On the eve of Mexico's presidential elections, a dialectic of militant protest and ugly repression is escalating throughout the country's southern and central regions—although you'd never know it by reading the gringo press. Note the multi-issue nature of this protest in the central-eastern state of Hidalgo, and the mixture of local and national demands. Also note that, despite the supposed transition to "democracy," things are as murky as ever, with the authorities apparently grooming proxy provocateur forces to justify repression. From APRO, June 27 via Chiapas95 [1] (our translation, links added):
Pachuca - A protest march by adherents of the "Other Campaign [2]," who partially blocked one of the main avenues in this city, was broken up by blows from the state police, who also arrested the presumed leaders.
At around midday, the Zapatista sympathizers, accompanied by members of other organizations, such as the Colectivo Ollin and Grupo Rebeldia Urbana, took Avenue Juarez to Parque de Convivencia, where they blocked three lanes for nearly an hour to demand an end to the "repression" in Oaxaca [3], a solution to the miners' conflict [4], and to the ecological disaster in Real del Monte [5].
As the state and municipal police were advancing, a white Dodge truck appeared, driven by Raul Ibarra Angulo, "La Pechocha" --university functionary who belongs to the sinister provacateur (porril) organization, the Hidalgo University Students Federation (FEUH)--and drove into the demonstrators, running over the blankets and other objects with which they were blocking the avenue..
Ibarra Angulo--who is accused of being a provacateur, employed for this aim by the [state] secretary of government, Francisco Olvera Ruiz, their former leader of the FEUH--got into a heated argument with protesters, who he charged had smashed his windshield.
Minutes later, some 40 riot police from the state General Directorate of Public and Transit Security (DGSPT) attacked the crowd, and grabbed Hugo Rivera, one of the protesters who was identified as a directing the movement, leaving lying who had been knocked to the ground. The action served to free the artery which had been blocked by the protest.
After the attack, the Zapatista sympathizers zapatistas se headed for the Hidalogo State Human Rights Commission (CDHEH) to file a complaint, accusing the police of the crimes of threatening, intimidation and abuse of public authority..
Fridha Rivera and her companios said the state government impided the free exercise of the right to protest in the public streets...
See our last post on Mexico [6].
