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| Police fire tear gas at demonstrators at Chamber of Deputies on December 1 protests over Enrique Peña Niet's Inauguration as President of Mexico (Photo Alfredo Domínguez) |
First in series of articles on report by Mexico City Human Rights Commission regarding vandalism and police actions that occurred on December 1. See La Jornada, 4/23/2013 and 4/24/2013.La Jornada: Adolfo Gilly
"December 1 Provocation" is the title of the article published last December 17 in La Jornada under my byline. Supported by the testimony of students who were there, the article described how some of the contingents of protesters were infiltrated by persons prepared to trigger violence, winning over to their side angry and determined young men. The organized contingents--the CNTE [National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers, i.e., dissident wing of teachers union] and the SME [Electricians Union] among them--withdrew with legitimate caution. I added the testimony of how Trinidad Ramírez, leader of Atenco, was treated when she tried to reason with the violent ones: "Shut up, you fucking old woman!"
Provocation was a key theme in the events of that day. The other was the conduct of the police operation. On April 10, 2013 the Human Rights Commission of the Federal District (CNDHDF) released their "Recommendation 7/2013", a careful 91-page study of the repression, the excesses and, moreover, the peaceful demonstrations violently dissolved that day.
I will reproduce a selection of paragraphs from this document, which deserves careful reading and wide dissemination.
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From the start the report describes the material it is working with:
"In the assessment of reports and documentaries rendered by the Attorney General of the Federal District (PGJDF), we can say that the information is inadequate, imprecise and contradictory, which violates their legal obligation to provide accurate and timely data."
In order to complete its investigation, the Commission resorted to several other sources. So it could establish:
"From the early morning hours of December 1, various groups and civil and political movements began to gather at the periphery of the legislative chamber [Chamber of Deputies at San Lázaro] to hold protests and demonstrations by means of banners, shouting slogans, reading manifestos and speeches of a political-ideological nature, among other forms of expression."
"In addition to these events, as is evident from the radio log of the 'Congress' Citizen Protection Unit and from the report issued by the Secretariat of Public Security of the Federal District itself to the Commission, at around 6:40 AM at the corner of Eduardo Molina Avenue and Heroes of Nacozari Street, a group of about 40 or 50 people (hereafter to be identified as the Group) began to attack police forces by throwing explosive devices (firecrackers and Molotov cocktails), stones and other objects, trying to tear down the fences in order to reach the Chamber of Deputies by the Congress Avenue [entrance]."
"The acts of aggression, especially against police units, traffic signals and street furniture, continued for a period of more than two hours at various points where the Group roamed." [...] "In some areas such as Eduardo Molina Avenue and Emiliano Zapata Avenue, the onslaught intensified, including acts of aggression, such that on Penitentiary Street and Congress Avenue, they seized a garbage truck that they then drove into the metal fence." [...]
"In this clear context of clashes between police forces and Group members, the environment in the vicinity of the Legislative Palace became hostile and violent. Given the feelings of insecurity and fear caused by the situation, several people from the civil and political movements who were demonstrating peacefully retreated. For this reason, they decided to leave and proceed to the National Palace (Zócalo, main square) with the desire to continue their acts of protest and expression, for which they sought alternate exit routes because the police ring denied them freedom of movement."
"Meanwhile [...] at around 10:30 AM, the Group took Congress Avenue headed toward the National Palace, where units of the Proximity Police of the Federal District were only assigned to monitor [the demonstrators]."
"During its journey along the arterial road, the Group continued its belligerent behavior. At 11:24 AM it damaged furniture in a Metrobus station and looted a delivery truck from a company selling sodas. Then it took Labor Avenue and upon arriving at a gas station located at the intersection of Republic of Costa Rica Street, at 11:25 AM, seized a van and tried to set fire to it."
Then, the report continues, police commanders deployed new forces to "continue monitoring the Group without falling into provocations." So at 11:35 AM, "police elements were located behind the Group," which continued to move forward with its escort. Meanwhile, the police commander decided, continues the report, [to make]
"adjustments and police reinforcements in various parts of the City Center, in order to prevent the passage of protesters from civil and political movements that were in the area, so about from 11:40 AM, they tightened accesses to that place through the streets of Isabel the Catholic, November 20, Pino Suárez, Correo Mayor, Venustiano Carranza and Moneda."
