ATENCO UPDATES (15 May de 2006)
Last 3 May, few days after the passage of the Other Campaign (Otra Campaña) passed through Atenco, an attempt by law enforcement officials to forcibly remove some florists from the Belisario Dominguez market by force, caused major clashes with the locals and numerous arrests. The next day, a further security forces operation resulted in more violence: tens of injured, 217 arrests, sexual harassment and rape of Mexican and foreign women, expulsion of five foreigners and the death of a minor.
On 3 May as a result of the events that took place in Atenco, the Delegate Zero (Delegado Cero) Sub Commander Marcos declared a General Red Alert. Marcos also invited all the members of the Other Campaign to organize civil and peaceful urgent actions, inside and outside Mexico, to demand the immediate release of the people arrested and the complete withdrawal of all security forces from Atenco. In Chiapas, all Caracoles and Autonomous Municipalities closed down.
1. DETENTIONS/HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
DETENTION 217 PEOPLE IN ATENCO
Authorities of the State of Mexico reported the detention of 217 people who were arrested during the law enforcement operations in San Salvador Atenco and Texcoco and, later, during Wednesday’s clashes [03/06/2006]. Two hundred and three of these people are now being held at the Santiaguito prison, in Almoloya de Juárez where they made their statement at the office of the prosecutor prosecution (declaración ministerial). The remaining 14, who where injured during their arrest, are receiving medical care in various hospitals in Toluca.
Only Ignacio del Valle, leader of the Peoples’ Front in Defence of the Land (Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra), and Felipe Álvarez Hernández, member the communal landholding (ejido), were brought before a judge for allegedly kidnapping a public official, on 8 February [causa penal 91/2006]. (...)
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of the State of Mexico (procuraduría mexiquense) ordered the detention of all the people that were arrested, pending the investigations to determine possible responsibilities. (…) Lawyers and family members of the detainees declared that the detention of over 217 people in Santiaguito was irregular and against the law as no criminal charges were filed. Family members were also not allowed contact with the detainees at the prison and lawyers were prevented from assisting their clients in making their statements at prosecution. Human rights organizations, such as the Centro Miguel Agustín Pro, were also prevented access to the detaineees, which they described as a violation of international treaties
FORMAL INPRISONMENT FOR IGNACIO DEL VALLE;
100 DETAINEES ON HUNGER STRIKE
A penal judge ruled the formal imprisonment of Ignacio del Valle Miranda, leader of the Peoples’ Front in Defence of the Land (FPDT) of San Salvador Atenco, and his companion Felipe Alvarez Hernández, who will both be tried in the high-security penal prison of La Palma for the abduction of two officials of the state government, last February and last April.
In the meanwhile, in the nearby state prison of Santiaguito, approximately one hundred people, arrested during the law enforcement operations in Atenco and Texcoco, started a hunger strike. They demand that three prior investigations (averiguaciones previas) be conducted by the State Prosecutor’s Office (Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado, PGJE). These investigations are related to the majority of the 200 people arrested by the state police.
DETAINEES IN SANTIAGUITO TELL OF BRUTALIT
People of San Salvador Atenco, detained in the state penal prison of Santiaguito, provided the newspaper La Jornada with various letters in which they denounce brutal beatings, death threats, hold-ups, insults and other abuses perpetrated by the police during the abduction, detention and transfer of the detainees to the prison.
FIVE FOREIGN CITIZENS ARRESTED IN ATENCO ARE EXPELLED (7 May)
The migration authority informed that the Mexican Government expelled five foreign citizens who had been arrested during a law enforcement operation last Wednesday in San Salvador Atenco for violating the Population Act (Ley de Población)...
CNDH PRESSES PENAL CHARGES FOR VIOLATIONS
The National Commission for Human Rights (Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, CNDH) informed the public of its decision to press penal charges for sexual assaults suffered by women arrested in San Salvador Atenco last Wednesday [03/05] and Thursday [04/05].
The human rights body made also public that all the complaints had already been ratified by all the victims before the Federal and State Prosecutor’s Office (procuradurías de la República y del estado de México).
On this matter, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) declared that [up to 9 May] no complaint had been received. On Monday 8 the CNDH reported 16 complaints for sexual abuse. However, on Tuesday 9 the number went up to 23, seven of which for rape. According to the testimonies received, the sexual assaults, committed by those federal and state police officials who took part in the clashes, occurred during the transfer from Atenco to the prison of Santiaguito, which lasted between three and four hours. The women victims of the assaults reported being forced to have oral sex with the agents and that, when on the truck, they were touched and immobilized and then forced to get on their knees and lift their jumpers over their heads.
