"What you're doing is not of God," said Mrs. Rosa María Vargas Rodríguez to a riot policeman who was arresting and beating some youths during the December 1 disturbances.
In response, the officer also seized her and literally dragged her to Santa Martha Acatitla prison, where she spent a week jailed and accused of "attacks on the public peace", but without having thrown a single stone.
The anecdote was related by Francisco Javier Ruiz, Rosa María's former husband, who said that from the time of her arrest, she went from disbelief to shock, and then to rage for the way Mexico City authorities treated a 52-year-old woman, whose crime was to reprimand a policeman from a Christian point of view.
"She is the mother of my son Jockzan, and I learned that she had been seized when he told me to let me know. It seemed illogical, because she is a housewife without a political party, dedicated to her children and her grandson, and she works in a small stall of clothes outside her home," he said in an interview with La Jornada.It was not until Monday, December 3, that the children of Rosa María were finally able to solve the mystery: their mother had been arrested on Regina Street, for having defended some boys who were being beaten by a riot policeman.
"She only said 'Please don't hit them. What you are doing is not of God, it is inhumane'.
The policeman answered her, 'Oh, really? Then you, too'. He gave her the bear hug and he put her in a patrol car as if she were a rag doll, because she only weighs about 60 kilos [132 pounds]. He dragged her and she wasn't able to keep her shoes," recalled Francis Xavier.For that reason, she spent more than 24 hours barefoot, seated in a hallway where they allowed her to be instead of a cell, because of her claustrophobia. That was when they told her not to worry, because the next day she was going to be free. From there they pushed her around and with deceptions they took her [with the other female detainees] to Santa Martha prison, when they had told them [female detainees] that they would only go to a "psychological examination".
After enduring an anxious time, Rosa Maria's children were able to bring a pair of shoes to their mother and consult with a private attorney and with the Human Rights Center Miguel Agustin Pro Juárez. Finally, last Sunday she was released for lack of evidence, along with 55 others.
"All that they had said about her fell apart, but [she is free] more because of the pressure from the media, the artists and social networks than that the authorities are good people. But this is not over, because other comrades remain imprisoned. Now that she has returned home, the homebody treated badly, like a terrorist. She watched the [television] news. It was a total humiliation, and nothing can erase that stigma," lamented Francisco.Spanish original