The peaceful demonstrators were beaten and violently detained by a strong police raid of at least 150 officers and 50 truck units
The students and activists planned to paint about 9000 pink crosses around the city, in honor of the dead women from Ciudad Juarez for Dia De los Muertos or Day of the Dead (a very popular national day). At least 150 police officers in several trucks arrived when a group of them painted a ScotiaBank ATM machine. A violent struggle started when they tried to detain the demonstrators and beaten women, students and an elder. At the time of this post, they are still detained and that family and friends spent the night outside the place of detention and will continue there until they are released.
Yeffim Fong and Julian Contreras, human rights activists from Ciudad Juárez, are also part of the group that was detained and beat. They have been clear and concise on their critic towards Felipe Calderon "war on drugs" strategy, especially because of its effects in Ciudad Juárez, a city in which crime rates have incresed by 4 times since the arrival of the federal police. On recent days they have both acused a "crime of state" (crimen de Estado)
on the dead of Carlos Sinuhé Cuevas, a human rights activist from the Distrito Federal and student from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).Video of the represion at the protests.
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Please consider writing a letter as organizations or individuals condemning these attacks and condemning a general culture of repression and agression towards activists and youth that has been increasing in recent months.
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Please consider attending the press conference scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday at 12:15pm, Casa Vides 325 Leon Street in El Paso.
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Widely circulate information about this event to your contacts, both local, national and international, to raise pressure and ensure that the Juarez government knows that the international community is watching the situation. Links to videos of this event below.
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Please also consider creating pressure on the city government to release activists who are still detained and to prevent further agressions in the coming days by emailing the following people/sample email in english attached:
Presidente de la República
César Duarte Jáquez
Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de Chihuahua
Lic. Omeheira López Reyna
Titular de la Unidad para la Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Humanos de la Secretaría de Gobernación
Dr. Raúl Plascencia Villanueva
Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos
Sr. Santiago Cantón
Secretario Ejecutivo de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos
Lic. José Francisco Blake Mora
Secretario de Gobernación
Graciela Ortiz González
Secretaría General de Gobierno de Chihuahua.
Lic. José Luis Armendáriz González
Comisión Estatal de Derechos Humanos de Chihuahua
Navanethem Pillay
Alta Comisionada de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos
SouhayrBelhassen
Presidente de la FIDH
Salil Shetty
Secretario General de Amnistía Internacional
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