Mexico: ARTICLE 19 staff assaulted on office premises
| Publisher | Article 19 |
| Publication Date | 16 October 2013 |
| Cite as | Article 19, Mexico: ARTICLE 19 staff assaulted on office premises, 16 October 2013, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/525fa5444.html [accessed 2 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
The attack in ARTICLE 19's Mexico office comes the same day that the organisation published its latest quarterly report on repression and violence in the media.
Two members of ARTICLE 19 staff were assaulted on Friday 11 October on the organisation's premises, whilst they held an informal meeting with journalist and independent documentary filmmaker, Ricardo del Conde.
Del Conde documented assaults on journalists and protesters during the protest that took place on 2 October. It was Del Conde who filmed José Luis García Flores beating protesters, triggering the arrest on Tuesday 8 October of the policeman attached to the group known as Granaderos Oriente.
In a telephone interview with Animal Político, ARTICLE 19's Global Protection officer, Ricardo González relates that they do not know who is responsible for the assault, but that are not ruling anyone out.
"The fact that Ricardo del Conde was with us, the man whose journalistic work has been crucial in contributing with evidence of police abuse on 2 October means that we cannot rule out that this assault is directly related to his job. However, we do not know if the attack was aimed at ARTICLE 19, Ricardo or both, for the work we are carrying out for the campaign #RompeElMiedo [Break the fear]" he said.
Today's events took place on the office's terrace where Del Conde and ARTICLE 19 had met, when they noticed a person dressed in black taking pictures of them.
"A person threw a 5 cm steel nut at them. We thought they had thrown a type of catapult because the projectile hit one of our colleagues in the left shoulder very hard", González said.
González says that he went out to see what had happened and saw that another person dressed in black had arrived.
"When I started to film, he started shouting 'Hello, hello!' to the camera, very threateningly. Then he turned around and left", he said.
- See more at: http://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/37291/en/mexico:-article-19-staff-assaulted-on-office-premises#sthash.yXpQFcx8.dpuf
