Security fears shut down classes at Mexico’s top university after student killing

Mexico City (AP) – The courses have been canceled or moved online this week in more than half of the departments of the National Autonomous University of Mexico for security problems following the recent murder of a student in a university food school and a series of threats.

The rector of the main university of the country on Tuesday strengthened security measures and strengthening emotional support available to students.

The school has experienced cases of violence based on sex over the years and is now investigating threats to several teachers, in addition to the murder last week of a 16 -year -old student at the Science Campus and the Human Sciences School.

The university reported a dozen threats to the office of the Mexico prosecutor, the Advocate General of the University of Hugo Concha said on Tuesday. He said most of the threats by e-mail and social platforms against four teachers in the Department of Chemistry to “be women”, which has referred to last week’s deadly attack.

Authorities have a suspect in the murder in detention. The 19 -year -old is hospitalized after jumping from a building while he was trying to escape. The preliminary investigation has found suspect’s ties to the ideology “involuntary single” or “INCEL”, a group mainly in line of individuals, mainly men, who believe that society unfairly refuses them sexual or romantic attention.

Concha said that if the university had worked to establish protocols for the possibility of incidents linked to “INCEL”, it had not recorded a violent incident linked to it. He did not exclude that this could also be linked to threats to teachers.

The University Council Security Commission met on Tuesday to discuss concerns. The Rector Leonardo Lomelí is committed to ensuring the security of the university community and to provide psychological support to those who wish. The administrator said that the University would take legal and disciplinary measures against anyone who has been tried responsible for threats.

Mexico president Claudia Sheinbaum said on Tuesday at her daily conference that her administration would offer the creation of “safe spaces” where students can report threats or other harassment in online platforms.

Incidents also occurred at a time of year when, historically, there have been increased tensions on the campus. This is due to the anniversary of September 26 of the 2014 forced disappearances of 43 students from a college of teaching southern Mexico and the anniversary of October 2 of the massacre of October 2, 1968 of students in the emblematic Tlatelolco Plaza of Mexico.

Fourteen departments had moved to online lessons because the students refused to come to the lessons and that 14 others were completely closed by the students and the teachers.

Concha said that last week’s attack “had created a more problematic, high intensity atmosphere, which prompted the university to face directly and worry about solving security problems.”