CDMX Protests: Punishment Demanded for Police Rapes and History of Violence Against Women

Posted by El Profe for Borderland Beat from La Silla Rota
Reporter covering the march is attacked and sucker punched [video at bottom]

Some attacks on journalists during the coverage of the march; vandalism of public and private property. The CDMX Government says there will be no impunity; protests also in the main cities of states across Mexico.

by Vania Flores

Fire and smoke emerge from inside the Mexico City Police station in the middle of the night in which the slogan "Justice! No more rapes" is the background music as the fire progresses. These are the public facilities that were attacked minutes ago, at around 9:00 p.m., by a group of women - and men - who broke glass, threw objects and ended up burning the offices. 

Some reporters run when they feel objects fall on their heads, trying to record the group's attacks.


It is the end of what began as the #NoNosCuidanNosViolan (they don't care about us, they rape us) demonstration in which more than a thousand women demanded a halt to violence, harassment against women, and abuses by police; after a rape complaint from a minor in Azcapotzalco.

                      

Some women ask for "calm and nonviolence," others say "they will not stop until they have justice." There are almost two clear sides: those who participate in the damage and those who ask the attackers to stop.

A policewoman touches her face full of blood due to an apparently being hit by a rock. She is helped by a group and taken to receive medical attention. She tried to make a human border with fellow police officers, making peace gestures, but it was not enough. 

Firefighters create a chain outside the burned station to help their peers enter and control the fire. 

At that time, the head of government Claudia Sheinbaum publishes a tweet with a letter stating her position on the events. "We respect the majority who protested peacefully, you can not justify the violence of a few. The government will not fall into the provocation of using public force," she said in a letter published on Twitter.

An hour before, smoke and fire came from the corner of an access door of the Metrobus Insurgentes station, women screamed celebrating the moment with euphoria.

At around 7:50 p.m, the group of women, mostly dressed in black, manage to burn some of the benches and break the windows of the station. Others do not participate and only observe. 

"My daughter was beaten in the MP (Public Prosecutor's Office), it has been bad for me ... if they can't charge him then resign," shouts Mary, a woman in the vicinity of the Glorieta Insurgentes station in Mexico City. She wears a black shirt and holds in her hands a banner in which she asks for justice for women. She is accompanied by her daughter, who was allegedly mistreated in the public prosecutor's office after she went to report attempted kidnapping and rape.

More than a thousand women crowd together with the same slogans "No nos cuidan, nos violans", "Alto a la violencia a mujeres"( Stop violence against women), "mujer consciente, se une al contingente"(conscious woman, join the contingent) and others related to the requirement that rape, harassment and feminicide are stopped in Mexico City. 

La Glorieta Insurgentes, a traditional meeting area outside the subway station of the same name and between the Roma and Juarez neighborhoods, is the main meeting point of the protesters. Others concentrate on Reforma Avenue to walk towards the Zócalo, but the largest contingent went to the Secretariat of Citizen Security police station at around 7:30pm, in the Juarez neighborhood, after giving a few words at La Glorieta Insurgentes. At the police station,  they shouted slogans and shot off small explosives.

Other groups paint slogans on nearby Metrobús bus stops and on the walls of the station.

By 8:30 hours the Metrobús Insurgentes station is unusable. 

The reporter Juan Manuel Jiménez, David Rodríguez and other representatives of the media that documented the demonstration were beaten. Some had their cell phones taken away. Microphones and media cameras were damaged and painted by protesters.

The office of the Ministry of Security, on Florencia street in the Juarez neighborhood, was also painted with slogans. Metro stations were also vandalized, especially Balderas, Insurgentes and Copilco. 

"We prefer not to fall into provocations; this is our position. We condemn the attacks on reporters, it was not a peaceful protest. We sympathize with the protests of women,  and we have marched, but not like that," said Rosa Icela Rodríguez, Secretary of Government of Mexico City, in an interview with Milenio.

People with covered faces attacked public facilities as well.

"It seems to me that women have to be the first to respond to what we are living. We want rapists to be in jail, to learn to have a gender perspective, to stop committing violence," says a young woman who walks on Insurgentes.

Another young woman dressed in black, like many of the attendees, with a green bandana, says she came out of courage provoked by seeing so much impunity. "Let there be justice, we don't want those cops unpunished... I've suffered harassment in the street," she says. 

Meanwhile, a girl in white tennis shoes and a white shirt is taken onto a stretcher into an ambulance, from an apparent panic attack, her companions say.

                     

Outside the Ministry of Security facilities, next to the roundabout, another contingent begins to increase their volume when addressing the authorities. They shoot pink glitter, and small explosives are heard a few meters away. 

From January to May 2019, in Mexico City, 31 thousand 980 women have reported being victims of a crime; the first most common is domestic violence and the fourth, sexual harassment. The crime of domestic violence is one of the most reported in Mexico City by women.

Before nightfall some groups decide to retire due to violence; the police are not seen in the immediate vicinity, at least not dressed in uniform, and other groups ask that the demonstrations be over.

