Guns drawn, beating of reporters in Guerrero covering PRI event

A bad omen for the PRI's gubernatorial campaign in Guerrero: A part of the stage set up for the "Better times for Guerrero" candidate Manuel Añorve Baños collapsed, ruining the day as well for prominent guests such as the new leader of the PRI, Humberto Moreira, as well as Governor Enrique Peña Nieto. 


Yet what happened after speaks volumes of the face of the new PRI: The campaign event was in the hands of security personnel from Peña Nieto's Mexico State, including literally hundreds of agents dressed in white guayaberas. Yet when a sound tower collapsed over the audience, which hurt and blooded at least 20 people, Peña Nieto's security force were more busy pushing and beating up reporters trying to take pictures of the accident. One bodyguard pulled a gun on local photographer, while another tore a camera way from the La Jornada correspondent covering the event. 


The personnel then quickly washed away the blood from the pavement, with water and brooms. 


Former PRI governor of the state Rubén Figueroa Alcocer, who was forced out of office after mass public outcry following the infamous Aguas Blancas massacre in 1995, was also in the audience, though pointedly was not mentioned in Añorve's speech.   

Manuel Añorve Baños offical PRI candidate, with Rubén Figueroa Alcocer in the audience

Manuel Añorve Baños, mayor of Acapulco, was designated a "unity candidate" by the PRI's Political Council in Guerrero State for next year's gubernatorial elections.

With no apparent sense of irony, Añorve claimed "I represent the future," with former Rubén Figueroa Alcocer present in the audience. Figueroa, to recall, was kicked out by the state legislature following the infamous Aguas Blancas massacre on June 28, 1995, where 17 campesions were executed in cold blood by police agents, and which Figueroa for the longest denied had ever occurred, until video images of the murders surfaced.

To his credit, Añorve did call for dialogue with the many armed guerrilla-like groups that still exist in Guerrero.  He will now face off against his cousin Ángel Aguirre Rivero as his main opponent.