On Tuesday, May 18th, around 120 students from the Mactumactzá Rural Normal School blockaded the Chiapa de Corzo-San Cristóbal highway in Chiapas, Mexico. The students were protesting changes to the admissions process to the school that would disadvantage working class, rural and Indigenous students.

In response, Chiapas State Police brutally attacked the blockade, firing tear gas and beating students with batons. In total, 95 people were arrested, 74 women and 19 men, all but two of them students. All 95 were moved to the high-security prison of El Amate.

In response to the vicious attacks on the students, solidarity actions occurred and continue to occur across the territory known as Mexico. In Mexico City, the central plaza, or Zócalo, was taken over, with the names of all the detainees being written in the plaza. The national offices of the MORENA party – which holds power at the federal level and in Chiapas – was attacked and graffitied.

The teacher’s union in Chiapas has set up an encampment outside of El Amate prison, demanding the release of the students, while beginning on Tuesday, May 25th, an encampment will be set up in the Zócalo of Mexico City, led by the parents of the disappeared normal students of Ayotzinapa.

The state’s physical, sexual, and psychological violence against normal school students in Chiapas and elsewhere demonstrate that little has changed with the taking of power of the supposedly “leftist” government of MORENA.