MEXICO: Stop the repression by the incoming PRI government, repression endorsed by the PAN and the PRD

Immediate and unconditional release of the political prisoners of December 1

03/12/2012

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Today, we, thousands of young people, teachers and political and social organizations – like the Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra – went out to the streets to demonstrate our repudiation of the inauguration of the repressive PRI politician Peña Nieto, who is arriving at the Presidency in the middle of a scandalous fraud. From very early, the Federal Police attacked demonstrators with rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannon, oarlocks, and shields, leaving more than ten people seriously injured, especially the comrades Carlos Valdivia and Juan Francisco Quinquedal, who are struggling between life and death. We condemn the lie that the hospitalized comrades were injured by firecrackers; the rubber bullets shot at the contingents by the police caused their injuries, and the new, incoming government, the presidential staff, and the Federal Police are responsible.

After the repression in San Lázaro, the demonstrators were violently repressed in the vicinity of the Mexico City Zócalo, by the police of the Distrito Federal, with the collaboration of disguised soldiers, who, in an operation, arbitrarily apprehended 175 comrades, under the threat from the PRD Mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, that they will face charges with sentences of between 5 and 30 years.

The violent repression practiced by the presidential staff, the Federal Police, and the capital police, shows the “national agreement” at which the parties in the Congress are arriving: it is about maintaining “governability” by repressing young people and the social movements, in order to impose the plans for poverty that the bosses and the United States government are demanding. This is the “democracy for the rich” that the government by alternating parties promised.

From the Liga de Trabajadores por el Socialismo, we vigorously condemn the repression, and we demand the immediate and unconditional release of all the arrested comrades. Furthermore, we call on the workers’ organizations that claim to be independent, like the CNTE, the SME, and the UNT, to head a broad appeal that will include human rights’ organizations, intellectuals, unions, political and social organizations, indigenous and campesino organizations to promote a big united campaign for the release of the prisoners and against repression, to get our comrades out of the hands of the state, with the cry, “An injury to one is an injury to all!” It is essential that these leaderships prepare the conditions for promoting a big national strike for the release of the comrades. At the same time, we are holding the Federal government and the government of the Distrito Federal responsible for any attack that the comrades who are now mobilizing for the prisoners may suffer.

Release the political prisoners!

No more repression against the youth and the social activists!

A national mobilization against the reactionary agreement of the parties of the Congress!