Municipal police officers from the State of Mexico assaulted and arrested women who took over the headquarters of the Human Rights Commission of the State of Mexico (CODHEM) in Ecatepec and photographers and journalists who were on site. Collectives and family members report that there are at least a dozen detainees and others of which their whereabouts are not known.
Members of the collective ‘Manada periphery’ entered peacefully the facilities of the Visitaduría General Sede Ecatepec in solidarity with the movement and the taking carried out by collectives at the CNDH headquarters in Mexico City.
According to a CODHEM newsletter, the women spoke with first general visitor Victor Delgado Pérez.
Hours later, a video posted by journalist Lizbeth Hernandez is seen as cops enter the headquarters and begin beating and packing women to stop them.
From CODHEM in Ecatepec https://t.co/T1KbGNiakO
— Lizbeth (@abismada_) September 11, 2020
The detainees, including a pregnant woman and two minors, were taken to the Atizapán Prosecutor’s Office. Several more were waiting outside for news from their comrades but were also assaulted by police officers who threw chairs and objects at the protesters, and were scattered with fire extinguishers.
Here you can see when atizapán police started throwing stones, chairs, benches. Moments later they turned off the lights outside and started running and screaming and banging. https://t.co/2ET4ZzZxGF
— Madeleine Wattenbarger (@madeleinewhat) September 11, 2020
Police officers also broke the glass and hit a car in which the various reporters and photographers came out of the protest at the CDHE.
In the early morning we went to cover a demonstration at the Atizapán Prosecutor’s Office and the Atizapán policemen hit our car while my colleagues @lu_fm @Maria_Efemere @abismada_ @montsesanchezmy and I tried to get out of their assaults. @alfredodelmazo @GobAtizapan pic.twitter.com/vbcjPrRz6y
“Never again. (@Svatouille) September 11, 2020
Faced with what happened, CODHEM said via Twitter that it “is on the side of the feminist movement, supports victims of violence and femicide.”
It also called for “precautionary measures necessary to ensure the safety of women detained in Ecatepec during the early morning, we demand their immediate protection and release.”
We call on the @FiscaliaEdomex the necessary precautionary measures to ensure the safety of women detained in #Ecatepec early morning, we demand their immediate protection and release.
— CODHEM (OFFICIAL) (@CODHEM) September 11, 2020
The municipal government of Atizapán delinquent its elements from the assaults and said it made available a group of lawyers from the law firm of the Institute of Women and Human Rights Defenders “to support those who request it”.
The Ecatepec authorities also noted that it was not municipal policemen who were involved in the detention and transfer of women.
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