Hundreds Commemorate 10th Anniversary of Police Raid on San Salvador Atenco Democracy Now!
go to original May 5, 2016

It was ten years ago that a police operation ordered by Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, left hundreds of residents from the rural town of San Salvador Atenco arrested, dozens seriously injured, 27 women raped and two killed. Clayton Conn reports. (teleSUR English)

Hundreds marched in Mexico Wednesday to mark 10 years since a brutal police raid on the town of Atenco. Current President Enrique Peña Nieto, who was then the governor of the state of Mexico, ordered the police raid on Atenco amid protests in support of local flower vendors.

Two people were killed, 200 activists and peasants arrested, and more than two dozen women said they were sexually tortured. Activists continue to protest renewed plans to build a new airport in the area.

Adán Espinoza of the People’s Front in Defense of the Land spoke at Wednesday’s march:

"There has not been any justice, as the intellectual author, Enrique Peña Nieto, has not been held responsible for the beating, the injuries, the death and the women who were [sexually] assaulted who have not received any justice, which is the most important thing. We have kept our word and will keep doing so, saying no the new airport. We are not going to leave our land, and it will keep being our land at whatever cost."

Related: Mexican Torture Victims Still Eyeing Justice 10 Years After Violent Crackdown (Latin American Herald Tribune)

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