On Wednesday, May 26th, I assisted, in Oaxaca City, to the presentation of the second book of stories from Gabriel Hernandez Garcia, a social fighter who knows, as just a few ones, the problems of the humble Oaxaca people and who tries to reflect this on his book. For this reason, I was able to listen to an outstanding journalist from Oaxaca, the diario amanecer’s director, who, surprised and indignant, was asking his listeners (I quote by memory): “how and why is it possible that our politicians and governors lie so shamelessly stating that we live in a democracy, when it is not true? Why do we tolerate them saying that we live in a State of rights and laws, when everybody knows it is a lie?” and he answered this way: “because we allow it; because we, the humble ones, haven’t learned to demand what we deserve”. On Monday 31st, I saw on T.V. a brief note about the possession taking act, of the new leader of the CNOP, the experienced and intelligent priista, lic. Emilio Gamboa Patron. From his speech, I was interested in the following (the quote is not literal again): “We, the PRI followers, have learned a lesson, we have learned from our mistakes and today we are better prepared to retake the guidelines of the country, which is fed up of errors, improvisations and lack of political vision from whom today rule us. Nobody ignores, in fact, that the country is uncomfortable, uneasy and upset due to the bad economic situation and the null results from who promised to get us out of this situation if they arrived to power. And it is true that the biggest mistake from PRI, in case they won again, would be to govern with the old strategies and antique methods; or even worse, to do it copying and “improving” the worst part from the right wing in the exercise of the government”.
The scandalous contradictions between the speech and the facts, old cancer of the Mexican politics, don’t stop in what the journalist said. In San Luis Potosi, after twelve years of PAN rule, the PRI recovered the power; but the antorchistas quickly realized that the new governor, Fernando Toranzo, not only keeps the repressive practices and deaf ears from his ancestors, but also tends to reinforce and harden them. To his respectful and even submissive demand of solutions, he has answered with zero dialogue and zero proposes, to which is added the ominous declaration, copied from the rampant PAN movement, sayingthat he doesn’t deal with “leaders” or “organizations” but with “citizens”. Hidalgo is the other case. The antorchistas have been for months, even years!,taking measurements to solve elemental and non-refutable demands, and they have only been given evasions, feints and deceits. The last ones mentioned, for example, haven’t even recognized and met the memorandums singed by the responsible persons of the government departments involved. This difficult situation has suddenly become almost a tragedy in the indigenous-huasteca community in Pueblo Hidalgo, municipality of Tlanchinol, ruled by a PAN element. This person, acting like an eastern despot, imposed local authorities (called delegados) to all of his governed citizens at his will, without taking into consideration the popular will. The antorchistas from Pueblo Hidalgo were uncomfortable and demanded an open and democratic election. But no one paid attention to them. They have been four months in long-wait at “his” municipality, and what they have only received is war, threats and violent dislodgments which I accused already by the time they occurred.
To support their huasteco partners, and because of the no-fulfillment of their own demands, the antorchistas from Hidalgo installed in a permanent long-wait in Pachuca. Suddenly, the conflict’s temperature rose in Pueblo Hidalgo, being evidence that everything is managed by the same hand. On Saturday, May 29th, at odd hours, an armed group broke into Pedro Odilon Hernandez home, natural leader of the antorchistas; and “tied” him up with ropes (they tied him and his 16-year-old son up) and tried to kidnap them. His partners organized themselves and could free them; but the following day, Sunday 30th, the aggressor group, reinforced with the police, went back to the place and kidnapped Odilon and 5 more natural leaders. They were tortured, beaten and threatened to be expelled from the community and to have their houses burned, “because supposedly, the town doesn’t want antorcha”, and finally the leaders were presented in the “assembly”, where they were forced to resign their political affiliation to antorcha. The “assembly” was formally set by the municipal delegate, Maximiliano Felix Villegas, but he is actually a CNC cacique Martin Peña’s puppet, backed up by the presence of the town council secretary of Tlanchinol, Mario Sanchez Castillo, and by the municipal police. By the time I write this, the situation of the kidnapped is unknown; we only know that 4 of them are severely harmed, among them Pedro Odilon, and that they haven’t received medical help because nobody can get in or out from the community.
The State government washes its hands blaming the PAN mayor; but everybody knows that who rules in Pueblo Hidalgo is Martin Peña, from PRI, executing arm of the politics from Miguel Angel Osorio in the huasteca and lord of the gallows and knives, who has always treated the farmers unjustly, just like in the colony period. It is he, and not “the town”, who doesn’t like antorcha. The Hidalgo antorchistas haven’t let themselves to be fooled and have begun a march from Pachuca to Mexico City, looking forward to arrive to the Federal Government building and to Los Pinos to demand justice. The national antorchismo is ready to support his partners in Hidalgo. The obligated question: is this the way the PRI recognizes its mistakes and learns from his past? Is this, or something similar, what we can expect if one day they retake power? It is just a modest question.
