Letter from Ángel Benhumea to the Other Campaign, to the Workers of the Countryside and the City
by Quetzal Belmont
Ángel, Father of Alexis Benhumea — Who Lies in a Coma After the May 4 Police Operation in Atenco — Demands “Punishment for the Material and Intellectual Authors of the Crimes”
Six days after the violent events in San Salvador Atenco, the war of words over the excessive use of force toward the people of that community and those that went there to support them continues to heat up.
Arrest of unknown man in San Salvador Atenco
Photo: D.R. 2006 Ratón Maicero
In various media, statements can be heard from government officials on the “Atenco operation” — such as that of Humberto Benitez, Secretary General of the State of Mexico, who as of today, May 7, admitted that there was abuse on the part of the police forces and that there will be investigations on the issue. It would seem he had no other choice, now that the Mexican people have seen, over and over again, images in which the most extreme violence is being exercised against the people of Atenco.
How can one deny the abuse of power when it is well known that the use of force to “reestablish order” has left such severe consequences, and such pain among the people?
How can one hide the fact that the democratic “state of law” has been replaced by a state of impunity? There are nearly two hundred detainees who were taken directly to prison, without following any judicial/legal process, and who have been accused of serious offenses such as organized crime and kidnapping in order to set their bails at unplayable amounts.
Among the seriously wounded is Alexis, 20, in a hospital in critical condition. Below, we present the letter written by Ángel Benhumea, Alexis’ father.
“I Firmly Maintain That the Struggle We Support in the Other Campaign is Just”
To the Other Campaign
To the workers of the countryside and the city
The Mexican state has utilized all its repressive force to subdue and intimidate the noble and valiant people of San Salvador Atenco; to intimidate and disperse the forces that make up the Other Campaign.
It has failed in both objectives, as the Other Campaign has retaken the initiative and put the government in check with Insurgent Subcomandante Marcos’ announcement that he will not leave Mexico City as long as the Atenco prisoners are not released, no matter how much time this takes, even if it takes him into the national elections in July. He is leading protests and reorganizing the movement throughout the country.
To the workers, students and indigenous people who are in solidarity with the struggle, the criminal repression and state of martial law to which the town of San Salvador Atenco was submitted shows the level of desperation and decomposition to which the Mexican state, the PRI, PAN and PRD have sunk due to the organization and development that the Other Campaign has achieved.
The criminal and calculated repression implemented by the municipal, state and federal government in an attempt to subdue the people of Atenco reached hundreds of workers, students and indigenous. Regrettably, it reached my young son Ollin Alexis Benhumea Hernández, fourth-semester economics student at UNAM, 20 years old and an individual adherent, by his own will, to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle and the Other Campaign.
My son participated on May 4 in solidarity with the people of San Salvador Atenco, just like hundreds of other workers, students and indigenous people. Of the countless projectiles that the repressive forces of these criminal governments launched with the intention of hurting the demonstrators, one struck my son right in the head, inflecting on him an injury that has him in a coma.
The brutal repression from the imposition of martial law to which we were all submitted, the projectile launched with treachery and superiority from the high-powered weapon of the armed forces, as well as the criminal denial of entrance to any ambulance or medical assistance, put my son and others who were injured during those long and anguished 11 hours without any needed medical attention… keeps my son Alexis Benhumea at risk of death.
Since that day in which he was attacked, which has caused profound pain in my family and in me personally, Alexis has been hospitalized in intensive care.
We all hope that the damage these criminal governments have done to my son Alexis can be mended with medical science; that his strength and his healthy and rebel life contribute to his rehabilitation and that soon he can join, with all his physical and intellectual faculties, in the noble and revolutionary tasks of the Other Campaign.
For my part, I firmly maintain that the struggle we support in the Other Campaign is just. We all struggle to build a Mexico where true liberty, justice and democracy exist for all Mexicans. I will remain firm in my conviction that the Other Campaign is the alternative, without a doubt.
I ask you to openly and widely denounce what has happened to my son Alexis, as well as what has happened to all our other compañeros. Let us protest and struggle to free all the political prisoners and mend all the damage, injuries and violations to the workers, peasants, indigenous and students. Let us push for the organization, participation and strengthening of the Other Campaign.
Punishment for the material and intellectual authors of these crimes.
Freedom for political prisoners, end to the repression.