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At this point, page 21, the CDHDF document is very clear: the police commander "established the National Palace (Zócalo) as a strategic zone" and shut down access to the city center to the legitimate peaceful protesters. Meanwhile, a police escort followed the Group's march without interfering in their excesses [acts of vandalism]. What follows is astonishing:
"While the police force was reinforced in the first quadrant of the City, the Group continued its path along the Eje [main avenue] 1 North. Upon reaching the corner with Republic of Brazil Street, at 11:47 AM, the Group damaged Transit Police patrol car U-1019."Here the police Single Command reacts and "between 11:48 AM and Noon, it hands out the first three arrest warrants."
In other words, until noon the police force had simply followed the destructive march of the Group but no order had been given to stop their actions, [no police action was taken against] this Group of forty people who had been in police sights from 6:40 AM back in San Lázaro [Chamber of Deputies]. But at 12:00 PM, the report says, the order was given "without success, since the individuals in the Group managed to escape by hiding in the facilities of a hotel." Bad luck! What hotel might it have been?
Meanwhile,
Meanwhile,
"at 11:41 AM on November 20th Avenue and Republic of Salvador Street, about thirty people gathered to carry out acts of protest and expression. This little conglomeration intended to reach the Zócalo. However, their passage was blocked by the strong police line that had been strengthened just minutes before. There the protesters became angry and "shouted slogans", but were peaceful.
Now then,
"at 12:07 PM, considering that moments before some of the people demonstrating had been arrested, the command post ordered that besides surrounding them, they were to be [i.e., arrested and] sent to the Public Ministry [Attorney General's office] for 'all the acts of vandalism that they committed during the course of their travel toward the Zócalo'." (emphasis in the original)That is, the police charged these peaceful ones with all the excesses [acts of vandalism] committed by the Group.
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The following paragraphs of the report border on the implausible:
"While performing these arrests [of peaceful protesters] in the first quadrant of the Historic Center, members of the Group continued advancing on the Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas, and at about 12:11 PM once again performed deliberate acts of aggression against an OXXO [convenience] store located on the corner of Republic of Cuba Street, while continuing to attack members of the Proximity Police who were monitoring them."You see: besides being vandals, they are ingrates.
Then
"for the fourth and fifth time, the SSPDF command post orders police units to detain [arrest] the people who were conducting the attacks. However, it is noted that conditions for it [police operation] didn't exist under the argument that the police were outnumbered." [...]
"So that's how it was--says the CDHDF--the public security forces remained at a standstill, motionless, only protecting themselves with their shields and helmets from the aggressions of the members of the Group [remember that they were only forty or fifty ...], who at the junction of the Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas and Cinco de Mayo [streets], seized and damaged a unit (trolleybus) of the Electric Transportation System of the Federal District."
At 12:20 PM,
"police commanders repeated that although conditions didn't exist for arrests", due to "the risk of insuring that members of the Group might provoke other sectors [...] who were demonstrating, specifically members of the Section 22 of the CNTE [dissident teachers]."
Nevertheless, at the same time--12:20 PM--Superintendent Adriana Campera Báez, informed them [police commanders] that the CNTE protest was "completely stopped at the Fountain of the Bicentennial" (at the intersection of Avenida Juárez and Paseo de la Reforma). These commanders were imagining 'Moors with tranchetes'.
MV Note: Reference is to the 800-year occupation of Spain by the Moors, who brandished curved swords called tranchetes and wielded them arbitrarily against anyone who ventured near them.
"But also in those moments, at 12:20 PM--the report continues--said public servant also warned senior commanders of potential risks to commercial businesses on Avenida Juárez." [...] So she suggested: "Chief, what we have to do is also reinforce all the shops that we have on Avenida Juárez" [...]A minute later, at 12:21 PM, the superintendent reiterated that
"the members of the Group are going to continue seeking to confront the police, and there is a risk to the businesses along Avenida Juárez."
"Notwithstanding these provisions--concludes the CDHDF--police elements were not assigned to that area."At 13:15 [1:15 PM], after the destruction on Avenida Juárez, the Group left and dissolved away unmolested.
"Starting at 13:28 hours [1:28 PM], the operational commanders ordered that they should begin arresting 'as many as possible'," says the report. Then the police began to surround and arrest anyone who might fall [into their dragnet].
But the most serious is yet to come. It will be subject of the next column. Spanish original