Saturday, March 22nd, some of us from CASA went to interview Jorge Salinas Jardón, ex-political prisoner of the Atenco conflict whose legal proceedings ended a month ago.

Jorge had come to Chiapas to participate in one of the Caravans Against Repression making rounds in Zapatista communities. The Caravans are part of the “Worldwide Campaign in Defense of Autonomous Indigenous Lands and Territories in Chiapas, Mexico, and the World”, whose goal is to create a presence of Mexican social fighters in order to observe and denounce repression against autonomous communities.

by Leila Whitley

We have all heard the stories of the May 3rd and 4th massacre in San Salvador Atenco. We have seen the blood that poured from the beaten bodies of the flower vendors and their allies. We have heard and repeated the name of Javier Cortés Santiago, the 14-year-old boy executed by a .38 caliber police bullet. (While the police continue to claim that they were unarmed in Atenco, we have pictures and stories and this death that speak another truth.) We have mourned the death of Alexis Benhumea, the 20-year-old student who was doubly violated by the extreme police violence; first when he was hit in the temple with a tear gas canister, opening his skull, and second while he slowly died, trapped in hiding for hours, unable to go to the hospital because of the violence that continued to dominate the streets. Listening to the stories of the women of Atenco, we have shuddered in terror and empathy, imagining the sexual violence they endured. As these women continue to be held in the prison of Santiaguito, under the vigilance of their violators, we go on worrying for their safety and the daily fear and humiliation they face. We are also moved by their courage, and the courage of all of the people of Atenco who have endured atrocity and resisted.