The Case That Shows How Far Indigenous Mexicans Are from Achieving Equality [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

The Case That Shows How Far Indigenous Mexicans Are from Achieving Equality
By Andalucía Knoll
June 15, 2014 | 7:50 am

An outrageously faulty case in Mexico illustrates how the country’s indigenous citizens struggle to be treated fairly under the law.

In August 2006, police in the central Mexican state of Querétaro arrested a middle-aged indigenous street vendor named Jacinta Francisco Marcial, accusing her of kidnapping six federal agents during a melee months earlier at a market in the town of Santiago Mexquititlán.

According to town residents and eyewitness testimony, the agents, who were not in uniform, broke proper protocol in late March and illegally confiscated the vendor’s products. They raided the market under the pretext that it was selling pirated DVDs, which are ubiquitous in stalls across Mexico.

The vendors, suspecting that the “operation” was really a robbery on the part of the plainclothes agents, fought back.

Arguing and scuffling ensued. According to a brief on the incident written by Amnesty International, authorities that day agreed to negotiate with the vendors and compensate them for the merchandise. They also agreed that an agent would remain as collateral while the others collected the money. By 7PM the vendors had been paid, the agents had left, and the incident was over.

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https://news.vice.com/article/the-case-that-shows-how-far-indigenous-mexicans-are-from-achieving-equality