I should have written this earlier, but for some reason i didn’t. That’s no reason for you to procrastinate, though! You may have heard of the recent attacks on the flower vendors in San Salvador Atenco, Mexico. But what many have failed to mention was that this is battle has been going on for years as the flower vendors were setting up in protest on the site of the proposed Wal-Mart. What has also received little attention is the systematic use of rape and torture by police officers against wimmin in San Salvador Atenco. Here is more info, which came from brownfemipower:

This is an important statement from the Women’s Sector of The Other Campaign in Mexico regarding the recent brutal aggression, sexual assault and rapes against the women and people of Atenco. It was sent by a member of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners who is now working with the Other Campaign in Mexico.

Please circulate and mail or fax letters of outrage about the brutal aggression perpetrated by the police in San Salvador Atenco to your state Mexican Consulate. (note from vegankid: you can find your state Consulate’s contact info at Mexonline)

PRONOUNCEMENT OF THE WOMEN OF THE SIXTH DECLARATION OF THE LACANDON JUNGLE AND THE OTHER CAMPAIGN

To the adherents and sympathizers of the Other Campaign, feminist groups, collectives, social organizations, the international community, workers of the world, those from below to the left in all corners of the planet.

We the compañeras of the women’s sector of the Other Campaign energetically denounce and condemn the brutal acts and crimes of lesser humanity perpetrated against those detained the 3rd and 4th of May, 2006 in the municipalities of Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco by elements of the federal, state and municipal police.

For this we manifest that on the 3rd of May, 101 people were detained, 22 of them women who suffered serious sexual aggressions, violations of their human rights, amongst which included torture, beatings, ill treatment of their bodies, as well as constant psychological violence.

The day following these events, the 4th of may, 2006, the occupation of the town of San Salvador Atenco took place through the implementation of the military operative “tapete” (known operative used by all of the fascist governments as a form of State-sponsored terrorism) by 4,500 police agents. The majority of the inhabitants of the town were in their homes and only a few of them maintained guard in a peaceful manner when the brutal attack was unleashed by the “forces of public order”, at which point the withdrawal of the community guards that were in the plaza of the town of Atenco began. It is here that the first arbitrary and indiscriminate detentions of any person that transited the site took place. Also, with the pretext of locating the supposed kidnapped agents, the forces illegally entered the different homes (that were pointed out by helicopters and neighboring homes) where they looted, beat, terrorized, threatened and detained the people they found.

The result was the detention of 106 more people, amongst them women and children; of these 106 people, 29 of them were women of different identities, sectors of the population and nationalities; also highlighted are the reports of rape and multiple aggressions against women inhabitants who were not detained.

The result of these police attacks was the incarceration of 52 women whom were treated in a brutal manner and subjected to sexual crimes. Many of them were housewives, mothers, indigenous women, students, workers, all those from the Other Campaign and flower vendors farming inhabitants of the municipalities of Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco.

Considering these events, we denounce:

1) The tumultuary (performed by more than one person, sometimes at the same time, on one person) rapes of different women during the takeover of San Salvador Atenco and during the transfer of the detainees
2) The brutal beating, torture, and psychological abuse that they received.
3) The lack of medical and psychological attention, which constitutes in yet another violation of their human rights as well as violates their sexual, reproductive and emotional health.
4) The lack of communication that they have been subjected to since their illegal detention up until this moment.
5) The sexual crimes committed against the women are not products of isolated acts, but are part of the systematic training of the police in order to repress, plant terror, and deactivate the autonomous political and social movements, especially the women’s struggle of the Other Campaign.
6) The acts, specifically those here mentioned, in which we as women are taken as loot of war, in this case a fascist war used to plant the terror of the State.
7) The repression in San Salvador Atenco, particularly against the women of the Other Campaign, put to manifest the fascist character of the Mexican government and refers to the methods used by the Pinochet in Chile, Videla in Argentina, and the rest of the authoritarian governments that have devastated our planet.
The violation and neglect by the Mexican State of the international agreements and conventions against the discrimination, abuse and practice of violence against women.
9) The null participation, indifference, and lack of credibility of the governmental institutions dedicated to the defense of human rights, to women, and to the attention of their denunciations, such as the commission of Gender Equality of the federal and state Houses of Representatives.
10) The crimes of lesser humanity committed against the compañeras who were incarcerated (as well as those who were not) who lived the most atrocious experiences and damages of their lives. Although these atrocities are impossible to repair, we CANNOT leave them unpunished.

For that which has been expressed, we emphatically demand:
1) Impeachment and political trial of the President of the Government of Mexico, Vicente Fox Quezada; Secretary of Federal Public Security, Manuel Medina Mora; Governor of the State of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto; Secretary of State Government, Humberto Benitez Treviño; Head of the Greater State of the PFP (federal preventative police), Ardelio Vargas Fosado; Commissioner of the Agency of State Security, Wilfrido Robledo; and Municipal President of Texcoco, Dr. Higinio Martinez Miranda.
2) The destitution, assigning of responsibilities and punishment of the police involved in the rape and aggression against the women.
3) The veto of the Commission of Human Rights of the Organization of United Nations of the recent naming of Mexico as one of it’s founding members, as well as sanctions derived from the violation and neglect of the agreements and conventions against the discrimination, abuse and practice of violence against women, signed by the Mexican government.
4) The appropriate medical and psychological attention on behalf of professional independent teams that respond to the necessities of the incarcerated compañeras and that guarantee their health and emotional and physical integrity.
5) The immediate end of the low-intensity war and terrorist tactics by the Mexican State against social fighters of the Other Campaign and other social movements.
6) The immediate stop of the violence that the State has practiced against women in Mexico and systematically covered up, that which is translated as tumultuary rapes, femicide throughout the height and length of the country, feminization of poverty, incarceration, disappearances, and murders of social fighters and human rights activists.
7) That given the severity of the rapes, they be considered a crime of lesser humanity by the corresponding petitions.

La Otra Campaña: VA!

Sincerely,
The women of the Other Campaign,
from below to the left, with all heart