Dozens of Michoacan Normal School Students Arrested for 'Stealing' Buses Aristegui Noticias
go to original December 9, 2015

Mexico: Students Arrested After Protest (teleSUR English)

The governor of Michoacan confirmed the arrest of more than fifty normal school [teachers college] students accused of various crimes, and the recovery of three buses reported as stolen.

In a press conference, he stated that young people were arrested and handed over to the state attorney general's office, and said that there would be no negotiations to achieve their freedom.

"I will not negotiate the law. They have abused everyone's patience. The general public has been made desperate by these youths' acts of vandalism. The law is not going to be negotiated," said the governor, Silvano Aureoles Conejo, who is a member of the PRD [Party of the Democratic Revolution].

He said the recovered buses had been reported stolen, so during the next few hours the Attorney General of the State will define what charges may be brought against the students, and they will be presented to a judge to determine their legal status.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

MV Note: It has been a longstanding practice of students from the rural normal schools to "take", i.e. seize, commercial buses by blockading highways or going to bus terminals and commandeering vehicles. The drivers, on orders from their employers, stay with their buses. The students use the buses to go to demonstrations, such as in state capitals, like Morelia, Michoacán, or to Mexico City. The Ayotzinapa students who were attacked and disappeared by municipal police in Iguala, Guerrero, on Sept. 26, 2014, had "taken" buses that evening from the city terminal, planning to use them to go to a demonstration in Mexico City.

These actions have been tolerated by the authorities. In the past, on occasions when students have been arrested for such actions, they have held demonstrations, blocking highways or streets in the capital cities until the arrested students have been released without charges.

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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