Calls For President to Resign Continue and Violence Ensues: UPDATED 12/2

Update following story
Borderland Beat by DD

The marches and protests continue.  Yesterday, Dec. 1, was the second anniversary of EPN’s assumption of power and the streets of Mexico City filled with thousands of people demanding the safe return of the 43 Ayotzinapa normal school students and the resignation of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

The march started from the central plaza, the Zocolo, at 3:PM and proceeded to the Angel of Independence where a stage had been set up.  The march was led by the parents of the Ayotzinapa students and contingents were still arriving at 9:PM.  The march was peaceful and included 5 observers from the UN High Commissioners Office, as well as inspectors of the National and Federal District Human Rights Commissions were also in attendance.  

During the march yells of "We've had it up to here with this government!”  were heard frequently.  A man with a loud speaker repeated the mantra "The 43 was the straw that broke the camel's back. The 43 was the spark that ignited the fuse."   “Out with Pena Nieto” was the common refrain.  

Whether the seemingly continuous marches over the last 2 months has had anything to do with it or not, the marchers seem invigorated by the latest poll numbers of the EPN.  Results from the latest presidential poll released yesterday showed Pena Nietos “favorable” rating had fallen to 38%.

Some 60 other anti-government protests rocked Mexico yesterday and saw solidarity from the rest of the world.  In the border cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, activists cooperated to block the international bridge. Solidarity marches and activities were also held in Frankfurt, Los Angeles, Montreal, Cordoba, London and Brussels, among others.

Upon arriving at the plaza of the Angel of Independence Clemente Rodríguez, representing parents of the Ayotzinapa students, opened the round of speeches.   Mothers, fathers and brothers of the disappeared, eyes overflowing with an infinite sadness, insisted that since the night of September 26 they do not want to eat and cannot sleep, because they wonder if their sons will be fed, if they will be tortured and only faith remains of recovering them alive.

Clemente told the crowd that;  "We're all looking for them. (Former governor) Ángel Aguirre offered us a lot of money, but we told him to go to hell."

He also recalled the times they have met with Peña Nieto and Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, Secretary of Government Relations [SEGOB], without favorable results.    When he added,

"Peña Nieto has to resign," the people started chanting,"Out Peña!" 

Two representatives of the IPN [National Polytechnic Institute] read a lengthy statement in which they ask the society to begin to organize and prepare the national strike. The students joined in shouting for Peña's resignation, but they extended it by adding: "Everyone Get Out!"


The National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers (CNTE) announced a massive mobilization on Thursday, December 6th [Centennial Celebration of the entrance into Mexico City of Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa, heroes of the Mexican Revolution].

Feminists also showed up carrying a huge collage made up of photos and names of each of the 43 disappeared. Representatives of Amnesty International and Greenpeace also marched.

People from Atenco , where a brutal assault on protestors took place when EPN was Governor of the state of Mexico, clambered up the stairs to the stage with their machetes held high. Painted on the blades was the slogan:

"Alive they took them, alive we want them back!"

Activists also demanded an end to government repression, the release of all political prisoners, and the exoneration of members of social movements whose cases have not yet been decided.

There were banners demanding justice for Juan Francisco Kuy Kendall, who died in the hospital eleven months after being shot in the head by the police with a supposedly non-lethal projectile during an anti-Peña Nieto protest two years ago.

They also demanded justice for Teodulfo Torres, aka “El Tio,” who was by Kuy’s side when he was shot, and who has not been seen since the day he was scheduled to testify in court about the attack on his friend.

This time there were no police protecting hotels and offices; instead, metal fences had been set up.

At about 8:00 p.m., the rally concluded after the protesters solemnly sang the National Anthem.

BUT THEN THE VIOLENCE AND REPRESSION STARTED

As the marchers dispersed and started their trek home, a tiny group of no more than 40 people, with their faces covered, carrying sticks, stones and firecrackers, began to wreak havoc on Florence Street.

The subjects were causing damage along Reforma Boulevard near Chapultepec-Centro. They set fire to some establishments, broke windows at banks and other businesses, and threw Molotov cocktails. This caused mobilization of hundreds of riot police, who made several arrests.

People returning to their homes were yelling "Fascists!" and "Paid by Peña" and "Infiltrators" and "Provocateurs" in addition to chanting: "No violence, no violence" referring to the trouble makers.

Many protesters panicked when the riot police appeared. The hooded ones ran toward the streets of Juárez neighborhood, while hundreds of people who were demonstrating peacefully, mostly college students, tried to organize to undertake a withdrawal as a contingent.

Among themselves, they shouted:

"Don't run! Everyone stay together!"

But just in front of the Senate building, about 400 youths were surrounded by the police.

The university students demanded:

"No violence, no violence."

Others confronted the riot police by shouting and claiming their right to freedom of expression.

On Paris Street dozens of uniformed forces tried to surround other university students, who managed to escape through a hole in the police ranks. Angered, the riot police threw punches trying to detain anyone in front of them. At that moment, they beat a woman who was passing by with her husband and sons.

A policeman hit her on the head several times with his baton until she collapsed. Three youths tried to defend the woman named Rosalinda Rojas Nieves, but other uniformed troops attacked and managed to detain them.

Inspectors from the National and Federal District Human Rights Commissions managed to reach where the youths were surrounded, and they formed a human wall to prevent them from being attacked by riot police. Mexico City authorities reported the detention of three people.

While there is no way right now to know who instigated the violence after the march and rally, the people involved in the peaceful demonstrations are justified in suspecting the government is behind these incidents of violence in order to discredit the demonstrators and give the public the impression that the marches are merely the actions of anarchists trying to destabilize the government. 

