arbon
Oct 12, 2006, 1:09 PM
Post #11 of 14
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Re: [DoDi2] Were We Keeping You Awake?
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http://blogs.bootsnall.com/nomads/?p=449
Who are the "Porros"
A well-placed resource gave me this explanation of the porros which is consistent with everything else I have heard:
“Porros” is a term used to describe students [sometimes they are not even students] my insert who are paid by the government (typically the PRI) to act as its thugs on university campuses. This is especially the case on the campuses of public universities that are also defined as “autonomous,” such as the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the public, autonomous university in Oaxaca (UABJO). The government is very limited in what it can do on autonomous campuses. Even sending the police onto campus grounds is a violation of autonomy.
But paying conservative students to carry out the govt’s dirty work on campus, is a tactic that they have used at least since the 60s. [I suspect some are doing it for the money as some are paid by the government] my insert.
When I was in Oaxaca in early July, I interviewed a student from the university in Oaxaca who had been beaten so badly by porros that his initial diagnosis was complete paralysis. The porro who beat him up broke his neck with a stick. The student had been working with the teachers’ radio station (Radio Planton) and the university radio station, covering the movement. He identified the student who beat him up, and knew him to be a PRI-ista.
In some cases the use of porros may be intended to provoke unrest, thus giving the govt an excuse to crack down. In other cases, it is just another form of repression used to intimidate and scare people who are participating in student movements. Some people may define the word “porro” more broadly and also use the term to describe “provacateurs,” or people paid to “participate” in protests to provoke violence. There’s a good chance that people in Oaxaca who are using the term “porro” are equating it with provacatuer-referring to “porros” who are paid to show up to protests to make trouble, rather than “porros” who directly carry out repression against movement participants (although that is clearly happening as well).
And if they are equating provacatuers with porros, than that would explain speculations that there are porros on “both sides” of the conflict. No one in the teachers’ movement, nor in the Popular Assembly, is paying students to beat up on people (the true and original meaning of porro).
It is possible however that people have been paid to infiltrate the movement and create trouble. That happens in movements all over the world, and across time. And even if that hasn’t happened, the accusations [sometimes spread as deliberate disinformation] my insert alone serve the unfortunate purpose of dividing the movement. It’s quite common that the mainstream media and the government will point to the most “radical” elements in any movement or protest and accuse them of being paid “provacatuers.” That immediately generates distrust, suspicion, and division within a movement.”
The other night, after our adventure in the Zocalo, rather than take a taxi all the way back to her daughter’s house in the middle of the night, my friend Juanita stayed overnight with me. The next morning over breakfast and fresh ground fair trade Oaxacan-grown coffee she tells me about growing up in Guadalajara in the 60’s…about how as a student she was privy to the underground “information” being disseminated by the “porros” who were paid by the government to hang around the universities and cause trouble…giving the government an excuse to crack down.
That was how, she said, that the student demonstrations in Mexico City resulted in tragedy in 1968. Four snipers hired by the government deliberatley killed several policemen who thought the shots were being fired from the crowd of students….so they opened fire and killed hundreds of students.
The man, now in his 80’s who was President at the time and who is thought by most Mexicans to have ordered the action was acquitted just last week for lack of evidence. So that is who we think is causing the vandalism and violence during this strike, Juanita said…porros (”students” who are not really students…just gangs…thugs) who are paid by the government, through the university mind you, to make trouble so the government has an excuse to crack down. Reminds me of how the Black Panthers were destroyed in the 60’s I said to Juanita…only that time it was the FBI infiltrating what started out to be a food program for Black neighborhood children.
“If you feel left behind, these are mysterious times.”
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