Thank you very much for your April 8 coverage of the failed impeachment against Alexis Uscanga Cadena, if only eight weeks after the matter, or one week after student government elections kicked off, in which the acquitted student senator ran an oppositional campaign as a vice presidential candidate on a slate calling itself the “Vaqueros Movement,” or four days after voting for said elections closed.
Thanks also to you and reporter Silvana Villarreal, as well, for including comments from the Student Press Law Center. That perspective is important.
If I may just note one point of clarification: … The Rider’s report states that the social media statement Mr. Uscanga made, which was the origin of the controversy to begin with, regarded “the Israel-Hamas war.”
In fact, Mr. Uscanga’s post addressed a protest and march that had occurred earlier that day, Dec. 5, at the Edinburg campus. This protest was covered in a two-minute video produced by The Rider, published online Dec. 7. Senator Uscanga did not address the war in Israel, and to date has not expressed what his view on the war is, as far as I am aware. His statements related to what he felt was an “antisemitic” character and content present within the march.
Moreover, Uscanga reiterated the right of the marchers–not all of whom were students by the way–to express their free speech. Although the protest was related to the war in Israel, Uscanga was particularly addressing the action that occurred on campus, which was his right and obligation as a student and student representative of conscience.
The main reason this distinction matters is because of the suggestion made by Vice President Gregorio Zuñiga that Uscanga used the student government logo for “personal purposes,” unrelated to any activity on campus, which is of course false.
Nevertheless, thank you for showing how the scandal-filled sausage of student government gets made on campus, at least some of it, as facts of the trial remain under seal, for now, unavailable even to you.
Mr. Uscanga was the only senator to author and introduce resolutions this past SGA term, which have not yet been signed by President Odalys Saenz.
Jonathan L. Salinas
Class of 2015
