Public Declaration from the Mexican Political Science Association (AMECIP) and Diverse Political Science Associations in Latin America, North America, Europe, and Worldwide

The Mexican Political Science Association (AMECIP) and Diverse Political Science Associations in Latin America, North America, Europe, and Worldwide

WITH REGARD TO the violent attacks perpetrated against students of the Ayotzinapa Normal School

Concerning the criminal attacks committed on September 26th, 2014 in the Municipality of Iguala, state of Guerrero where 6 people were tortured and killed and other 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School “Raúl Isidro Burgos” were abducted or “forcibly vanished,” The Mexican Political Science Association (AMECIP) along with diverse national, regional, and international associations of Political Science   

Manifest:

1. We condemn any type of violence against anyone, specially the one perpetrated against young students. This violence was motivated by pure evil, discrimination due to poverty or social background, political vengeance or repression of the legitimate right to disagree and manifest political and ideological alignments. At the very same time, we reiterate our solidarity with the pain, anguish, and indignation of mothers, fathers, and relatives of the disappeared students.

2. The crimes committed against these youngsters are part of a historical situation of violence against teachers and students of normal rural schools of that region, especially against Ayotzinapa Normal School. In the hegemonic-authoritarian phase, these violent attacks were perpetrated by security forces of the State. However, nowadays, these State forces are the ones that in a despicable complicity with hired assassins of the organized crime, attempt, in a recurrent and systematic way, against the security of the population all over the Mexican Republic; not just in this case but in thousands others.  

3. Before these horrific acts, Political Science Associations Signees have joined the repudiation and indignation expressed by universities, schools, researchers, teachers, students, ONGs of Mexico and from different countries around the world.

4. The fragility of Mexican political institutions worries us, their perversion and non-excusable diversion from their innate functions of guaranteeing public order and protection to civilians from any form of delinquency and on the other hand, the erratic practices of political parties in recent cases of Human Rights violations. We consider that the risk of fissures in the democratization process that we have been conducting, demands strong institutions, responsible of their functions within the frame of Democracy and Rule of Law.  

Facing this:

 We demand:

 First: The federal authorities, in charge of a diligent management and implementation of justice, must deliver, within a peremptory and immediate timeframe, credible and logical results in regards to the historic truth of these facts. The authorities must identify the masterminds and perpetrators of these crimes, regardless of their rank and hierarchy within the criminal, governmental, economical, and party power spheres.

Second: Full access to justice must be guaranteed to mothers, fathers, and other relatives of the murdered students and their rights of victims must be compensated.

Third: It is urgent and necessary that institutions of the Mexican State be redesigned. The State must establish, in all its spheres, legal and procedural mechanisms for an effective correlation among citizens, authorities, and political parties in order to fulfill voids that these institutions have left, led by their own interests or omission, to factual groups of power with licit and illicit activities.

 Fourth: The alternatives and orientations adopted by PNUD and OEA must be taken into consideration while redesigning security state policies. These alternatives and orientations recommend adopting concepts and models of “civic” and “human” security, besides the focus of “Safe Cities for Women. Their strategy is principally orientated towards the safety of people, emphasizing on prevention, and on a new social policy that distribute wealth, in a more equitable way, making possible the access to justice and contributing to the respect of law, order, human rights, and Democracy.  

For the defence of the Human Rights of Mexican Citizens

Sincerely,

José Manuel Luque – President, la Asociación Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas
Aiji Tanaka – President, International Political Science Association
Mariana Llanos - Secretary General, Asociación Latinoamericana de Ciencia Política
Simón Pachano – President, Asociación Ecuatoriana de Ciencia Política
Sergio Toro – President, Asociación Chilena de Ciencia Política
María Paz – President, Asociación Boliviana de Ciencia Política
Martín D'Alessandro – President, Sociedad Argentina de Análisis Político
Leonardo Avritzer – President, Asociación Brasileña de Ciencia Política
Patricia Muñoz – President,  Asociación Colombiana de Ciencia Política
Marcelo Daniel Vallejos – President, Asociación Nacional de Politólogos Estudiantes y Gradudados
Adolfo Garcé – President, Asociación Uruguaya de Ciencia Política.

 Mexico, DF, December 4th, 2014