Mujeres de Atenco
Women of Atenco: 7 years of struggle against torture
- The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights will soon issue a merits report on this case
- A campaign against sexual torture is presented: We are freedom in movement
Mexico City (May 3, 2013).- After seven years of the police operations that took place on the 3rd and 4th of May, 2006 in San Salvador Atenco, state of Mexico, 11 female survivors of sexual torture by police agents of the three levels of government confronted the Mexican State before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in Washington –during a hearing on March 14- and are expecting the merits report on their case.
Along these seven years the women of Atenco have maintained themselves in motion, expressing their freedom to denounce and demand the non-repetition of the acts experienced at the hands of police agents. For that reason the campaign is entitled “We are freedom in motion” and it seeks to make their struggle against sexual torture visible in Mexico and the rest of the world.
Likewise, they inaugurated the exhibition “A photo for the women of Atenco”, which consists of almost 400 photographs belonging to persons and groups from over 10 different countries demanding justice and expressing their solidarity in the context of the hearing before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. Among the countries whose inhabitants participated in this campaign were: Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Congo, United States, Spain, Italy and UK, as well as 15 states in Mexico.
A sample of 40 photographs will be exhibited in the facilities of the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center, while the rest will be available in a photo mosaic. The exhibition will be open from May 6 to 9 between 10am and 2pm in Serapio Rendón 57-B, San Rafael, Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City.
Solidarity has illuminated the path that the women of Atenco have walked every day and is an invitation to continue fighting for freedom and justice. It is time to demand justice and an end to sexual violence.
Women complainants of sexual torture in Atenco / Dossier
On 3 and 4 May 2006, at least 2500 municipal, State and federal security officers deployed a police operation in the towns of Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco, State of Mexico. The operation ended with 47 women assaulted physically and/or sexually by the officers of the law. Also a result of the excessive use of force were the deaths of two young men: Francisco Javier Cortés Santiago (14 years old) on May 3 in Texcoco and the college student Ollin Alexis Benhumea, who was wounded in the head by a projectile, falling into a coma on May 4 in Atenco and died hospitalized a few days later.
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