A well-researched and powerfully argued account of the disappearance of forty-three students and an analysis of the cruelty that normalizes atrocity.
The word "corruption" is insufficient for the magnitude of this evil.
-from The Iguala 43On the night of September 26th, 2014, policemen attacked a group of student protestors in the Mexican town of Iguala. Forty-three of these students were then kidnapped and turned over to criminals who allegedly tortured and murdered them, and then burned their corpses. The families of the victims refused to accept the official story, which placed all blame on local actors and absolved the federal government of any culpability. The anger provoked by this atrocity, one of the most barbaric acts in recent times, divided Mexican society in two: on one side were those who unwaveringly supported the cause of the students and on the other those who accepted the government's "historic truth."
Written in memory of the forty-three students, this well-researched and powerfully argued book uncovers the agents, causes, and factors responsible for this unspeakable crime. It offers an interpretation of these events that goes beyond the artificial opposition between good and evil, between rulers and insurgents, and tries instead to understand the cruelty that normalizes atrocity.
Gonzalez Rodriguez warns us that "this story has been repeated around the world, but we refuse to see it. If anyone doubts or denies this, then I challenge them to finish this book. When faced with the acceptance of horror, we must recover our lucidity and exercise our freedom to transform this tragic reality."
- ISBN10 1584351977
- ISBN13 9781584351979
- Publish Date 10 February 2017
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Autonomedia
- Imprint Semiotext (E)
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 176
- Language English
- URL http://mitpress.mit.edu/9781584351979