Mexico City and Jalisco: Justice for George Floyd, Giovanni López and All Victims of Police Brutality!

June 15, 2020 | revcom.us

Editors’ note: The following was translated by revcom.us, from Aurora Roja, the blog of the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico.

Demonstration in the state of Jalisco, Mexico.

In repudiation of the murder of George Floyd by the police in Minneapolis, United States, and the murder of Giovanni López by the police of Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos, state of Jalisco, Mexico, more than a hundred people demonstrated at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City on June 5, 2020.

Posters with “I can’t breathe” were posted on the embassy fence, which were the last words of African-American George Floyd as the white cop took his life, crushing his neck with his knee for nearly nine minutes as he lay handcuffed on the ground, with two other policemen pressing his back down against the pavement. Also the names of many other people killed by the police in the United States, mainly Black people and other people of color, were posted on the sidewalk in front of the embassy, while noise was made hitting the metal fences with which they have armored and protected this hated embassy of Yankee imperialism, precisely in anticipation of demonstrations in repudiation of the crime.

Voices were also raised demanding justice for the murder of Giovanni López committed by the police in the state of Jalisco. Posters with a drawing of Giovanni’s face and demanding justice were posted on metal fences. Giovanni died in police custody after being arrested for filming the police arresting people for not wearing face masks, even though they were sitting in front of their homes. He was tortured for hours, according to the testimony of another person detained at the same time. There have also been angry protests demanding justice for Giovanni in the city of Guadalajara, capital of the state of Jalisco.

Furthermore, the murder of Oliver López in Tijuana on March 29 is being called out, when a pig police officer took his life by standing on his neck, a crime with a chilling resemblance to the murder of George Floyd in the United States.

The response to the protests against police brutality was more police brutality. In Mexico City, police officers knocked down and kicked a young protester in the head. In Guadalajara, municipal and state police, in vans without markings or license plates, some in civilian clothes, arrested and beat several young people who were heading to the demonstration that was taking place for the second day. They then left several of the beaten people at places far from the city.

The rebellion in hundreds of cities and towns in the United States due to the murder of George Floyd and many others has inspired demonstrations of solidarity and protests against police brutality, racism and white supremacy in many countries around the world. And the fact is that everywhere the police are a repressive force to terrorize and control the people oppressed and exploited by this capitalist system. As the People’s Revolutionary Movement pointed out, when participating in the protest in Mexico City, to end this savage police brutality, the system must be gotten rid of which these pigs serve to protect; needed: ¡revolution, nothing less!

Some participants in the People’s Revolutionary Movement in the demonstration in Mexico City. “NO! ¡In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America!”

Police knock down and kick a protester in the Mexico City demonstration.

Another protest at the murder of George Floyd at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City on June 4, primarily of young people from the U.S.