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UNAM
students with political messages during political rally.
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| Students
gather on opposing sides during Cárdenas' visit to the
UNAM. |
My
goal this summer in Mexico City was to continue a project
I had started in March: Documenting the aftermath and political
implications of a divisive year-long student strike and occupation
of Mexico's largest public university. What I found arriving
back to Mexico immediately before the July 2 presidential
elections was amazing: Everywhere, people were talking of
hartazgo (being fed up) with the system. Adding to the chaos,
the capital's main square, the Zocalo, was occupied by thousands
of teachers from other states striking for higher wages.
The country was on the brink of social and political upheaval.
My first visit back to the National Autonomous University
of Mexico (UNAM) was even more astounding: Just days before
the elections, thousands of students had turned out for a
hotly contested campaign visit to campus from leftist candidate
Cuauhtemoc Cardenas. By the end of his speech, opposing student
factions were attacking each other with fists, rocks, sticks,
eggs, and throwing small explosives. What I witnessed was
the radical student protest movement that had held the university
captive for its longest strike ever, losing its footing in
the shifting political sands of the university and the country.
The fact
that Cardenas was on campus at all was a victory for those
students attempting to reclaim their university as an open
space for free speech and political debate after more than
a year of conflict.
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Political
rally at the UNAM.
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The
significance of the shift at the UNAM was highlighted days
later, when Mexicans shocked themselves and the world by
electing opposition leader Vicente Fox from the National
Action Party (PAN) to the presidency. In doing so, they ended
71 years of same-party rule under the Institutional Revolutionary
Party (PRI). Many have called the UNAM strike a reflection
of Mexico, and it was never more apparent than on July 2.
While still focusing on the UNAM, I turned to the larger
picture. Through interviews with students, faculty, political
analysts and citizens, it became clear that Mexicans in general
were ready for a change. Like the UNAM students who supported
Cardenas's visit, they were fed up with the dominant political
system that had run the country for so many decades. My plan
was to build on interviews from the earlier visit in March
to the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where
some 280,000 students missed classes for an academic year
while the campus was occupied by protesters. The strike finally
ended in February with a police raid, which left hundreds
of students in jail and the protest movement struggling to
survive. The movement - led by the General Strike Council
(CGH) - initially gained support for its goal to protect
free public education, but deteriorated as student groups
with differing ideologies fought for control, and a smaller,
more radical contingent took over. In the context of the
elections, and the amazing win of Vicente Fox, I began looking
at the university in terms of the ideals a majority had voted
for. Interestingly, though education is hugely problematic
in Mexico, Fox's education platform was not strong - but
his economic policies and neoliberal politics were. In fact,
as governor of Guanajuato, Fox was criticized for failing
in education.
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Cárdenas
supporters show their hope for a new government.
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The
main platform of the CGH was free, public education and anti-neoliberal
policies. Ironically, it seems that much of the country is
with Fox, more interested in economics than in perceiving
globalization as an evil. All of this has to do with hartazgo,
it seems. The people of Mexico, in majority, are fed up,
and want change. And the long, painful standoff with increasingly
radical student protesters turned many off. In turn, they
voted for exactly what the students were protesting. What
was lacking in the students' proposal, however, was an alternative.
They had nothing new to offer, just a rejection of the old
ideas, of neoliberal policies and globalization, but with
few concrete suggestions of what should replace it. In fact,
theirs were politics of destruction. Mexicans have elected
change, but at what cost is to be seen. Meanwhile, at the
UNAM as well as in the larger political scene, people from
all sides are struggling to push their agenda.
Megan
Lardner is a student in the joint MJ/MA program in Graduate
School of Journalism and Latin American Studies.