Attentively
Ángel Benhumea
Colation of Administrative and Academic Workers of the Union of National Autonomous University of Mexico Employees
Ángel, Father of Alexis Benhumea — Who Lies in a Coma After the May 4 Police Operation in Atenco — Demands “Punishment for the Material and Intellectual Authors of the Crimes”
Six days after the violent events in San Salvador Atenco, the war of words over the excessive use of force toward the people of that community and those that went there to support them continues to heat up.
Arrest of unknown man in San Salvador Atenco
Photo: D.R. 2006 Ratón Maicero
In various media, statements can be heard from government officials on the “Atenco operation” — such as that of Humberto Benitez, Secretary General of the State of Mexico, who as of today, May 7, admitted that there was abuse on the part of the police forces and that there will be investigations on the issue. It would seem he had no other choice, now that the Mexican people have seen, over and over again, images in which the most extreme violence is being exercised against the people of Atenco.
How can one deny the abuse of power when it is well known that the use of force to “reestablish order” has left such severe consequences, and such pain among the people?
How can one hide the fact that the democratic “state of law” has been replaced by a state of impunity? There are nearly two hundred detainees who were taken directly to prison, without following any judicial/legal process, and who have been accused of serious offenses such as organized crime and kidnapping in order to set their bails at unplayable amounts.
Among the seriously wounded is Alexis, 20, in a hospital in critical condition. Below, we present the letter written by Ángel Benhumea, Alexis’ father.
“I Firmly Maintain That the Struggle We Support in the Other Campaign is Just”
To the Other Campaign
To the workers of the countryside and the city
The Mexican state has utilized all its repressive force to subdue and intimidate the noble and valiant people of San Salvador Atenco; to intimidate and disperse the forces that make up the Other Campaign.
It has failed in both objectives, as the Other Campaign has retaken the initiative and put the government in check with Insurgent Subcomandante Marcos’ announcement that he will not leave Mexico City as long as the Atenco prisoners are not released, no matter how much time this takes, even if it takes him into the national elections in July. He is leading protests and reorganizing the movement throughout the country.
To the workers, students and indigenous people who are in solidarity with the struggle, the criminal repression and state of martial law to which the town of San Salvador Atenco was submitted shows the level of desperation and decomposition to which the Mexican state, the PRI, PAN and PRD have sunk due to the organization and development that the Other Campaign has achieved.
The criminal and calculated repression implemented by the municipal, state and federal government in an attempt to subdue the people of Atenco reached hundreds of workers, students and indigenous. Regrettably, it reached my young son Ollin Alexis Benhumea Hernández, fourth-semester economics student at UNAM, 20 years old and an individual adherent, by his own will, to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle and the Other Campaign.
My son participated on May 4 in solidarity with the people of San Salvador Atenco, just like hundreds of other workers, students and indigenous people. Of the countless projectiles that the repressive forces of these criminal governments launched with the intention of hurting the demonstrators, one struck my son right in the head, inflecting on him an injury that has him in a coma.
The brutal repression from the imposition of martial law to which we were all submitted, the projectile launched with treachery and superiority from the high-powered weapon of the armed forces, as well as the criminal denial of entrance to any ambulance or medical assistance, put my son and others who were injured during those long and anguished 11 hours without any needed medical attention… keeps my son Alexis Benhumea at risk of death.
Since that day in which he was attacked, which has caused profound pain in my family and in me personally, Alexis has been hospitalized in intensive care.
We all hope that the damage these criminal governments have done to my son Alexis can be mended with medical science; that his strength and his healthy and rebel life contribute to his rehabilitation and that soon he can join, with all his physical and intellectual faculties, in the noble and revolutionary tasks of the Other Campaign.
For my part, I firmly maintain that the struggle we support in the Other Campaign is just. We all struggle to build a Mexico where true liberty, justice and democracy exist for all Mexicans. I will remain firm in my conviction that the Other Campaign is the alternative, without a doubt.
I ask you to openly and widely denounce what has happened to my son Alexis, as well as what has happened to all our other compañeros. Let us protest and struggle to free all the political prisoners and mend all the damage, injuries and violations to the workers, peasants, indigenous and students. Let us push for the organization, participation and strengthening of the Other Campaign.
Punishment for the material and intellectual authors of these crimes.
Freedom for political prisoners, end to the repression.
Attentively
Ángel Benhumea
Colation of Administrative and Academic Workers of the Union of National Autonomous University of Mexico Employees
posted by Alice at
Thursday, May 11, 2006
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