From ABC Mexico
On the night of Wednesday, February 24, Jorge Emilio Muñoz Esquivel, George or “Yorsh” was arrested outside the university campus in Mexico City. Then he was accused of drug dealing by the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR). The official version was repeated ad nauseam by all government media (starting with La Jornada and ending the UNAM’s own dean’s office). When Jorge briefly left university campus that night to accompany some friends who were leaving, he was not carrying anything: no backpack, probably no sweater or jacket, because he planned to return quickly. The so-called “load” of drugs the PGR charged him with, either never existed or was planted on him on the way to their offices after being kidnapped.
Jorge is not a university student. He is neither an academic nor administrative employee of the UNAM. He has no “account number”, receives no scholarship or paycheck every payday.
He does not belong to any professors’ association nor is he an enrolled researcher with any level of the National System of Researchers (SNI). He does not got to any classroom, cubicle or institute. He doesn’t check a timecard, nor does he have a union. He does not pay any fees to the Office of University Heritage or to the Board of Trustees for the use of a vending stand. He is not the beneficiary of any university, local or federal government program, nor is he backed by any official NGOs.
Jorge does not have a “resumé”. He is no teacher or assistant researcher. He has not published his works in any international journal. He does not a member of any political party nor does he control or participate in any student-related group of thugs (porros) or “sports entertainment”. He is not proprietor of any trade concessions in University City. According to the Dean, Jorge is unconnected to the University.
Jorge is our compañero, our friend. And he has a life story. Jorge is the type of person that the bureaucracy and the Criollo caste of self-appointed “whiteys” who share the power, the cubicles from which they feed off of others, and the university budget, do not want in the UNAM. In fact, they do not want him in this place they call their country. Jorge is not someone who gives in, he is not docile or obedient. He is an artisan, a worker, a punk; he is (still) young, he is a social rebel and insurgent without labels or pretensions. He participates, asking nothing in return, and for more than twelve years ago he has been an active part of the autonomous and self-managed movement the Che Okupa Squat, or the Che Guevara auditorium, which is located – even though it bothers the dean’s office – in the University.
Jorge is the type of person – “Mexican” as they are called by those from above, we simply call them people – who is not wanted in this country by those who govern it. He is poor, he does not invest, he does notnot exploit anyone, he is nobody’s foreman, he does not want to be a police officer or soldier so as to forcefully disappear students. He does not want to be hit man or a government-sponsored thug. He does not work for any government by assassinating journalists. He does not sell drugs. Has made no criminal gang inside or outside of any prison. It is no child-molesting priest. He is no strike-breaking teacher. He not a member of any right or left-winged paramilitary group. He does not vote or support any candidate. He is no sell-out and he does not go vote or participate in corrupt electoral politics in exchange for food and money.
Jorge just came to the Che one day and stayed there to live, to work, to learn and to teach. To share and to be a compañero. To participate as one of the many who have been a part of the space at one time or another. No privileges, hierarchy, promises, or material rewards. Those who have experienced hunger, sleepless nights, illness, cold weather. He experienced the hardest part as well: accusations, beatings, torture, having to confront one nefarious student after another who believes that, after some Friday night drinking binge, they can spend the night in the auditorium and claim their “right” to do so, but later go and talk shit about those who gave them shelter for the night.
We remember Jorge doing everything and doing nothing – because in the Che, the enjoyment of leisure is also a natural right, even if it bothers or is not understood by those who love exploited labor. Jorge participated in keeping watch on the Che, cooking collectively, working in his handcrafts stand or selling tacos, preparing chilaquiles at night for the next day, enjoying and collaborating in the various activities of the squat, making his stiffened mohawk before each show.
Jorge knows prison knows very well. The prison or extermination center for “people who are foreign to the university” that is called Mexico. And he also knows the prison – the one for those without the other “account number” called nationality – that is the United States, where he was working as a migrant for years. So we know that he will endure whatever may come. But he should not be where it is now.
Jprge was chosen and set up as a guilty suspect. They manufactured his guilt. They portrayed him as guilty because he represents all that is hated by those in power in this country and in the university. They expect the manipulated society to simply accept and repeat their nonsense. Mexican society is used to repeating things without knowing, to accepting without questioning, the usual “they said it on the radio, I saw it on TV, I read it in the newspaper”.
In Jorge , those in power along with their mass media do not project the illusory image of a criminal – which in the end is much easier and could be done by any “citizen” of this country who puts on the presidential sash. They project all the hatred of their class against ours: the hatred of their elitist State and university against anything they deem “dirty”, “uncontrollable”, “scary”. Just like in the US when all of the stories of “criminals” had to do with Indians or Black folks, in today’s university, the “criminal” is “ugly”, “odd-looking” “rambunctious”, has tattoos, smells of sweat or grease, and not of servility. In Mexico today, the image of “bad” people is constructed within the spheres of power, and refers to the indigenous, the young, the anarchist, the (poor, of course) student, the dissident teacher, the protester (not the oe who is selling himself to pose as some political party supporter at a rally in exchange for a sandwich and 20 dollars).
Those in power can choose one image today, and tomorrow invent another: the hooded rebel today is a demon, while yesterday’s “villain” should be given a “case dismissal” to see if they are trusting and then we’ll kill them later, they say. The press and the police can invent and fabricate guilt based on images, repeated lies and newspaper headings, even if nobody reads them. That’s what they did with Yorsh.
Who else is willing to believe them? Jorge must be free. Now.
UPDATE ON THE SITUATION OF OUR COMPAÑERO EMILIO JORGE ESQUIVEL, “YORCH”
Yesterday, March 1, an evidentiary hearing was held at a court in Mexico City in which testimony was presented that disproved the PGR’s version on how Jorge was arrested. Jorge heard the hearing via a videoconference call, and we had the opportunity to see and know that he is indeed in the Hermosillo prison. The federal prosecutor has until Sunday, March 6 to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to hold a trial.
We know that this is part of the set-up that the Mexican government is orchestrating to attack the anarchist movement in general and, more specifically, the Okupa Che squat. At the same time that the legal montage is being set in motion, the media campaign has not stopped; yesterday an article was published in a national newspaper in which names of our compañerxs appear and are accused of forming part of alleged drug sales operation at the National University (UNAM). Meanwhile, rumors of a possible eviction of the squat continue to circulate, creating a climate of fear and uncertainty among the squatters. The university authorities have pronounced in favor of taking back the Auditorium and launched a strategy that includes a referendum to determine its future. The isolation they are using to repress Jorge is very rough due to the conditions in maximum security prisons, and with Hermosillo being one of the newer and better monitored of them all. There is also the fact of having sent him to prison more than 2,000 kilometers from Mexico City in an attempt to further isolate the compañero and make it difficult for him to reveive support and solidarity.
For all these reasons it is important to continue our solidarity with Jorge. You can write to the following e-mails for more details on the best way to support him economically: solidaridad_yorch@riseup.net, or okupache@riseup.net or cna.mex@gmail.com.
Free Yorch!
No to the eviction of the Okupa Che squat!
Freedom for all!
Anarchist Black Cross – Mexico
