As a Mexican-American woman, my heart has been broken once again.
Oaxaca, a state in mexico who is known for their rich culture and environmental beauty, is in turmoil.
Teachers are protesting education reform that has been described as neo-liberal. The education reform would require testing for teachers and would be very dangerous for teachers who are in teachers unions.
The week before this, two teachers who were part of the unions were arrested. This caused for protests across the area, fighting against the education reform. This past Sunday, the police opened fire on the protesters, killing nine people and wounding many more.
This seems shocking, right? How can a government actually allow this to happen to their own citizens? Unfortunately, this is nothing new.
Why is the title of this article attacking the President of Mexico?
There seems to be a pattern happening when it comes to students' and teachers' fighting for their rights.
In 2014, 43 students disappeared in the state of Guerrero after police shot and took the students from the bus forcibly. We still do not know the whereabouts of these students and they are presumed to be dead.
While this also seems to be shocking as well, these students were on their way to a protest to, yup, you guessed it, protest the Mexican government.
Seems to be that every time Mexican citizens protest something that they are not in agreement with, those people end up dying. What is worse is that the Mexican government doesn't even give any explanation for their actions.
Don't believe me? Fine, I can supply a lost of incidences of state tolerated violence against Mexican citizens fighting for their rights.
Masacre de Tlatelolco: October 2, 1968 in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. Mexican soldiers opened fire on unarmed students protesting just days before the Olympics took place in the capital. Still to this day, they are unsure of the actual number of those killed -- many are still missing.
Masacre de Acteal: In December of 1997, a group known as los abejas, or "the bees," were praying in a huge group. Police officers then proceeded to kill 45 people, about 15 of the victims were children. Many believe that this tragedy happened because this group empathized with the Zapatistas, those who were in disagreement with NAFTA.
So why I am saying that the President needs to resign? If these incidences happened more than 20 years ago, what does this have to do with him?
The answer is quite simple. People like him are those who keep allowing the violence to keep happening.
This sign states: In Mexico it is more dangerous to be a student than to be a drug dealer.
If we look at the history, this sign is quite accurate. We won't get anywhere with presidents who stay passive about these issues, lying to the world and saying the bullets fired at the protest were not live ammunition. How can that be if nine people have died of gunshot wounds fired by your police officers?
This is not 1968 anymore; you cannot keep lying while there is so much technology and so many people able to see what is happening.
Just remember -- the whole world is watching you.
