Despite the fact that there are videos of the protests over the death of Giovanni López, at the hands of police from Ixtlahuacán de lo Membrillos, Jalisco, the Jalisco Security Coordinator, Macedonio Tamez Guajardo said that activists have exaggerated the abuses by authorities in the protests.
“They are the activists with the usual discourse … the policemen were not armed, the police had orders not to engage. What the police did was to contain,” said Tamez.
The official also assured that those who have accused police of abuses are lying and self-victimizing, even though videos have been circulated through social networks where the actions of the authorities against protesters on Thursday, June 4 are documented.
“Many activists self-victimize or exaggerate what may have happened to them; if any police officer did something improper, he will be sanctioned, but the videos that I have seen about the police officers seem to me to be a legitimate defense rather than aggression against protesters,” said the Security coordinator.
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On the second day of protests for the murder of Giovanni López, the capital of Jalisco registered arbitrary arrests of peaceful protesters, as well as attacks on journalists by police. Authorities acknowledged that the arrests were made by agents of the state attorney’s office.
The Jalisco State Human Rights Commission was one of the first to point out these actions. Moments later, Governor Enrique Alfaro acknowledged that agents of the Prosecutor’s Office acted against protocol. In addition, he declared on his Twitter account that “it has been 48 hours of resisting all kinds of attacks, provocations and attempts to destabilize the state.”
“The instruction I gave was to act sensibly, prudently, and today a group of people from the Prosecutor General’s Office ignored my instructions and acted in an irresponsible and brutal way that will not be forgiven,” he wrote. He added that the full weight of the law will be used against whoever has been responsible since “nothing justifies the excessive use of force” and reported that the alleged culprits are already in custody.
