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| Supporters Demanding Release of Detainees (Photo: Héctor Téllez) |
Mexico City • The Attorney General of the Federal District [Mexico City] brought criminal action against seven of the 22 detained after clashes during the June 10 March commemorating the Halconazo of 1971. Fourteen were released yesterday, and a day earlier a juvenile arrested on a street in the Historic District was released to his parents.
The Central Intelligence Agency of the Public Ministry [investigative police and prosecutors] accuse seven youths of insults to authority, attacks on the public peace and property damage. These charges are not considered grave under Mexico City's Criminal Code.
However, given the impossibility of paying the bail set at about 70,000 pesos [$5,469 USD] and reparations of 11,000 pesos [$860 USD] for damages, Diego Mora Cardozo, Fredy Rosete Arispe, Jacob Diego Rodriguez Lara, Carlos Esteban Jiménez Martínez, Jorge Alejandro Velázquez Picasso, Carlos Vázquez Martínez and Luis Barrera Martínez were transferred to the Men's East Detention Prison.
"These are excessive amounts. This is a way to criminalize young people, who are mostly poor people who have no money to pay bail and will have to be in prison," charged Melanie Martínez from the Cerezo Collective [Organization dedicated to defend, promote and extend human rights].Mexico City Prosecutor, Rodolfo Ríos Garza, reported that in the coming hours the criminal judge on duty will be the one who defines the legal situation of the seven.
"Any time that crimes attributed to them are not considered by the law to be grave, the benefit of the bail bond is enough, so the Public Ministry sets the appropriate amounts. By not commenting on this matter, and in order to avoid violating their rights, they were transferred to East Detention for the judge to determine their legal status," he explained.The primary evidence that the investigative police had against the so-called anarchists was video footage provided by individuals and agencies.
Thus, the file consists of 29 statements by uniformed police from Mexico City's Public Security Department, five citizens, 80 medical experts, 4 appraisers, and others in criminology and photography, and 21 chemical analyses. There are also 42 experts in identification, eight CD's with filmed events, two experts in computer science, the testimony of police intelligence from the PGJDF [Mexico City Prosecutor] and ten human rights defenders.
Given this evidence, the Mexico City Prosecutor was not able to attribute responsibility to the other 14 detainees who were released ... shortly after 10:00 PM yesterday. The first released were Juan Esteban Barrera, Gabriela Hernández Arreola, Nancy Cornejo Cázares, Eréndira Alier Ferreira, Jesús Tegueros Briseño and Alejandro Osorio. ...
Ríos explained that the people in prison are those whose participation in the attacks is confirmed by [video, photographic] images.
"I am emphatic in stating that only those whom the facts proved, as it was by video, are those who were charged. Release was ordered for the others," he said.Regarding the complaint of theft lodged by an employee of the Secretariat of Government who was beaten by the anarchists, it wasn't possible to attribute it to the detainees because the victim did not identify those responsible. Spanish original