The Tapatío halconazo lasted six days
By: Jade Ramírez. Photo: Félix Márquez. June 5, 2023
The first thing a police officer told me was: «look, this is because of the protests on June 4th, 5th, and 6th». It’s a chain of responsibilities, and it’s absurd that this happens to you because of a protest sign.
They said there was «a hand behind the protests,» but they disregard the impact of social media, they have an indifference the size of the world. How can they act the way they did, knowing that they killed a person and keep doing the same?
GUADALAJARA, JALISCO – On June 11 Jorge Luis lived 30 minutes in what he felt it was the prelude to the end of his life.
Apparently, he was going to be arrested for stealing tools, but with a few clues and quickly, he knew it was a revenge for working in a workshop that supported one of the many discontented civil activisms over the extrajudicial execution of Giovanni López.
The peak days when the State Prosecutor’s Office of Jalisco and police forces committed abuses of authority and serious human rights violations, enforced disappearance and torture, due to the repression exerted against the social protest for the marches #JusticiaParaGiovanni (#JusticeForGiovanni), are identified as June 4th, 5th, and 6th in 2020.
We are talking about a weekend of terror that happened in Guadalajara from Thursday to Saturday during the first year of the pandemic.
In front of the media and local journalists who witnessed the operation on June 5th: armed men boarded people into white, black, and red vans without prior identification or arrest warrants.
Within a few minutes, we knew they were ministerial police officers.
Tapatío Halconazo
Apparently, it was only a few hours when ministerial police officers followed the orders of the highest security chief in Jalisco, Governor Enrique Alfaro, to repress any social articulation.
The last event recorded by the press was on Saturday night, June 6th. At 10 o’clock, at the doors of the Government Palace when a contingent marched from Chapultepec Avenue to the Government Palace and tried to set fire to the door.
With tear gas, they blocked the young people who were protesting against the forced disappearance of more than 100 people by government agents the day before.
More than 100 people on the afternoon of June 5th were taken to the parking lot and offices of the prosecutor’s office – 14th Street, Industrial neighborhood – where they were cut off from communication; dozens of other young people protested a few blocks away with the rumor of the operation hanging over them, as described in the chronicle «Run, run!»
The disappeared were taken away by fake vans from catering services and, after enduring a long episode of psychological torture, they were abandoned on the outskirts.
Revenge on June 11, 2020
Perimetral Press met a survivor of what would be another attempted enforced disappearance with a motive of robbery, but associated with the repression of the protest.
The 36-year-old man who told us about what he survived six days after the Tapatío Halconazo – with the spotlight on Governor Enrique Alfaro from the Federal Government and international organizations – is a victim of human rights violations without any record.
Jorge Luis* was intercepted by organized crime in coordination with the State Police and Guadalajara elements. Allegedly for committing a robbery, but he soon knew it was about a retaliation for where he works.
The adrenaline of the moment made him lose track of time.
He believes it was a little time passed when the two «civilias”, ministerial and Guadalajara police officers beat him to detain him and take him to the Prosecutor’s Office of Jalisco.
«It wasn’t me, you’re confusing me for someone else»
The first thing they said to me was, «We need to talk to you.» Two guys got out of the van, and one of them was the one who spoke those words to me. Seeing that, I knew they weren’t going to talk, that they didn’t want to talk. Amidst punches and struggles, they accused me of stealing something, some tool or I don’t know, maybe money and tools or both. But I told them, «It wasn’t me, you’re mistaking me for someone else,» and according to them, they had a video. Look, the van passed by, that’s when I managed to see it was a black van. These two guys got out, and the van continued moving. They approached me and tried to knock me down.
Obviously, people side with the «good guys.» I heard comments like, «Kill him, kill him.» It infuriates you. They shouted it out so that everyone would know they caught a thief, as if they were the heroes. And then, as I said, the motorcycles arrived, followed by the patrol car, but those four motorcycles arrived very quickly. That’s when I understood that it had already been arranged, at least to some extent. They were state police. The first ones to arrive were the motorcycles, and they were from the state police, then the patrol car from the state police also arrived.
«Show me the video»
The patrol car was supposed to take me to the prosecutor’s office – in theory. In theory, because there was a moment before that, they claimed to have a video on their phone, and I told them, «Show it to me, then». They showed it to a police officer, and I said, «Show me the video,» but he replied, «I won’t show it to you. It’s you.»
Then they took those two guys aside, they were still there, I managed to see them from the corner of my eye, but they were talking to the police officer. I will never know what they were saying or what was said, but my perception was that there was a much more familiar dialogue between them than that of two accusers with a police officer.
The patrol car arrived. I turned to the side or something distracted me, I don’t know, and suddenly I didn’t see them anymore. They let them go. Honestly, I entrusted myself to some force, without anyone notifying the police, and suddenly, two or three minutes later, four state police cars arrived. Reflecting on it now, it sounded very strange to me.