- Source: El Universal, 10 May 2006
A federal police agent killed the minor in Atenco
The Human Rights Center Miguel Agustín Pro presented a video with three members of the Mexico state police who assured that “the bullet that took the life of the child Francisco Javier Cortés in San Salvador Atenco, had indeed been shot by a state police agent”. (...) The three agents – whose identity was not disclosed – revealed that in the police operation of last 4 May, 'some elements carried weapons such as R-15, 38 and 9 mm shotguns; we were ordered to hit everything that moved, as long as the mass media were not watching. We were also told to break into the houses and get as many people out as we could”
Arrested female students tell of abuses
Two female students who were arrested during the police operation of last 4 May in San Salvador Atenco tell about the harassment and sexual assaults they put through by state and federal police agents.
First resolution over the detainees’ case
A penal judge (juez segundo Penal) established the absolute and immediate liberation of seventeen of the 189 people arrested and detained for the violent acts occurred at the beginning of May in San Salvador Atenco and Texcoco. The judge also ordered the formal detention of the remaining 172 people, including alleged Zapatistas, students and an indigenous Mazahua woman. One hundred and forty-four of these detainees will be released on bail and 28 while the other 28 will have to remain in detention.
It needs to be noted that the judge Jaime Maldonado Salazar acquitted all the 189 detainees of the organized crime charge which was claimed by the Mexico state government. The group included Ignacio del Valle Medina and Felipe Álvarez, leaders of the ejidatarios detained in the maximum security prison of La Palma.
182 complaints for outrage in Atenco (CNDH)
The number of complaints presented before the National Human Rights Commission for the events occurred in San Salvador Atenco amounts to 182 and counting, said Raúl Plascencia Villanueva, first visitor of this body. “We currently have 182 complaints from people that report various violations, such as illegal prospection and damage to their property. And more are coming.
2. GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE
“We will not negotiate with those who break the law” (Governor of the State of Mexico)
The governor Enrique Peńa Nieto rejected the accusation that his administration had any responsibility for the clashes. Peńa stressed that his government will remain firm and that, contrary to what happened in the past, it will not pardon anybody because, “we will not negotiate with those who break the law”. The governor also noted that the state police will remain in San Salvador Atenco for the time deemed necessary and according to the circumstances as they occur.
First comments of the federal government
The federal government attributed all responsibility for the events of 3 May to the people of San Salvador Atenco. “A small group cannot violate the peace and the social order, declared Vicente Fox. The secretary for the federal Public Security, Manuel Medina Mora, said that the action had been was planned by the group “that had kidnapped the whole community”, and Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, General Prosecutor of the Republic, rejected a situation of ingovernability. He said that the Mexican people “are living a normal life”. The presidential spokesperson, Rubén Aguilar said that the subcommader Marcos could declare “a red alert, yellow alert, a white alert or an orange alert” but the state had acted to protect the rights of the “great majority of the people” that cannot be the victims of groups that “use violence as a way to defend their interests”.
The use of force brought peace against the “violent wave” (Fox)
At the European Union – Latin America summit that took place in Vienna, President Vicente Fox justified the use of police force in Atenco as a way to “bring peace to the people (of this town) against a “violent wave” (“embestida de violencia”). This is the primary reason”. (...) In response to an activist who questioned him during an academic act, he confirmed that there had indeed been dialogue between the three levels of government with the protesters “before, during and after” the clashes. Nevertheless, Fox accepted that the events were been investigated, to ascertain whether “there had indeed been some excess” by the police.
In Atenco there had been no violations but dishonest abuses (Yunes)
The sub secretary of Prevention and Participation of the federal Secretary for the Public Security, Miguel Angel Yunes, expressed his respect for the physical and sexual aggressions against the women during the police assault against the town of San Salvador Atenco: “What is not believable and cannot be maintained is that there had been tumultuous violations at the moment of detention”.
3. PROTEST MOVEMENTS
At the national level
Mobilization on 4 May
People belonging to the Other Campaign in the states of Mexico, Jalisco, Morelos, Guerrero , Tabasco and Chiapas mobilized to demand the departure of the police from Atenco and the liberation of the over 200 detainees.
