On May 28th representatives and Presidents from 25 European countries joined 33 of their Latin American and Caribbean counterparts – speaking on behalf of more than one billion of the world’s people – at the third EU, Latin American and Caribbean (EU-LAC) summit, hosted in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico. As social movements across Latin America remain a force to reckon with and the CAFTA and FTAA negotiations with the US hobble along, European countries want to make sure they get a piece of the Latin American pie before it is too late. While there were no official agreements signed, a major EU-Mercosur deal was on the table for discussion, as well as a CAFTA-like agreement between Central American countries and the EU. While no official economic pacts were reached, ironically the 58 leaders did agree to urge the US to seek greater UN involvement in Iraq and “express abhorrence at recent evidence of the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraqi prisonsâ€.
Outside, thousands had gathered. Past the high security check-points, the 15 foot fences, beyond the countless storm-trooper police, and were a sea of Mexicans expressing their concern, discontent, and anger. Ten years after NAFTA, a conscious and mobilized people of Mexico had tasted the cruel effects of such “dealsâ€, and the streets were filled with was a resounding rejection of this unasked for Summit. A large and peaceful march had brought the young and old, urban and rural people of Mexico together, culminating in a heated protest outside the meeting sites.
Slowly, surely, the intensity and animosity began to grow, as taunting and insults turned into flying objects. This escalated to a full blown police-protester exchange of rocks, bricks, bottles, chunks of concrete, street-signs, metal fences, etc, thrown back and forth over the police shields, with intent. This was soon followed by different kinds of gasses and pepper-sprays, accompanied by police aggression, in attempts to disperse, or capture, the people gathered. With countless plainclothes police provocateurs scattered about, it was hard to say who started beating up on who first. The violent version of tag (complete with police beatings once caught) that would follow continued all over the city for hours after the protest as countless people – involved or not in the protest – were caught up in the aftermath.
Attacked
Peering out of our nearby hotel lobby, where we had been waiting things out for a couple hours, the streets were seemingly calm. As my friend and I left the hotel in search of food, a group of people ran by, chased by a larger group of oncoming riot police. The police approached me. Without hesitation, the 15 or so riot cops threw me to the ground, teaming up on me with a wave of violence – an onslaught of steel-toed boots, fists, batons and other blunt blows to the face, head, neck, back and legs. After realizing they were not about to stop, I struggled to break free as they tore my shirt off my back. I had a gun put to my head, was thrown through the window of the hotel, and was eventually saved as my friend threw herself into the mix to save me and the hotel workers screamed in unison.
Many would suffer from similar fates that night, caught up in an unapologetic and vicious police-machine, simply for having been at the wrong place at the wrong time in the midst of a citywide witch-hunt.
The Red Cross was filled with a surreal mix of cops and “protestorsâ€, in alternating beds but in the same facility.
The injured parties who were not in uniform would be taken from the Red Cross facility to the basement of a police station. Descending down the dark ramp into the holding area, the mood was somber and the air thick as the 70 people being held, mostly Mexicans, sat on the cold, hard tile. While a few appeared unhurt, most had suffered some kind of injury: bloody bandages on their heads, or stitched up foreheads, or bruised ribs, or wrapped up shoulders, or splints on arms, or bloody shirts, or bruises, scrapes, and cuts to their faces.
Over the course of the next 12 hours I personally witnessed and heard stories about a variety of human rights abuses, “mistreatmentâ€, or “tortureâ€, depending on who you ask. I witnessed people getting their heads slammed into a wall, interrogations with hands-on intimidation tactics as well as constant threats of violence, random punches to the neck or head, strange exercises (“hold this above your head for X amount of time, if not I will beat youâ€), random kicking, etc. Basic needs were withheld – water, a bathroom, or even allowing us to lie down on the floor throughout the night – unless they felt like giving us such things, but not when we were in need.
There was also much that happened out of general sight. Before joining the rest, the women had been separated and forced to strip naked and do exercises, under the guise of strip searches. And when the bathroom was allowed, there was occasional out-of-sight abuse as those who came back from the bathroom were doubled over upon return, including a taller, skinny student who was forced to urinate on himself. There were some put behind bars in the police station that I would later learn were suffering far more serious beatings at the hands of the police, in some cases in order to get them to sign confessions of guilt for things they had supposedly done during the protests.
At one point the 8 foreigners scattered amongst the group were separated. We began to share stories with each other. Juan Francisco and Silvia from Spain were picked up outside a restaurant two hours after the protests had finished. Roxana from Australia was caught up in the post-protest mayhem, grabbed off the street and threatened with death. Mateo from Italy lives (lived?) in Guadalajara and was getting off the bus in another part of town, on the way to his girlfriend’s house. Laloue, from Canada, had been living in Mexico for a year with her boyfriend. Her head was covered in blood-soaked bandages.
After spending several days in a migratory detention center alongside a thousand or more Central Americans, we were eventually deported the following week, each of the 8 of us was sent back to our respective countries (Australia, Canada, Italy, 4 from Spain, and the US). The Mexican Government knew that we had seen and experienced too much, and that we represented a potential headache for them, especially if we were to begin making noise. This was exactly the plan we had begun to carry out when we were taken kicking and screaming to the Mexico City airport, an hour or two after meeting for the first time with lawyers.
Lessons Learned
Ten years after NAFTA, there are plenty of signs that the neoliberal trade agenda is failing. Thousands of these reasons filled the streets of Guadalajara Mexico on May 28th, as a wide cross-sector of Mexican society, young and old, urban and rural, north and south, came together to reject these one-sided “agreementsâ€.
However, as the global economy and international capital continue to push their interests, the desperation to defend such things becomes more obvious with each and every massive mobilization. We hear about the highly-touted benefits and advances of economic integration bringing freedom, jobs, and cheap goods to all. Yet dirty tactics of state-backed violence and repression are needed in order to even meet and discuss such things. As the volume of resistance grows, so too grows the need for a more militarized response, to defend that which is not desired.
The examples are everywhere: more troops to Iraq, Plan Colombia, US funding to Israel. In the movement against neoliberal globalization, the increasing police presence at major demonstrations is also clear. In this region the cities of Cancun, Miami, and Sea Island Georgia have seen thousands of police come to serve and protect… international capital. Guadalajara was no different.
As Thomas Friedman has so succinctly put it, “The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist – McDonald’s cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the builder of the F-15â€.
The other lesson that I take from the Guadalajara experience is the lesson of, what a friend calls the “tenderness of solidarityâ€. The public response to the illegal detentions and beatings was astounding. Locally, nationally, and internationally the pressure began to grow only moments after the detentions. For the foreigners who represented a potential headache for the Mexican government, this meant deportation.
Solidarity and international pressure is also exactly what needs to continue. At the writing of this article there are still dozens of Mexicans that are locked up. Most have suffered from extreme pressure and beatings while jailed as they continue to be illegally held on invented charges. And everyone knows it. The Mexican press has covered these events extensively, the Mexican congress has mandated an investigation, and students, social movements, unions, NGOS, lawyers, and countless other groups are taking on the cause. An increase in international pressure will help in bringing justice — and I’m sure there is a Mexican Embassy or consular office near you.
*Patrick Leet is an educator and analyst for Witness for Peace (www.witnessforpeace.org) in Cuba, educating US citizens about US foreign policy in Latin America.
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