«If you run, I’ll shoot you in the legs»
But they were dressed in civilian clothes, I don’t know if they were policemen or maybe they had some contact with them.
That was my perception: that there was an agreement beforehand and that at the moment of separating them, they explained that their work was done and they could leave.
In theory, that’s what they told me, that they were going to take me to the prosecutor’s office. But just when these dialogues happened, I already understood that they were not going to take me to the prosecutor’s office anymore. That’s when I understood that something else was going to happen to me, and it was not going to be at the prosecutor’s office.
And when I started seeing these movements, I moved and sort of looked for the right moment or some void to escape. And one of the police officers noticed that because he said to me, «If you run, I’ll shoot you in the legs.»
They searched his phone, looking for information among his photos, calls, and contacts. The operation took place on Prisciliano Sánchez and Colón Street, in front of a Waldo’s store at three in the afternoon.
«This is because of the protests»
«Look, this is because of the protests on the 5th and 6th, we’ve seen the pictures, you know…»
as if provoking me to see if they could get something out of me, but ¿how was I supposed to have photos if I wasn’t there?
«You were at the protests, this is because of the protests.» It’s like he let slip instead of admitting they were taking me for robbery. I just looked at him like, «You’re an asshole.» Just before the patrol car arrived, I thought there must be a mistake, that these two guys were genuinely wrong. If they were looking for a thief, I said, «Maybe I look a lot like him, but I’m not the one.» As I told you before, when I realized there were several young people recording with their phones, that’s when I started shouting, «I’m so-and-so, Abraham. They’re detaining me.»
He enjoys political reflection but keeps himself distant from protests and activism. His last participation in a march was during the 2012 elections and the #YoSoy132 movement, where he took some photos.
Among the many civil activisms that took place on June 4th, 5th, and 6th, 2020, a workshop where some posters were printed supported activists, and simply for working there, Jorge Luis was «hunted,» as he describes what he experienced.
«They were instructed not to hit me»
Then these people arrived, and the first thing they tried to do was to knock me down, and it was in that struggle that I fought back. I think, I have the theory that they were instructed not to hit me. Because just when they tried to knock me down, they pulled out handcuffs as if to prevent me from defending myself or doing anything.
But since they couldn’t put them on me, the handcuffs ended up breaking. It was this guy who hit me and I started bleeding from my nose. That’s when the commander or the highest-ranking police officer said: «And what about that ‘sevenship’?» ‘Sevenship’ is a code word among the police for blows. So when this commander or police officer arrives and sees me bleeding, well, my shirt was already torn, I was shirtless, bleeding, and handcuffed.
It wasn’t a very strong blow, just a punch on the nose, but it looked dramatic because I bled, my shirt was stained, my pants were stained. And when he asks the police officers, «And why that sevenship?» It’s like they had the instruction not to hit me too hard. And it’s like he stepped back and said, «I’m not going to take him.» It was all in code, but that’s more or less what I understood. And that’s when they told me, «Well, get out of here now, or they’ll kill you,» and that’s when they let me go.
I escaped with the skin of my teeth
Three years after surviving an attempted disappearance by men who held him on the street, coordinated with police before vanishing from the scene.
Jorge Luis feels outraged and mentally affected by every piece of news about new missing people.
I’m really outraged
And it’s a very strong outrage to think that things are done so easily. And they’re done from the position of power, the same power that puts us in danger instead of providing us with peace and tranquility, which is supposed to be its purpose.
Every time I hear the news, every time I hear a new figure, a new piece of news about a disappearance, I feel like I’m being crushed right here, you son of a bitch!.
Primarily because I knew it’s something that your family, I mean, my family, who found out what happened to me, they were devastated, and then they fell down again when they saw me afterwards in that moment.
But it’s a very intense pain the one they must feel, and one thinks of them, thinks about the families who suffer through it, and well, you can’t do much.
Perimetral requested information through a transparency request from various entities involved in Jorge Luis’s detention on June 11, 2020. None acknowledged the incident by the location of the streets, time, date, or victim’s name.
For the Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office, the Public Security Secretariat, and the Guadalajara Police – all involved in the complaint – arbitrary arrests and attempted forced disappearances simply do not exist.
An obligated individual responded with reluctance, imposing on the requester to provide a reason or interest in knowing the details of that incident.
They didn´t find any evidence, so they decided not to take me
I’m not sure if I should call him a commander, but at least the highest-ranking one, the one who would decide everything, steps back. I didn’t understand.
I suppose that was because of that: the fact that they saw me dramatically beaten up, and perhaps also the fact that they didn’t find anything related to the protests, neither on me nor on my phone nor anywhere else.
