On September 26, 2014, students from a rural teachers college in Ayotzinapa, a town in the Mexican state of Guerrero, were disappeared by state actors and police. Forty-three students completely vanished, igniting years of national protest. Now, the country’s former Attorney General – long thought complicit in the coverup – has been arrested, reopening wounds and more investigations. We speak with John Gibler, an independent journalist that has been covering this tragedy since the beginning. He is the author of I Couldn’t Even Imagine That They Would Kill Us: An Oral History of the Attacks Against the Students of Ayotzinapa and Torn from the World: A Guerrilla’s Escape from a Secret Prison in Mexico, and other books.
Then, we move to Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women (FCCW) – a women’s jail in Virginia – where prisoners have told the Appeal that the food they are receiving is spoiled and moldy, leading to calls from elected officials for a deeper investigation and change. We are joined by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, senior reporter for The Appeal, a worker-led nonprofit news organization. She writes on prison and jail conditions, and wrongful convictions.
This week’s Artist Resistance in Residence is San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin.
John Gibler’s books: https://www.akpress.org/catalog/product/view/id/3329/s/i-couldn-t-even-imagine-that-they-would-kill-us/category/15/
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg’s report on inedible food at a Virginia prison: https://theappeal.org/virginia-prison-food-department-of-health/
Follow Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg on Twitter: https://twitter.com/elizabethweill
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg’s website: https://www.elizabethw-g.org/
Follow Tongo Eisen-Martin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_tongogara_