Members of the Mothers in Resistance Chiapas collective reported that during their ongoing demonstration in front of the State Attorney General’s Office, they were threatened and assaulted by municipal police officers in Tuxtla Gutiérrez.
The women were demanding progress in the investigations into the femicides and disappearances of their children, as well as a meeting with the state’s Attorney General, Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca.
During the incident, they claimed that security forces snatched their banners, beat them, pushed them, and threatened them with firearms, Adriana Gómez, spokesperson for Mothers in Resistance Chiapas, told Aristegui Noticias.
They came to take them away, they came to tear down the banners, pointed guns at us, and threatened us with death.
Gómez blamed the Tuxtla Gutiérrez municipal police, under the direction of David Hernández Pérez, head of the Public Security Secretariat of the Chiapas capital.
In a statement posted on the collective’s Facebook page, the mothers described the events in greater detail.
“We are still alive despite the fact that they pointed guns at us, beat us, threatened us with death, tore down our tarps, as if they wanted to tear down our memory.”
They added that “today we would like to be stuck in traffic, arrive a little late to work, and not be asking for justice or looking for our children, but they disappeared as if by magic. It was the Prosecutor’s Office who interrupted our home to take them away,” the collective stated.
The collective noted that officials are implicated or accused, and that there is an injunction that recognizes their children’s disappearance as a forced disappearance. “Since the government is involved, it is a disappearance against humanity.”
“That’s why they want to make us disappear, because they know they are the main perpetrators. Yesterday they even said that, on the orders of Eduardo Ramírez (governor), Llaven Abarca (prosecutor), and Aparicio Avendaño (Secretary of Security), they want to put us in jail and make us disappear,” they added.
At least 40 groups of people searching for missing relatives, the Seventh Section of the SNT-CNTE, other teachers’ associations, neighborhood associations, and individual protesters joined in demanding an end to the repression and attacks, protection for the searching families, and urgent, effective attention from Attorney General Llaven Abarca.
In solidarity with the group, the Master’s Program in Human Rights Defense at the Autonomous University of Chiapas (UNACH) issued a statement.
“The attempt to run over a searching mother and the subsequent police repression are unacceptable acts that violate the rights to protest, freedom of expression, and the right to defend human rights,” they stated.
UNACH reiterated its support for the searching mothers and demanded that the authorities guarantee their safety and immediately investigate the events.
Searching for a missing son or daughter is not a crime; it is an act of love and resistance.
The group emphasized that their struggle is also an act of memory and justice, and denounced the police aggression that seeks to intimidate and silence them.
“They came to take away our banners and our voices, but we continue the struggle, but they will not stop us. Every act of repression confirms that we are pointing the finger at those responsible and that we will not give up until our sons and daughters are found,” they stated.
The mothers and their allies continue their demonstration in front of the Prosecutor’s Office and call on the authorities to address their demands, guarantee justice, and protect those searching for their missing relatives.
The group also urged citizens not to spread rumors and to stay informed through official channels, assuring them that the protest is peaceful and legitimate, in defense of human rights and justice for the disappeared.
Source: aristeguinoticias
