Celaya GTO: Sick of the Violence Thousands of Students Take to the Streets

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: SinEmbargo y reportindigo
              

Gabriel, an engineering student in Celaya, died after being assaulted on the streets of his school on Saturday.  Thousands of Celaya students, fed up with violence, took to the streets for the second day in a row to demand justice for "Gabo" and Increased security.

Celaya, Guanajuato, October 2: Approximately 6,000 students from various high schools and universities in Celaya joined the march and asked for security in the municipality of Guanajuato on Wednesday afternoon.

By 12:30 on Wednesday, the largest contingent of students advanced on Insurgentes Avenue towards the Central Zone. This group is made up of students from the Technological Institute of Celaya (ITC), where Gabriel Luna Ibarra studied, who was assaulted last Saturday , Sept 28, on the corner of Technological Avenue  with Calle Hortencia, in the Valle Hermoso neighborhood. His attackers injured him lethally with several stab wounds and the news of his his death spread Sunday morning.

For this day, the students of the Tecnologico de Roque, the National Pedagogical University, the University of Celaya and the Universidad Latina, University of Guanajuato Celaya-Salvatierra campus, Polytechnic University of Cortazar, young people from DGTI and even students from high schools marched in the streets to protest the ongoing violence and demand security and peace.

The director general of the Tecnológico Nacional, Enrique Fernández , considered it necessary that the community, in unison, demand from the authorities an expeditious path towards the application of justice and the guarantee of security for citizens and young students.

In the same way, he demanded a prompt response from the authorities to find those responsible for the crime and punish them with the full weight of the law, while informing them that the educational institution is mourning the murder, “of one of his children ".

The perimeters of this movement has been taken care of by the students themselves , who placed yellow ribbons to delimit the margins of the march route that advanced from the different university campuses. The tapes were placed to help prevent the demonstration from being infiltrated by someone who was not part of the university community.

Some of the participants wore white clothes and carried balloons of the same color during the tour. Photo: Ricardo Aguilar, Zona Franca

"Los Linces" (The "Lynxes") as the ITC students are known, began yesterday with the marches to demand security for the Celayans and justice after the murder of fellow engineering student "Gabo".

Other students who joined the demonstration of this day are those of Tecnológico de Roque, the National Pedagogical University, the University of Celaya and the Universidad Latina. By 1:30 in the afternoon between 6 and 7,000 students had already gathered in the main square of Celaya demanding that peace return to the streets of this municipality.

ITC students marched again today from the campus to the Municipal Presidency. This movement was generated after the recent assassination of Gabriel Luna Ibarra, a student of the eighth semester of Industrial Engineering, who was the victim of an assault last Saturday night and after being injured with a white weapon, died during the early hours of Sunday.

On Tuesday about 2,000 students of the Tecnológico de México in Celaya demonstrated against violence. They marched from Technological Avenue outside campus 1,  over to Insurgentes Avenue until they reached López Mateos Boulevard.

During the mobilization they performed justice chants with banners they carried, dressed in green and white, and before making a blockade on this last avenue, they kept 5 minutes of silence in honor of their companion Gabriel.

"I want to study without fear," was one of the slogans that were repeated on the posters and blankets that the students used to move towards López Mateos Boulevard, while shouting: "We want justice."

The young people also pointed out that the assaults in the immediate vicinity of the Tecnológico are a constant, and that several have already been repeated victims of crime.

Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo declined to comment on the requirement for students in Celaya. When questioned twice, he asked the press to contact the Security Commissioner, Sophia Huett.

Through social networks, images began to circulate where young people from other countries such as the United States, Peru and Brazil showed their outrage at the murder of Gabo, so they shared images with the slogan : "We also lack Gabo."

The students demonstrate their outrage and demand to the authorities to guarantee the safety of the Celayan students.  "We want peace," read the protesters' banners.  Photo: Ricardo Aguilar

Lack of Security Plan:

José Luis Álvarez, Regidor de Morena and Secretary of the Security Commission in the City of Celaya, acknowledged that the authorities are overwhelmed by crime and it is urgent to implement actions that offer results in preventive matters, which is within the municipal competence.

"It is poorly understood the state of being of the students, it would be insensitive not to accept that security is the priority issue for the Municipality, and the authorities need to have planning, because we lack the security plan for this year and it is already about to conclude" .

The Regidor de Morena said that the authorities must respond to the demands, not only of the students but of all the citizenship within its competence and that requires prevention, given that other levels of Government must assume the scope of their responsibility.

The local Deputy of Morena, Magdalena Rosales Cruz, who is originally from Celaya, denounced that the situation of insecurity is increasingly serious, which has involved students in a climate of tension and fear. "It is not healthy that students are angry", she said.

Rosales Cruz said she was at the Technological Institute of Celaya for a radio interview on the University radio station and they were about to close the school due to the situation their students are living.

She said that it was a very large demonstration where students expressed their feelings about the insecurity that afflicts their municipality.

“We were on a radio program, we were going to suspend it, but we decided to air it, the demonstrators have been numerous, the Technological School is closed and I think that every day there is a greater anger in this oversight of the authorities of the municipality considering the increase of all crime. ”

She said that also in an environment of anger on the part of the students of the Tecnológico de Celaya and for that reason they expressed their feelings through a demonstration and said that the authorities should not complain about it.

“The school is closed by the students, the demonstration was organized by the students and I think it is not healthy for the community to be angry because on the one hand there is real fear and people are angry and then complain when there is another kind of manifestation."

Magdalena Rosales added that all Guanajuato people should mourn the death of Gabriel Luna Ibarra and all those that have occurred in recent months in the municipality of Celaya which she insisted is forgotten by state authorities.

Promise of Security by the State:

State authorities guaranteed that security operations will be intensified in the immediate vicinity of the National Technological Institute of Mexico in Celaya.

This was announced through a statement in which it was stated that this was an express commitment of the Secretary of Government, Luis Ernesto Ayala Torres, after meeting on Tuesday morning, with the ITC director, José López Muñoz and representatives of the Council Student; to which was offered all the support of the State to address the situation, which in terms of security, has been under represented in that educational institution.

Ayala Torres lamented and disapproved of the events that occurred during the weekend, in which the young student Gabriel Luna Ibarra lost his life, and ruled that the state authority will do everything necessary to find those responsible and bring them to justice so that the murderers pay for their crime.

The Coordinator of the Security Axis in the State Government also pointed out that he will remain very aware of the progress of the investigation of the Luna Ibarra case, but also that the operations that the municipal and state authorities are monitored by the Secretariat of Security;  they will  be reinforced in the educational institution and in the surrounding areas.