Overview
- Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla announced Friday the immediate dismissal of the Cobaem Contepec director and a teacher, ordered the video removed, and issued a formal admonishment to the school system.
- The routine used masks, toy guns, and images of slain mayors, and local officials and parents said it ended with students dropping the replicas and echoing the state’s Plan Michoacán for peace to signal a call to end violence.
- State officials cited the state’s “apología del delito” rules, which punish praise or promotion of crime, to justify the sanctions and to bar the group from advancing in the school contest.
- At a Saturday news conference, the Contepec mayor defended the students as protesting real insecurity in their town, while a legal specialist urged authorities not to criminalize teenagers for an artistic plea for help.
- The clash arrives as the National Supreme Court reviews case 71/2025 on whether Michoacán’s tougher 2023–2025 speech limits overreach, a ruling that could reshape how schools handle art that portrays violence.