Mexican Student Activist Found Dead
Alan (translator) | 01.05.2004 16:27
Te body of student activist Noel Pavel was found in Mexico City on 24 April. There were obvious signs of torture.
Mexican Student Activist Found Dead: Justice for Pavel
Noel Pavel Gonzalez was an activist during the UNAM student strike of 1999-2000. He was part of the Strike Committee of the CCH Sur and earlier enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. He was a student in the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) and he continued participating in the Another World is Possible protests in Cancun and Monterrey. Until the present he helped as a volunteer in the Smaliyel Cooperative.
On 19 April of this year Pavel disappeared. On 23 April there was a protest in Mexico City outside the Judicial Police of the Federal District (PGJDF). On 24 April he was found in at Pico del Aguila del Ajusco. His body showed signs of physical mistreatment, torture and a blow to the head which caused a skull fracture. He was found propped up and hanging on a wooden cross of three metres, according to information in La Jornada, 27 April.
Some people might think that this act is part of the urban violence which afflicts us daily, but the marks of systematic torture for the four days during which he was captured and the fractured skull (a mark of the Mexican army) makes evident the political undertone of this backward assassination.
Obviously we do not believe it was suicide.
The students and professors of the UNAM and ENAH universities demand the investigation of this vile assassination.
PS Pass this message to all of your contacts. This crime must not rest with impunity. We cannot permit a return to the dirty war of the 1970s in Mexico.
Noel Pavel Gonzalez was an activist during the UNAM student strike of 1999-2000. He was part of the Strike Committee of the CCH Sur and earlier enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. He was a student in the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) and he continued participating in the Another World is Possible protests in Cancun and Monterrey. Until the present he helped as a volunteer in the Smaliyel Cooperative.
On 19 April of this year Pavel disappeared. On 23 April there was a protest in Mexico City outside the Judicial Police of the Federal District (PGJDF). On 24 April he was found in at Pico del Aguila del Ajusco. His body showed signs of physical mistreatment, torture and a blow to the head which caused a skull fracture. He was found propped up and hanging on a wooden cross of three metres, according to information in La Jornada, 27 April.
Some people might think that this act is part of the urban violence which afflicts us daily, but the marks of systematic torture for the four days during which he was captured and the fractured skull (a mark of the Mexican army) makes evident the political undertone of this backward assassination.
Obviously we do not believe it was suicide.
The students and professors of the UNAM and ENAH universities demand the investigation of this vile assassination.
PS Pass this message to all of your contacts. This crime must not rest with impunity. We cannot permit a return to the dirty war of the 1970s in Mexico.
Alan (translator)