ONGS CRITICIZE THE REPRESSIVE WAVE PUT IN PLACE BY THE AUTHORITIES OF THE COUNTRY
Thirty-six social and human rights organizations, Pablo González Casanova, the archbishop emeritus Samuel Ruiz y and Monsignor Raúl Vera, among other personalities expressed their opposition to the repression in a document, in which they state: “We condemn the disproportionate use of force applied to the social conflict that occurred in San Salvador Atenco and which contravenes the fundamental human rights principles as established by the General Assembly of the UN, specifically the principle of proportionality”
MARCH TO ATENCO
Organizations belonging to the Other Campaign marched peacefully to the municipality of San Salvador Atenco. The subcommander Marcos participated to the meeting that took place there.
PROTESTS OUTSIDE THE PRISONS
Students of the Autonomous University of Chapingo and of the National University of Mexico, as well as activists of the Mazahua Movement, joined the protests organized by the families of the detainees of Atenco, outside the federal prison of Santiaguito.
MEETING OF THE NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS
On 6 May over 800 assistants, delegates of the 26 original peoples coming from the various regions of the 23 states of the Republic celebrated the 4th National Indigenous Congress (Congreso Nacional Indígena, CNI). The congress solidarized themselves with the Peoples’ Front in Defence of the Land of San Salvador Atenco. The assistants expressed their intent to unearth the “seed of violence and repression” seeded in this town, and against the establishment of a precedent to justify further flagrant human rights violations.
PROTESTS IN QUINTANA ROO, OAXACA, TABASCO AND CHIHUAHUA
Around 550 people protested yesterday in Oaxaca, Tabasco and Chihuahua, and ten more started a hunger strike in Quintana Roo, to condemn the police abuses committed against members and sympathizers of the Peoples’ Front in Defence of the Land of de San Salvador Atenco.
MARCOS IN THE MASS MEDIA
The Subcommader Marcos appeared on the national ad international television. He also conceded an interview with the newspaper La Jornada, published in three parts
STATEMENT BY THE MEXICAN NETWORK OF PEACE BUILDERS
On 12 May the Mexican Network of Peace Builders issued a statement condemning the excessive use of force by the police in Atenco, the “excessive and a blatant abuse of power by the State” as well as what they defined as “a pattern of criminalization of social movements and their leaders, human rights defenders and leftist opposition members by the authorities of the federal government and some states, as well as by some media”.
At the national level
INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS TO THE EVENTS IN ATENCO
Numerous European collectives released statements alter the declaration of the red alert by the EZLN and the institutional violence in Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco. A document made public from Italy, France, Greece, Germany, Spain and Austria stated: "We are concerned by the events occurred, and after the brutal repression carried out by the police and the authorities, we would like to join the call of the Sixth Commission of the EZLN and the Other Campaign”.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHES AN URGENT ACTION ON THE ATENCO CASE
The UN condemn the aggression of women in Atenco
The representative of United Nations Development Fund for Women in Mexico, Teresa Rodríguez, condemned the alleged sexual aggressions suffered by women in arrested during the police operations in San Salvador Atenco:
“We are in the 21st century and it is a shame that what used to be a weapon of war at the beginning of the civilization is still in use and that humankind has not evolved”. Teresa Rodriguez also added that the UN delegation to Mexico is considering sending a letter to the Mexican authorities on this case.
- Source: Reforma, 11 May 2006
Atenco and Sicartsa ''stain” Fox’s government “with blood”
The president of the Nacional Human Rights Commission (CNDH), José Luis Soberanes Fernández, maintained that Vicente Fox’s government will seat at the UN Human Rights Council with “its hands stained with blood (…) of the people killed during the miners’ eviction in Sicartsa and the young man killed during the violent police irruption in Atenco”.
See: La Jornada, 12 May (In Spanish): http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2006/05/12/005n1pol.php
Mobilizations in 17 countries
Protests in over 36 cities and 17 countries have erupted as a reaction to the irruption of the federal and state police in San Salvador Atenco, which led to the detention of over 200 people, asking for the liberation of all prisoners.
Human Rights Watch condemns the excessive use of force by the police in Atenco
“The police used excessive force against the population: there are injured people and complaint of sexual violations that, if not properly investigated, could set a terrible precedent for the way the public force could be used in future events”, said the executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), José Miguel Vivanco.
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