Julian Assange's links with Mexico: the 43 missing Aytozinapa and the # YoSoy132 movement

This Thursday, April 4th, Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website on leaks, He was arrested by the British police at the Embbady of Ecuador, due to an extradition request from the United States and for violating the conditions of house arrest. In his story, prey to problems of justice and activismthere have been representations to Mexican society.

In 2013, after the elections to the Mexican presidency in which Enrique Peña Nieto was elected, Julian Assange made a statement in favor of the # YoSoy132 movement, which aimed at the democratization of the media during political campaigns.

At a videoconference he gave at the 34th International Book Fair at the Palais des Mines, he asked the people to support the movement; "The ability of young people to understand what is happening in the world is quite crucial (as opposed to what happened 20 years ago), and that is why we are witnessing the world. emergence of movements like # YoSoy132, a movement for truth and not for corruption in the media "said Assange.

He added that what needs to be done, is to continue on this path to educate with the truth. "When an army decides to invade a country, it has three objectives: to control the police and military forces, in the first place, to control the sources of energy and, third, the media, television, print, radio and television, the Internet will be controlled by certain forces … that's why we have to control the media and not let the media control us ".

He also thanked Mexico for provide support to him and the collaborators of your WikiLeaks organization.

At the end of his message, he declared himself a member of # YoSoy132 and he raised a sign that identifies him as suchjust like the Mexican students during the movement.

In these moments he was already a refugee at the Embbady of Ecuador in the United Kingdomwhere he stayed for the next five years.

The event took place because he presented the book "Mexico in WikiLeaks, WikiLeaks in La Jornada, memory of a journalistic adventure"He also took the opportunity to talk about information leaks that linked the US government to Mexican authorities, such as the US involvement in the capture of Mexican drug traffickers.

Assange said that Mexico had played an important role in the filtering information from the US government, to be a country so geographically close; "WikiLeaks revealed part of the repressed history of Mexico that they did not know, that they did not know (…) and There is still a sea of ​​truths unknown to us all. "

Then in 2015, Assange again organized a videoconference in the country during the documentary tour Ambulante. In the transmission, he used the 43 teachers missing in Ayotzinapa, in the state of Guerrero.

In this case, he expressed concern about the attacks on young people from Guerrero and he said that there was still a long way to go before justice was done, but that this technology was accompanying social movements. For what he asked the badistants of the presentation of the documentary Citizenfour, about Edward Snowden, continue to seek justice through Internet.

"(Mexico) is considered an important player in geopolitics, but its authorities are so good at hiding impunity and to quickly hide the grievances that are going onAssange said.

Subsequently, he had no direct contact with Mexican social movements. Colombian writer and journalist Laura Restrepo suggested end of 2018, in an interview with journalist Carmen Aristegui, that the Mexican government led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador should give political asylum to Julian Assange.

"The asylum is exhausting, and what's wrong, is it thrown on the sidewalk, Carmen, what's next?" "Extradition" governments around the world close in one way or another and do not know where is " said Restrepo.

Based on his experience as a refugee in Mexico and with other persecuted politicians such as Leon Trotsky, said that AMLO, being democratic, could open the country's doors to Assange.

However, his comments do not go beyond the interview. Assange continued to the Ecuadorian Embbady until On Thursday, April 4, the South American country withdrew its political asylum. There was has been in his custody since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden or the United States, where he could be sentenced to death.