Capital authorities calculated that there were around 1,500 protestors concentrated in these areas of Mexico City.

Rosa Icela Rodríguez, secretary of government, said in an interview with Elisa Alanís on Milenio Televisión that they would not stop the attacks on property,  but are worried about the beating of some reporters. 

"There have been some reporters attacked, an investigation folder is being opened, more than the damage that can be fixed; it is difficut is to justify violence against the press; an investigation folder was opened by the Attorney General's Office, we are not going to solve violence with violence," she said. 

"There are things to address on gender issues, we have a plan towards women's rights but it is not with violence," she added.

The damages of facilities will be paid with insurance, but the attacks on people will be investigated, the official stressed.

Gender violence protests extended to 14 states in the country. In Mexico City, they originated from the alleged rape by policemen of a 14-year-old girl in the municipality of Azcapotzalco.

                          

The hundreds of women began their protest at the Angel of Independence until extending into the Insurgentes roundabout and Florencia Street. The demonstration led to the destruction of the Insurgentes Metrobus station, the burning of the police station on Florencia Street, as well as different shops affected by broken glass and graffiti.

The demonstration continued until 10pm in front of the Florencia Street police station.

Protesters call for: gender alert in Mexico City and throughout the country; for the Mexico City government to make a public apology for criminalizing the protests of August 12; to withdraw the National Guard, as it increases the risk of human rights violations, particularly of women - as well as - the classification of cases specifically as gender-based violence, and reparation and justice to victims."

"Government actions and public policies that are firm, consistent, sustainable and based on human rights. We strongly demand that there be social and political participation of women in the development and implementation of strategies that allow us to live a life free from violence, as established by our laws and international standards," said the statement addressed to authorities of the Government of Mexico City.


Thousands of women marched peacefully on Friday in the main cities of the country to demand that the authorities stop gender-based violence, within the framework of the #NoMeCuidanMeViolan movement: Querétaro, Chihuahua, Guadalajara, Puebla, Toluca, San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes, Mérida, Saltillo, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mazatlan, Xalapa, León, Pachuca, Monterrey and Oaxaca. 

The movement demands results from governments concerning security, after last Monday a group of women threw pink glitter on Jesus Orta, head of the Secretariat of Public Security of Mexico City, for alleged police abuses against women.

#Brillanteada : The protesters also criticized the actions of the authorities through slogans such as who takes care of us from the police? and asked for justice for missing women and victims of femicide.pic.twitter.com/UjsdAto4UK
- Manatee (@Manatimx) August 17, 2019

Monterrey Night March: Shouting "not one more, we want them alive," hundreds of women took to the streets of Monterrey to protest against violence.


The young women began the march in front of the Attorney General's Office at the Glitter Demonstration against violence against women.

In the call they made in advance, the women were asked to wear glitter symbolizing the protesters who threw glitter at  Jesús Orta, chief of the CDMX police. 

"No nos cuidan, nos violan," was the slogan that hundreds of young people sang.

They condemned the alleged rape of a minor by four Azcapotzalco police officers in Mexico City, and did not stop yelling slogans against the authorities for what they see as having taken zero steps in charging the aggressors.

On Ocampo Avenue they showed power and completely closed the road. 

They took the downtown streets, and advanced from Ocampo to Cuauhtémoc, then turned on Juan Ignacio Ramón to continue to Juárez, climbed Morelos and, surrounded the Municipal Palace through Zaragoza and Zuazua.

Then they took Morelos again, where the demonstration ended in the Old Quarter.

Petitions were delivered in Querétaro. Women's rights activists delivered a petition to the Executive Branch, so that cases of gender-based violence are dealt with institutionally and responsibly.


Dozens of women appeared at the Oficialía de Partes to deliver the petition, so that it reaches the governor Francisco Domínguez Servién. 

                         

Dressed in black and with glitter-coated hair, the complainants presented the case of Diana, a young associate of the Ministry of Culture of the municipality of Querétaro, who was reported missing last July and found lifeless in Santa Rosa Jáuregui, August 14. 

Prepare the glitter! 
Not one more woman more abused by cops! #NoNosCuidanNosViolan #NoEsProvocaciónEsUnGritoDeJusticia #MeCuidanMisAmigasNoLaPolicia 

Here in Mazatlan at the Fisherman Monument, 5 pm pic.twitter.com/zExE3t87E2
- × brokeniña × (@ana_rxmirez) August 15, 2019 

In Chihuahua, the Fallen Police and Pancho Villa monuments, located in the capital, were vandalized, prior to the march that took place, within the framework of the #NoMeCuidanMeViolan movement. 

Photographs circulated on social networks that show the monuments to the Fallen Police, located in front of the Dancing Fountains, and of Pancho Villa, with graffiti. 

"Me cuidan mis amigas, no la policía" ( My friends take care of me, not the police) and "No nos cuidan, nos violan" (They don't take care of us, they rape us) are two slogans that can be read on the statue that honors 543 police officers fallen in the line of duty.

