A protest held outside the Expo Guadalajara during the inauguration of the International Book Fair (FIL) targeted the University of Guadalajara’s Raul Padilla, the longtime president of the event and former rector who, say his detractors, acts as the public institution’s “political supremo” influencing every decision taken at its top level.
The demonstration was comprised mainly of supporters and officials from the governing Movimiento Ciudadano (MC) in response to the march organized by the university last week protesting what its leadership sees as an unfair allocation of resources for 2023 by the state government and congress.
Agitated at the flak that has been directed at him, Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro subsequently said he would not be attending any event at the FIL—the largest book fair on the American continent and the second-largest worldwide—and urged other other members of his MC party to follow suit.
The march, which began at the Parque de las Estrellas on Avenida Mariano Otero, encountered a wall of UdeG students when it arrived at the Expo. Anti-riot police were forced to intervene when some of the insults exchanged between the two sides threatened to boil over into scuffles.
Nearly all the MC legislators in the Jalisco State Congress took part in the march, as well as federal deputy Mirza Flores and Senator Veronica Delgadillo. Alfaro and other MC metro-area mayors were not present, although several state government cabinet members were spotted.
Speaking inside the Expo at the FIL inauguration, Padilla lamented what he called “the authoritarian drift of the state government, which is taking its intolerance of freedom of expression, criticism and demonstration to unprecedented levels.”
Referring to Alfaro’s decision to snub the book fair, UdeG Rector Ricardo Villanueva said: “The FIL is bigger than the delusions of grandeur of any individual, and bigger than any ruler who uses public power to try and stain it. No one can subdue or boycott the FIL, because the FIL is the patrimony of all Jalisco.”