 That was the allegation made by EPN after the November 20 demonstration where attempts were made to burn the door to burn the door to the Presidential Palace.  However, videos of that incident surfaced and has caused an investigation of the role of a General of the Army who was shown on the videos in plain clothes among the masked trouble makers.  There is a growing suspicion that the government covertly instigated the violence to justify using force against the protesters.

The people also have not forgotten the massacre in 1968 at  La Plaza de las Tres Culturas at Tlatelolco, where over 300 people, mostly students, were slaughtered by government forces.  The government claimed that the unarmed students initiated the violence by firing into the mass of troops surrounding the plaza.  History has brought out the truth that government snipers on top of buildings nearby fired into the troops to get them to attack the students.  The government claimed it was only responding to the violence of the students and 20 “anarchists” were killed.  Witness accounts and videos have shown that hundreds were killed.   Some just disappeared that day.

The governments motive for attacking the demonstrators?  The 1968 Olympic games were scheduled to start in 10 days and the government wanted no more protest to mar Mexico’s image.   They pretty well succeeded in squelching the student movement at the time.  No more demonstrations were held for a long time thereafter.

My hope is that with the eyes of the world on Mexico right now that PRI will not resort to tactics of repression if EPN’s approval ratings in the polls falls another 10 points.

UPDATE;  From Mexico Voices

Aristegui Noticias: The National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) has initiated an official complaint to review the actions of the security forces during the violence following the peaceful march on Monday in Mexico City. Once the evidence is collected, a decision will be issued, the Commission said in a statement.

It regretted that the legitimate exercise of the right to demonstrate is overshadowed by some groups that incite violence and create unrest, as in the march on Monday. The exercise of the rights to free expression, protest and expression should be carried out without any limitation other than respect for the law, it said.

Therefore, it reiterated its call on the authorities of the Mexican State, particularly the security forces, to adjust their actions to the provisions of the Constitution.

Regarding yesterday's events as part of the December 1 mobilization in Mexico City, the Commission said that a group of 80 assistant observers joined with their counterparts from the Mexico City Commission to monitor the performance of public security authorities. This staff positioned themselves in various places where contingents of marchers were arriving in order to provide support and verify that the demonstration developed peacefully. The agency also issued precautionary measures to safeguard the security of participants.

It commented that during the development of the march, some hooded persons joined the contingent, mainly in the rear, and apparently they were the ones who vandalized several establishments, by which they put at risk the security and integrity of the participants. The agency strongly disapproved of these events and urged the authorities to investigate and punish such offenses, and that there be no impunity.

It said that in the face of the police action to contain some protesters, the CNDH formed a fence to prevent damage, especially to women, elderly, children and civilian defenders, and they accompanied the people during their departure, until they had all left.

In parallel, another group of observers went to the prosecutor's offices to which the policemen took detainees, in order to verify their health and legal situation

It stressed that the intervention and support provided by the observers was to prevent abuse of detainees, and it voiced that whoever committed crimes must be investigated and punished.

Proceso followed up with a story about  the Federal Police coordinator for the central zone of Mexico City, Marco Tulio Lopez Escamilla, condemned the actions of observers from the national and city Commissions for Human Rights (CNDH and CDHDF) during the march.

In his personal Twitter account @Ciceron9, the Federal Police coordinator who wasthe former Secretary of Public Security for Oaxaca accused the observers:

"And these alleged 'defenders of human rights' protected the anarchists after the destruction."

A minute later, he wrote a second tweet:

"According to them, [they did it] so that 'they weren't attacked by the police !' (Sic) And why didn't they prevent them from attacking the property of the people?"  (DD note; because Mr Lopez Escamilia protecting the property is the job of the police, not the Human Rights Commission)

After the rally at the Angel of Independence had ended, a group of masked men walked along the side of Reforma Avenue and broke windows in four Oxxo and Extra [convenience] stores , as well as bank branches, including a Santander bank located in the Reforma 222 Mall.

The hooded men left by surrounding streets when hundreds of riot police of the Federal District, following them at a distance, blocked Reforma Avenue on both sides of the Senate building, thereby violently "encapsulating" the people who were there. They let some of them go.

Three youths were arrested while protecting Rosalinda Rose Nieves, a woman whom the police left with a bloody head

Miguel Herrera, director Marabunta Brigade, said that all the hooded men responsible for the damage left when the riot police charged the people walking on Reforma Avenue. Marabunta Brigade is a civil society organization composed of observers and human rights defenders who document police abuses and provide immediate care for the wounded, according to the CDHDF. They are recognized by their dress and red helmet and the flag sticking out of their backpacks.

About the detainees, Herrera said:

"We know they were not the ones who caused the damage." He added: "The lesson the riot police leave us is, 'We let them do damage in order to criminalize social protest. We let the people who carry out these destructive acts go and eventually we go after the people that demonstrate in peace.' I can't prove it, but seeing the events, that is what happened," Herrera.

When hundreds of riot police closed Reforma Avenue and encapsulated a group of over 50 people, including young and old and even elderly people, CNDH observers spontaneously decided to form a "wall" to protect them from the police.

They stayed on Reforma Avenue, by the Senate, for a long time. Three people who were injured received care from doctors from the CNDH and the Marabunta Brigade, while members of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico observed the events and took notes.

Finally, the persons protected by the CNDH observers and surrounded by riot police moved toward the Hidalgo Metro station. The observers formed a "human corridor" to allow people to enter the station in small groups.