Tijuana- Over the last months thanks largely to Facebook and Twitter, hardly a week goes by without rumors of missing young people from Tijuana or Ensenada.
The latest person to get caught up in the rumor mill is the Ensenada-based spokesman for Mexico's #Yosoy132, activist Aleph Jimenez Rodriguez, 32, after he vanished last week. Jimenez and about 20 other activist were arrested by Ensenada`s municipal police, after a peaceful protest during Mexican Independence Day celebration on Sept. 15. They had yelled, "Fraud" during the city's traditional ceremonies, which were headed by the mayor.
Last Saturday, Raúl Ramírez Baena, director of Baja's Northeastern Citizen Commission on Human Rights said in a statement, "we presume this is another case of forced disappearance, which is a crime against humanity". By Monday, the #Yosoy132 alleged that Jimenez was the victim of a "enforced disappearance" blaming municipal government, without offering any proof of government involvement.
According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, a "forced disappearance" occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization by a third party, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate and whereabouts, with the intent of placing the victim outside of the protection of the law. Argentina and Chile experienced a dark period when those who openly criticized the government were torture, exiled or vanished.
Jimenez sent the social networking site Twitter abuzz yesterday, moments after news broke when his father, Julio Jimenez Aponte, said he had heard through an intermediary that his son was safe but "had made the decision to hide because he felt that his physical well-being was in jeopardy."
One of the main victims of the latest Mexican presidential election might be the credibility of media and government officials. Nowadays, many Mexicans consider the social networks the last resource of freedom of speech and take for granted rumors and gossip that can't survive the minimal scrutiny.
Jimenez is not the only "Hide and seek" story with a happy ending that have sent the social networks abuzz lately.
Magaly Salazar Bravo, a 23 year old woman in Tijuana who vanished on Saturday, September 1st. was found alive in Guadalajara, according to Baja California Justice Prosecutor Rommel Moreno statement on Wednesday, Sept. 12.
During the time she was allegedly missing, her friends reported the disappearance extensively on Facebook and other social networks; they touched off a massive state search by hundreds of volunteers, giving away flyers, and posters with the picture of the young woman. Via Facebook on Saturday, Sept. 8, they even organized a march to the Cuauhtémoc roundabout, at one of the busiest avenues in Tijuana. All efforts ended abruptly when she was officially found living in southern Mexico.
If you live in Baja and you're on Facebook, for the past couple of months you probably have been aware of the existence of some viral messages like; "Attention Tijuana! Girls, I am warning you that something serious is happening. Young women between 18 and 28 years old are being kidnapped for slave-trade. In public areas, and early school hours, at noon and in the afternoons. Until now, eight women have disappeared in Tijuana and universities like CESUN, UNIVER, CETYS, etc. It`s similar to what has been happening in Ciudad Juarez. Be careful and make sure not to be alone. Please Copy & Paste this message on your wall." This rumor, of course, turned out to be not true.
These stories, Tijuana's lost young woman and Ensenada's political activist supposedly missing went viral based on fear and real concern of a society that overcame a wave of violence just a few years ago. Once again, authorities recommend calm and common sense.
As a paradox, the over exposition to information based on rumors and urban legends makes people confuse between fact and fiction, in a virtual world where ignorance is king.
eduardo.flores@sandiegored.com
