Student Researcher: Rachel Jenack
Faculty Instructor: Christina Knopf, Ph.D.
Evaluator: Dr. John Schwaller, President, SUNY Potsdam
Over 200 men and women in Atenco, Mexico were arrested, and two young boys killed, in May of 2006 for resisting the police force that attempted to shut down flower vendors. Citizens that supported the flower vendors of Atenco were met by a vicious police force that brutally beat, tortured, raped, and sexually abused them. For many years there has been a struggle for human rights by the citizens of Mexico in which their opponent is the Mexican police force, known to be one of the most corrupt in the world. From this particular incident the Mexican government targeted the leaders and organizers of the street protests, and over a span of about one year they managed to incarcerate thirteen specific individuals. Three prominent leaders of the Peoples’ Front were sentenced to 67.5 years in a maximum security prison, one of which was sentenced to an additional 45 years due to his involvement in the Atenco Resistance. According to the article only one of the thirteen is out on bail – a flower vendor from Atenco, Patricia Romero. The true issue behind this article is the unjust incarceration of Mexican citizens fighting for their human rights.
“Free the Atenco 13!” Abu-Jamal, Mumia Independent media center. 2008, November 14. http://www.indymedia.org/en/2008/11/916170.shtml