The Mexican community of Vancouver, along with organizations including Mexicans Living in Vancouver, Jornadas de Salud, the BC Teachers’ Federation, Initiative for Democratic Education in the Americas (IDEA) and students of the Canadian College are organizing a demonstration to denounce the Mexican government and demand the safe return of 43 rural students who went missing at the hands of police last September.

WHEN: From 5 p.m. on November 20, 2014

WHERE: The groups plan to rally on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery before marching to the Mexican Consulate at 411-1177 West Hastings St. Attendees are asked to wear black and to bring candles or glow sticks.

This would be the third rally or demonstration organized by Mexican nationals in Vancouver. As Mexicans living abroad, it is our responsibility to create awareness. As human beings, it is our duty to let the Mexican government know that their actions are unacceptable. The goal of thesedemonstrations is to create international awareness of the lawlessness that currently engulfs Mexico with deep grief. We also want to extend our support for the local protests taking place in Mexico and to express our solidarity with the parents of the missing students. We ask that Canadians join the Global Action for Ayotzinapa and persuade the Canadian government to condemn what is clearly a state crime.

What if 43 UBC students went missing at the hands of police? This week Vancouver held local elections. But democracy does not exist when you can’t hold your government accountable. This is what the students of Ayotzinapa were doing. They were studying to become rural teachers and their biggest crime was being young, poor and idealistic.

On September 26, following a confrontation between local police and student demonstrators, sixstudents were killed and 43 were taken by police, who were apparently following an order from the mayor of the town of Iguala in the state of Guerrero. According to federal authorities, the police then handed the students over to a local drug cartel. During the search for their bodies mass graves were found. One of these mass graves suggests that a large number of bodies had been incinerated, but so far the government hasn’t been able to prove whether the bodies are those ofthe missing students.

Even though Mexico’s attorney general, Jesús Murillo Karam, refuses to accept that we are dealing with a state crime, the federal government knew that the mayor of Iguala had ties with a local drug cartel. And the facts speak for themselves: 80,000 people have been murdered and more than 22,000 have gone missing in Mexico since 2006. Less than 2 percent of crimes are prosecuted, meaning impunity is rampant in Mexico. In recent years it has become clear that the Mexican government is inept and unwilling to prosecute crime or that it has been infiltrated by crime gangs and is therefore corrupt. Either way, the Mexican government is not doing its job in guaranteeing the safety of its citizens.

For more information please contact Nancy Silva at 778-689-7968.