As for three years, the lawyer Enma Obrador, 51, and the collective of women with whom she collaborates were to meet on March 8 near the Angel of Independence, to march together to the Zócalo. But before they could join the contingent, Enma denounces that they were assaulted by police and, in their case, that they even stole their wallet.
The facts have already become a formal complaint in the capital’s Prosecutor’s Office, while the Internal Affairs Unit of the Ministry of Public Security is also investigating.
“We do not do direct action (painting and confrontation with police), our form of demonstration is peaceful, although I recognize and believe that direct action is important … but well, we were not going to that, we were waiting for the companions and one of us brought a lilac market cart that inside had a cardboard box with a professional camera, “says Enma.
The struggle with the policewomen began when, without warning or attempt at dialogue, they began to surround them and snatched their cart, arguing that they were suspected of carrying dangerous objects to provoke aggressions in the march.
“Very desperate, the owner of the cart starts to struggle with the police and then they not only took her things, but also her. When I see this, as a defender I approach to see that they do not take her and tell her her rights, but they also pulled me. A third colleague tried to help us, but they surrounded us all,” she recalls.
In the midst of the pulls and blows, Enma fell on her back and was immediately helped to join by four policemen, among whom according to the lawyer was Lucía Karen Ortiz, known as “Chief Andromeda”, who serves as inspector general of the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC), recognized for having joined the 8M protest this year.
See how they encapsulated us, that’s when they took @enmaobrador’s wallet. pic.twitter.com/VluGVKPyCy
— Fatima Schiaffini (@fatimaschiob) March 9, 2022
“I was picked up by Boss Andromeda, the one in the videos. I can identify her perfectly because I saw her on TV and on social networks where her participation in the march was shared. He helped me along with three other policemen, but of course, they threw me away first. And although they shook me, at the same time they searched my backpack, a bag of jargon that I had on my back with my cell phone charger and my wallet, in which I had a voter card and my professional card. There is a video that shows it,” Enma said in an interview.
In videos shared on social networks by attendees of the march, the owner of the cart and the camera is seen crying and shouting to be returned, while other protesters approach the police to demand the stolen objects. Then, the uniformed and the aggrieved walk towards an alley, still between screams.
@Claudiashein their police encapsulate us before starting the march they threw me, took my bag, threw away my things and stole my wallet, precisely the police who appeared in the news, and present my complaint in human rights there are witnesses and videos!
— Feminauta♀️🏳️ 🌈💚☮️ (@enmaobrador) March 8, 2022
“They mistreated us, pushed us, beat us and since everything happened they did not want to return the cart, which because it was an object of risk. They explained to us that the review was because we were allegedly carrying Molotov cocktails, but they never asked us for permission to check anything. If they had asked us we would have said yes, but they just came and assaulted us.”
“Then I went to talk to Chief Andromeda, I told her everything I am pointing out right now, that I am a human rights defender, I gave them my name and asked for the girl’s camera, I told them that they were doing their job wrong, and that if they aimed to monitor a specific group they had made a mistake.” points out the feminist lawyer.
The camera was returned to them and the police apologized, but Enma Obrador’s wallet and IDs did not appear. In fact, as seen in one of the videos, she continued to complain about her belongings and got no response. The uniformed women ignored her and continued walking, before the order of her superior to continue with the operation in the march, which by then had already begun to advance towards the zócalo.
“It was abuse of authority, criminalization and repression”
Enma says that, in the midst of everything that happened, it gave her courage that the police told her that the review of the belongings had been “for her safety”, and that they argued before the claims and insults of those who defended the aggrieved women who, as uniformed, were “equal” to them, because they were women.
“When they saw that we did not bring anything they tell us ‘oh, excuse me, we are reviewing everything for safety’. I answered them no, on the contrary, they violated my security with that behavior, although they are women, of course, but at that time we were not the same. One told me ‘we are just like you, I am a mother of a family’, but no, it is important that it is clear: the comrades act as an authority and bring the support of the uniforms, of the helmets and shields, of the public force of the State. They are not equal to us, we are in a position of inequality and they are in one of power over us,” she reflects.
“What we experienced in 8M was an abuse of authority, criminalization and repression, it is clear to me.”
After these events, the collective joined the protest as a contingent, but “none of the girls were calm, they undermined our emotion, we were also emotionally violated, and for me all that happened was institutional violence based on gender. They raped us because we were women who were on a march.”
The next morning, and with pain all over her body because of the fall, Enma went to file a complaint in the Internal Affairs area of the Secretariat of Citizen Security of the capital, and another to the local Human Rights Commission. In addition, he filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico City (FGJCDMX), for the crimes of abuse of authority, robbery qualified with violence and robbery of a passerby on public roads, against whom or who are responsible.
“There is a certification from the forensic doctor, I do not present scrapes or bruises because I was wearing jeans. But the truth is that the doctor treated me very badly, he received me terrible, he told me that I had to undress to check myself and I told her that I did not want her to check me. I showed him where it hurt, because I have a bulge like a ball… and in the document he better put that I was going to go with a private individual. He washed his hands,” he complains.
He adds: “Beyond the physical injury they caused me an emotional injury, psychological violence. Do not expect blood, they threw them at me, nothing would have happened to me if they had not acted that way. I was just standing there, I wouldn’t have thrown the air, it all happened because they intervened.”
Of the rest of the complaint process, what Enma recriminates is that in the SSC they asked him to spend money on photocopies that asked him to go to take out in a particular business, because he did not have a peso or his cards after the robbery, in addition to having to climb seven floors up the stairs of the building in which the offices are located, even with the pain, to file the complaint in the area of Internal Affairs. They finally agreed to take out the copies of the documents right there.
Animal Político consulted the SSC about the complaint made, a unit that responded that the police involved have already been summoned to testify, and that they collaborate with the FGJCDMX for the clarification of the facts. The Prosecutor’s Office, for its part, did not respond to the media’s requests until the time of publication.
In conclusion, Enma reflects: “It is important that they do not see us as enemies. Women are in self-defense, the war is being made by the system to us, we had to defend ourselves and as it happened this time it happens all the time in our lives. It is terrible that now we not only have to defend ourselves from the aggressors, but also from the institutions that criminalize us for exercising our rights.”
“I have already accompanied many colleagues in these processes, they are long and I know the emotional exhaustion. I have had repression, as in the seizure of the Human Rights Commission of the State of Mexico, we had to have the police throw stones and sticks at us… There have been many events and forms of repression throughout my activism, unfortunately it is not the first time, but it is the only time where my wallet has been stolen. I hadn’t been through something like that.”
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