The Graffti Drone Is Real, & She Is Helping Give Power To The People (Video)

Drones are a hot-button issue in the United States today, particularly when it comes to their use in combat. The Obama administration and others have come under fire for sending the drones (which are also known as unmanned aerial vehicles) into areas of the world like Pakistan, where they are used for military purposes. However, drones have proven to serve countless other functions and have thus far been used in surveillance for things like wildfire mapping and pipeline security, in commercial and motion-picture filmmaking, in journalism as newsgathering tools, in search and rescue operations, in scientific research for areas too dangerous for human deployment, as aid in conservation efforts by delivering items like food and water, and even in the fight for animal rights where they are used to track things like whaling ships. More quotidian functions exist, too, with Amazon recently announcing it will begin implementing drones to deliver purchased items to customers. And now, a group of creative protesters in Mexico is putting the drones to use in the fight for human rights and revolution.

Rexiste has been garnering attention for its forward-thinking approaches to protest, most of which involve art and technology in some fashion. In one of their latest campaigns, drones are outfitted into mobile graffiti-spraying machines, used to create socially and politically driven messages mostly aimed at the Mexican government. According to Fusion, Rexiste operates by “blending street art, technology and internet culture such as emojis, gifs and memes to take protests beyond the street and into the realm of virality,” which is bringing the world of social activism into a new territory. Droncita, as the drone is lovingly referred to, is more than just a graf artist. Prior to the current campaign, she was used to film protests in an effort to promote the search for 43 missing Mexican students who were killed under mysterious and allegedly government-sanctioned circumstances. Check out the brief video below to see Droncita in action, as she helps Rexiste and millions of others call for the resignation of the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto.

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