Baja California Finds a Voice in the Fight Against Violence, Police Brutality Brooke Binkowski - Al Jazeera
go to original December 24, 2014

Fernando Ocegueda's son was disappeared at gunpoint by men dressed as police in 2007 (Brooke Binkowski)

Baja California, Mexico - Mexico has been in the grip of civil unrest since 43 student teachers from southern Guerrero state went missing after they drove to protest what they perceived as discriminatory hiring practices by the government.

Police intercepted the students' convoy and opened fire, killing six people - including a student who was later found dead with his eyes gouged out and his face flayed. The last time witnesses saw the students they were being loaded into police vans.

Since then, people across the country have been demanding change to the impunity and corruption that has dogged Mexico's politics for generations. Former President Felipe Calderón's militarised anti-drug offensive that began in 2006 only helped amplify the opportunity for corruption by people in power.

Mexicans were terrified into silence by the ongoing violence - until now.

Even in places such as Baja California, the Mexican state that is physically separated from the rest of Mexico by its proximity to the United States and the Sea of Cortez, people have been moved to act.

Baja California is often considered its own country with its own culture, not quite here, not quite there. The Tijuana-San Ysidro port of entry is one of the most crossed borders in the world. It is also crucial to the North American economy. But in reality, it was never immune from cartel violence or police brutality.

Read the rest at Al Jazeera

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