CARAVANA 43 Public Functions & Activities

Monday, March 16

10am – 11am: Press Conference
Location: Guadalupe Theatre (1314 Guadalupe Street
(rainy day alternatives: Guadalupe Theatre)

2:30 PM Mexico’s Struggling Democracy and the Ayotzinapa Case
Sponsored by Trinity University Mexico, The Americas, Spain Program (MAS), Political
Science and Sociology Department
Location: Chapman Auditorium (1 Trinity Place, San Antonio, TX)

5-6pm – Rally / Direct Action
Location: Mexican Consulate (127 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX)

Tuesday, March 17

9am – Breakfast at Friary
Location: OLLU (for the students, clergy, faculty — limited space available)

2pm – 4 pm – Speaking Engagement at Our Lady of the Lake
Sponsored by University Ministry
Location: Thiry Auditorium (411 SW 24th St., San Antonio, TX)

6pm-8pm: Town Hall Meeting
Location: Esperanza Center (922 San Pedro Ave, San Antonio, TX)
Moderator: Julio Cesar Guerrero, National Coordinator
Panelists: Professor Rosana Blanco-Cano from Trinity University, Enrique Gómez
Sociology Professor from UNAM (retired)

A group representing the parents of 43 students who went missing more than five months ago in Mexico, triggering national outrage and accusations of systemic government corruption, will visit San Antonio.

Their two-day visit  is part of a U.S. tour to condemn human rights violations in Mexico, organizers said. A coalition of more than a dozen local community organizations is hosting the visitors and raised money to help defray caravan expenses.

The group includes Maria de Jesus Tlatempa Bello, whose son Eduardo Bartolo Tlatempa is among the missing. Also joining the caravan will be Omar Vazquez Arellano, who survived a deadly attack on the students.

Known as the Ayotzinapa 43, after the name of the teacher training college they were attending in the Mexican state of Guerrero, the students went missing Sept. 26, 2014, allegedly at the hands of police who turned them over to be killed by a drug gang. An attack on the students left six other classmates dead and many others wounded.

The students had been traveling by bus to the nearby town of Iguala to raise money for a trip to Mexico City, where they planned to demonstrate on the anniversary of a police-led massacre of students in 1968.

The case has rocked Mexico to its core, leading to widespread claims of government corruption and cooperation with organized crime and drug cartels. Critics say the government has been inept in its investigation.

Last November, federal authorities arrested Iguala’s mayor and his wife for allegedly ordering the attack. They said the couple ran the city in tandem with a local drug cartel.

Still, there’s been no sign of the students and many presume they were murdered.

The caravan stopping in San Antonio is one of three that will tour the country. It is also scheduled to also make stops in Austin, Dallas and nine other cities in the central United States.

“The invitation of people of the United States to share our struggle is very timely since our plan is to travel to Central and South America and to Europe from where we have already received more invitations,” Felipe de la Cruz Sandoval, a representative of the Ayotzinapa group said in a statement. “It is important that both citizens and government leaders of other countries are aware of the injustices in Mexico, and the international community see what is the globalization of repression.”

Parents of the missing students said they plan to take their case to Amnesty International, the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Foreign Policy magazine reported this week that a U.N. report found torture is common in Mexican police stations and prisons and that authorities act with impunity. Another U.N. report last month criticized the country’s handling of what it called “enforced disappearances,” referencing the missing Ayotzinapa students, according to the magazine report.