Student teacher arrests, May, 2017 (Photo @Cuartoscuro)

On May 4th, state and municipal police detained some 236 young people from the Coordinator of Student Teachers [normalistas] of the State Chiapas (CENECH in its Spanish acronym) who were carrying out a political action in the context of the three-day protest held in Tuxtla Gutierrez by the teachers of Chiapas against the educational reform bill. Videos recorded by witnesses of the operation show that the youths were beaten by the uniformed police. Most of them belong to the State Normal School and the Normal High School, both in Tuxtla Gutierrez.

They were charged with vandalism, and although they were released the following day, they are still under investigation for the crimes of damages, robbery with violence and gangs membership, according to the Attorney General’s Office (FGE in its Spanish acronym).

The Office of the Prosecutor in charge of these investigations reported that 144 men and 92 women were detained in the moment they looted different vehicles owned by the companies Sonric’s, Lala and Coca-Cola, and that another group of young people were aboard three buses of the OCC and Aury companies, which had been stolen. It indicated that it had ascertained there were products in these vehicles, which were also stolen from an Oxxo store, as well as several Molotov cocktails.

For more information in Spanish:

236 normalistas detenidos por la Policía de Chiapas (La Jornada, 4 de mayo de 2017)

Policía de Chiapas detiene a 236 normalistas por « daños, robos y pandillerismo » (Proceso, 4 de mayo de 2017)

Detienen a 236 normalistas por supuesto vandalismo en Chiapas (Aristegui Noticias, 4 de mayo de 2017)

236 normalistas son detenidos en Chiapas por toma de autobuses y saqueo; protestan en la FGE (VIDEOS) (Sin Embargo, 4 de mayo de 2017)

Liberan a los 236 normalistas detenidos por actos vandálicos en Chiapas (Proceso, 5 de mayo de 2017)