And maybe that’s what convinced him not to detain me or take me to the prosecutor’s office.
To say, «Well, he doesn’t have anything, or maybe it’s unrelated. Maybe.»
But they did fill out some documents, I don’t know what they were, but they did write down some information, my name, they checked my wallet, my ID card, they noted down the details and everything.
But I didn’t know if it was something just to pretend that they were documenting something or if it was just a notebook that wouldn’t go anywhere, because later, as I said, an investigator came and didn’t show us any file about it, no document recording that the police detained me at that moment.
«If they see you again, they’re going to kill you»
At that moment when the police officer decided not to take me, not to put me in the patrol car, one of the officers who were guarding me said:
«I’m going to remove the handcuffs, and you’re going to run away. And I don’t want…
» What did he say?
I don’t remember exactly what he said, well, he threatened me with death, he said, «If they see you again, they’re going to kill you», referring to the ones I had allegedly robbed.
And at that moment, he removed the handcuffs, and I didn’t just run away because I didn’t want to do as he said, in order not to follow his words, but as soon as they didn’t see me, I ran, yes!
Over time, Jorge Luis attempted to file a complaint accompanied by coworkers, but due to the lack of security and trust.
As soon as reports of everything that happened to over 100 people on June 5th came out, he gave up on the investigation.
Three years of indifference and impunity without truth or justice
His family was deeply frightened, as were his friends and coworkers.
For him, it feels like he has returned «from beyond,» but what overwhelms Jorge Luis the most is the level of disorientation displayed by the authorities who, with complete impunity and without considering the seriousness of their actions outside the bounds of legality, continue to follow the pattern of State terrorism.
«It’s a place to do favors»
And just on the day when I said: «I’m going to pass by there, what could happen?», I saw one of the guys from the van again.
It turns out, it’s a workshop for bodywork and painting right there on Prisciliano Sánchez Street. Speaking of the plaza, it’s like some plaza boss is connected to people from the prosecutor’s office, and they do them favors.
As they say, ‘you can tell the greedy one by the way they grab the taco’ (a Mexican idiom to say that you can identify who a person is by the way they behave). You can tell who’s who by the way they do things.
And what I imagine is that some plaza boss, some leader, has this place and they go, it’s a place to do favors, its a workshop for bodywork and painting, but it has this function of personal recruitment for those kinds of things, I believe. –
But how did you feel when you passed by there?
Well, this time I ran because we recognized each other, I mean, it was in that moment when I was looking around in all directions, more cautious now, but unexpectedly, I turned and there he was. We stared at each other for two seconds, and then I kept going. You feel the anger of knowing who did that to you, and you know that now they no longer have protection. But then I reflected again and said: «well, they’re going to know it was me anyway, or they’re going to come after me again, right?»
The echo that social media can create
Because, as they said, there was a hand behind the protests, but also the disregard for the impact of social media, an indifference of massive proportions.
How can they continue acting in the same way, knowing that in that way they have already killed someone? And they keep doing it, they keep spreading it with full and complete awareness of what they are doing.
It’s not just a confused and isolated police officer committing a murder, and that the government is not to blame and it can dissociate from it.
But more than the act of printing or distributing posters.
I think it was about the resonance because all of this also started from the photos, the reactions that began to emerge on Twitter and social media…
The chain of responsibility is clear. The survivor of an attack, not because of his appearance as they attempted to portray it.
But as retaliation for his involvement in citizen activism and supporting activist groups at his workplace by printing materials for protests, leaves a brief reflection after three years without receiving an explanation or apology for the violations of his human rights.
«Shout out whenever you can»
Acts of remembrance
Civil organizations and the collective of survivors from June 5th, 2020 operation call for demonstrations and participation.
«The word ‘halconazo’ refers to a very particular event in Mexican history.
En 1971 a protest in opposition to the government was violently suppressed by an estimated 1,000 members of a paramilitary group serving the state called «The Halcones».
*Jorge Luis. His identity was modified because of the persistent fear of retaliation.
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Soy radialista, periodista autodidacta y defensora de derechos humanos.
Autora de Radiografía de la música callejera en 2001, mi iniciación al paisaje sonoro. Gané la Bienal Internacional de Radio en tres ocasiones: radio-arte, radio indigenista y en mesa de debate. Premio Internacional de Periodismo Rey de España en 2008; finalista en 2007 y 2009 del Premio Fundación Nuevo Periodismo por radiorreportajes sobre violaciones a los derechos humanos atravesados por el eje cultura.
Becaria de la Fundación PRENDE en la universidad Ibero y becaria Connectas. Oficial de Libertad de Expresión en la Red de Periodistas de a Pie de 2015 a 2021.
Leon Forte
Egresado de la licenciatura de Relaciones Internacionales de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Profesor de inglés y traductor.
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