Morelia, Mich., May 22.- “More than recognition, we would like a public apology from the State for everything it has done against the rural teachers colleges,” said Alex Santiago, a member of the Student Council of the Vasco de Quiroga Rural Teachers College in Tiripetío, because he said: “It is sad to reach 100 years with 43 missing.”
Interviewed at the school's facilities as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the rural teacher training college, which has housed thousands of students from marginalized areas of Michoacán and other parts of the country, the teacher training college student emphasized that they demand justice and the return of their classmates alive.
Alex Santiago, originally from the State of Mexico, commented that the student teachers have been repressed on several occasions by state and federal security forces, as occurred on October 15, 2012, when 176 students from the Cherán, Arteaga, and Tiripetío student teachers' colleges were evicted and detained. The most serious incident was the fact that the more than 200 uniformed officers beat several students.
The students were demanding that the government, led by PRI member Fausto Vallejo, postpone the so-called curriculum reform for a year. As a pressure measure, the students seized 95 vehicles, and on the day of the attack, in which they also threw rocks at the police, they set fire to at least two vehicles.
