Among the many pro-recount protests that have been taking place in Mexico City — organized by supporters of leftist presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador — is a controversial plantón (sit-in) that took place in the Xochimilco area of the city last week. Controversial because, according to a group of students from Mexico’s National University and other entities, the act of civil disobedience was infiltrated by a group of “porros” — individuals from the opposing camp (usually the government) who, when planted on university campuses, act as moles in an attempt to disrupt the protest and cause trouble.

According to Mexican daily La Jornada, in a letter to AMLO’s coalition, witnesses charge:

…there are porros at the camp site in Xochimilco, and that they “are taking advantage of the people’s goodwill and the lack of knowledge of internal working of the university, having infiltrated the peaceful civil disobedience movement.” They stated that these groups have commited acts of “hostility and provocation” against the university students who are participating in the movement. They also state that on August 9th, when some entrances to bank offices were blocked, “members of OEU — an organization tied to the University Student Federation [a group identified as porro] — among them porro group leaders, threatened students and photographed them as a means of intimidation.

The students are asking that AMLO’s coalition do what it can to remove this porro group from Xochimilco, while in other parts of Mexico City porros are popping up at several protest sites. According to Milenio, there is a huge presence of porros on the UNAM campus itself, as well as in some high schools and middle schools.

Porrismo on Mexican campuses is nothing new. It’s common knowledge that porros played a huge role in the 1968 student movement (and later massacre), but according to one 1968 activist, porrismo dates back to 1956:

The porrismo problem has been around for many years, beginning in 1956 when the FNET (National Technical Students Front) was infiltrated by the PRI which started porrismo in the Politécnico, which became powerful and gained control with FNET as its foundation. 1968 happened, and there were still porros until 1987, when several colleges started a movement and expelled the porros. But the problem didn’t stop there. In the vocational schools there were still outbreaks of porro groups, so they regained their strength and they regrouped in universities.

Now remind me why we are surprised that the Mexican elections didn’t come off without a hitch?

Via / La Jornada and Milenio

Photo via B3co’s Flickr page