#Citizenship | Querétaro joins #Brillanteada 

This afternoon, Queretanas joined the "Brillanteada," whose purpose is to demand safety and respect, but also to join the protest for the girl who was raped in Mexico City by police pic.twitter.com/JnsZjC4wy1 

- UAQ Presence (@PresenciaUni) August 17, 2019

Who takes care of us? In Puebla, women protested in the city of Puebla to demand a stop to police attacks against them and their criminalization by authorities, while carrying messages such as "Quién nos cuida de la policía?" (Who takes care of us from the police?)


The dissenting, carrying banners and glitter, the majority in black clothes, arrived at the State Attorney General's Office, where they demonstrated, asking the authorities to do something in order to strengthen their security.

"Feminist self-defense! If we stop, the world stops. For life, self-determination and love!" reads a blanket placed at the entrance of the building.

On the walls of prosecutor's office, some covered their faces, painted messages against violence against women and the lack of response to remedy femicides. 

Slogans such as: "They took away so much that they took away our fear," "My friends take care of me, not the police," "I hope they care about the integrity of women as much as they care about good manners," and "No more males or fascists, we are all feminists."

In Toluca, voices of the members of the feminist groups were heard at about 5:00 p.m., to demand that the authorities provide justice, greater training in gender equity and that the Public Ministries stop victimizing women.


The meeting point for the march of 250 women was in the González Arratia Square, where shouts caused elderly women and young girls to join. They then walked to Martyrs Square and took to the street of Lerdo de Tejada in front of the Toluca Municipal Palace.

Slogans in unison of "Not one more, not one more Mexican" and "It will fall, it will fall, the patriarchy will fall" and banners reading: "I reveal I want to be alive," "I was born to be free,""I want to live without violence."

The "Together We Shine More" movement manifests itself in Toluca peacefully in González Arratia Square. 

Let us demand that the state guarantee security for women, for everyone! #JuntasBrillamosMas #brillanteada #brillantina #BrillantinaNoEsProvocacion #NoNosCuidanNosViolan pic.twitter.com/S3ruftZoLb
- TOLUCA (@TolucalaBellaCd) August 16, 2019

The women called the attention of passers-by, who stayed to listen to the hard data that the municipality of Toluca is highest in teenage pregnancies and that one percent of the complaints in the State of Mexico are resolved, and first the affected women are victimized.

They demanded that protocols be complied with and that information and videos stop leaking into the media. "We demand that the Public Ministries be trained in matters of gender and citizen care, because they never show interest in the cases," they said.

The group, Feministas Universitarias Zona Oriente announced that women from San Luis Potosí will join the national protest, and summoned all women, at the Plaza Armas kiosk.


"Morritas de Morelia, see you tomorrow at Plaza de Armas at 6:00 pm to demand justice," wrote a user on her Twitter account, along with an image that says "because demanding justice is not provocation".

Women in #Pachuca joined the national mobilizations against cases of sexual assault. #NoNosCuidanNosViolan pic.twitter.com/V9pK2fjtE3
- LSR Hidalgo (@LsrHidalgo) August 17, 2019

In Aguascalientes, women also joined this demonstration,  meeting at 7:00 pm at the Exedra monument, located in the Plaza de la Patria, in the downtown area of the city; Half an hour before the "glitter" started in the Plaza Grande de Yucatán. 

Other cities where the Brillanteada took place were Saltillo, Coahuila (Plaza Manuel Acuña), as well as in the Plazuela de Guadalupe de San Cristóbal de las Casas, and Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas (Parque de la Marimba to Parque Central).

Brilliant National ???? pic.twitter.com/bC5IAoMkxP
- ?????????? ?? (@_AngelicaOchoa) August 16, 2019

Also, in Puebla; Mazatlan, Sinaloa (on the boardwalk); Culiacán, Sinaloa (State Prosecutor's Office, on Enrique Sánchez Alonso Boulevard); Xalapa, Veracruz (Regina Square); Port of Veracruz (Benito Juárez Auditorium). 

León, Guanajuato (municipal presidency); Toluca, State of Mexico (kiosk of González Arratia square); Monterrey, Nuevo León (State Prosecutor's Office) and Oaxaca (Source of the 8 Regions).

#NoMeCuidanMeViolan | Protesters demanding justice and the eradication of violence against women threw glitter at the guards of the Government Palace pic.twitter.com/p4HUQkQZ8h
- El Diario NTR Guadalajara (@NTRGuadalajara) August 17, 2019

Reporter attacked

🤬 #ConLosMediosNO

Por favor ayuda a ubicar al sujeto que golpeó al reportero @juanmapregunta

Mientras Juan Manuel hacia su trabajo, este sujeto le pegó

¡Si lo conoces denúncialo! @PGJDF_CDMX @SSP_CDMX pic.twitter.com/C55c5Ce9fj

— jovenEshacerpolíticaTV (@JEPNewsTV) August 17, 2019