Victims of Police Crackdown in Mexico Still Seeking Justice 11 Years Later Agencia EFE
go to original May 4, 2017

In Mexico, it's known simply as Atenco - a 2006 police crackdown on a protest in the town of the same name (Al Jazeera English)

A group of women who were beaten, wrongfully detained and sexually assaulted 11 years ago during a violent police crackdown on a demonstration in the central Mexican towns of San Salvador Atenco and Texcoco are placing their hopes for justice in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Since the May 3-4, 2006, crackdown that left two dead and 217 arrested, including 50 female demonstrators, the fight for justice has been all-consuming, Norma Jimenez, one of 11 women who brought their case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, told EFE.

Jimenez said that after being arrested; sexually, physically and psychologically tortured; and spending a year in prison (she and other women were prosecuted on charges related to disturbing the peace) she returned at age 23 to her visual arts classes at university.

“I don’t know how I managed to go another year to school; everyone knew about it. They all treated me differently. They talked about me, about what happened,” she said.

That made her aware of how victims in Mexico are stigmatized and end up shouldering the blame for the crimes they suffered.

Italia Mendez recalls that she and the other victims confronted taboos and gender roles by being outspoken about what had happened to them, though noting that many criticized their attitude and accused them of not acting like victims.

On May 3, 2006, authorities’ violent eviction of flower vendors from a market in the town of Texcoco led to a clash between police and machete-wielding residents of nearby San Salvador Atenco.

Read the rest at Latin American Herald Tribune

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