon responded on Monday that he would meet with Sicilia and other\nprotest leaders.\n

\n“I also want a Mexico in peace. I also want a Mexico without violence. I\nalso want Mexico without the repression of organized crime,” Calderon\nsaid in the presidential palace, before setting off to meetings in the\nUnited States. “I salute the march for the peace.”\n<\/blockquote>\nBut Calderon hasn’t yet said he’d actually change anything.\n

\nMeanwhile, even the Wall Street Journal has noticed,,\nNicholas Casey wrote 10 May 2011,\n\nMexico Poet Says No to Drug War<\/a>\n

\nNearly 40,000 people have died in drug-related violence since then,\nwith authorities saying Monday that another 13 were killed in a\nshootout between military and drug gangs at a lake on the border with\nTexas. Mr. Sicilia and his followers hope the mounting toll is enough to\ncreate a popular groundswell. This year has been especially terrifying. A\nmass grave site in Tamaulipas was discovered with at least 183 bodies\nlast month, while a second, in the state of Durango, had more than 160.\n

\n“There are killers in the street, the government’s strategy is failed,\nand we are hasta la madre,” said Mr. Sicilia in an interview, using\npopular Mexican phrase meaning “fed up.”\n

\nSome experts point to Colombia as a successful precedent. As the country’s\nmain drug trafficking group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,\nor FARC, boasted popular support as it fought the state, demonstrators\nturned out en masse to counter the claims in 2008. Hundreds of thousands\nof protesters took to streets of Bogot\u00e1 carrying banners that denounced\nkidnappings by the rebel group.\n

\n“They sent a clear message to the FARC that a broad portion of Colombia\nwas against them,” said Alexander Wilde, an expert on Latin American\nsocial movements at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.\n<\/blockquote>\nThere’s more in both articles.\n

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