Mexico City, November 7 (RHC-teleSUR) -- Under heavy criticism for leaving Mexico at a time of crisis, President Enrique Peña Nieto has found it necessary to shorten his trip to China and Australia from ten to six days.
Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Relations Jose Antonio Meade announced on Thursday that “the president’s trip has been adjusted so that he can keep an eye on Ayotzinapa.”
Ruling PRI party senate leader Emilio Gamboa Patron justified the failure to cancel the trip on the grounds that the president’s participation in international forums is important for millions of Mexicans. Peña Nieto will participate in the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in China and the G-20 Summit in Australia.
The trip comes at a time when pressure mounts on Peña Nieto and on all state and federal officials deemed responsible for the deaths and disappearances, as evidenced by the participation of tens of thousands of people in marches, student strikes, and takeovers of highways, radio stations, public buildings and private businesses this week in Mexico and other parts of the world.
Public outrage over the crimes has not been assuaged by the reported arrest of Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca and his wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa, accused of ordering Igual police to attack the students. The bottom line is that their questioning has failed to produce the students alive or even their whereabouts.
News reports are rife with suspicion about the way the case is being handled, including the arrest of Abarca and Pineda in a rundown neighborhood in the Iztapalapa district of Mexico City. Neighbors interviewed on Noticias MVS do not believe the arrest took place on their block and ask why the house in question was not secured, why Abarca was wearing a suit at the supposed time of arrest (2:30 a.m.) and why neither Abarca nor his wife were handcuffed in the photos disseminated in the press.
Family members of the 43 disappeared students have consistently stated that as long as the students are not safely returned, all statements by public officials are simply self-serving media deceptions.
