Organizations of entrepreneurs and merchants of the Historic Center of the Mexican capital sentenced the vandalism acts recorded during the march for October 2, after the damage to businesses and aggressions to police attributed to groups identified as “Black Block”.
In a statement, Gerardo Cleto López Becerra, president of the Council for the Development of Small Trade (Concomerciopequeño SC), said that the attacks committed on Avenida Central Lázaro Cárdenas and the capital Zócalo were “premeditated” actions, executed by people who went to the mobilization with the intention of causing damage.
The commemorative march for the 56th anniversary of the 1968 student massacre, which every year congregates groups, students and social organizations, advanced Thursday from Tlatelolco to the Zocalo. During the tour, a group of hooded men broke glass, launched firecrackers and assaulted security agents, which forced the early closure of shops.
“If these acts can occur in broad daylight, surpassing security devices, facing and injuring officers with firecrackers, cohetones and Molotov bombs, opening business curtains to damage and loot them, it is because there was an organization prior,” said López Becerra.
The leader of the merchant collective added that the authorities should analyze whether some of these facts can be considered terrorism or organized crime.
López Becerra acknowledged that metal fences were installed and there were preventive protocols, although he said the measures were insufficient.
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Violence in progress for October 2 leaves losses by 21 million pesos to the CDMX trade
“Somehow, the ‘Black Block’ activists have taken the measure to the strategy of ‘We are not going to respond to the provocation’ to attack, loot and cause damage,” added the representative of the guild, who criticized that, of more than 300 participants in violent incidents, there is only one detained person.
The leader of the merchant considered that the containment policy without confrontation leaves police and merchants at a disadvantage. “It is already clear that the policy of hugging criminals is not the security option,” he said.
According to the first estimates of the sector, economic losses due to the preventive closures of establishments exceeded fifty million pesos.
To this are added between four and five million pesos for damages on facades, crystals, equipment and theft or destruction of merchandise and more than two hundred jobs that were temporarily affected by the suspension of activities.
“The worst message that this day leaves is that vandalism can destroy, assault and commit crimes with impunity, damaging the heritage of families and workers who live honestly,” concluded López Becerra.
The Thursday march culminated with a clash between hooded and police, which left sixteen hospitalized agents, three of them in delicate condition, and is considered one of the most violent in recent years, which is part of the anniversary of the student massacre of Tlatelolco of October 2, 1968, where more than three hundred students and other hundreds of students were killed, according to organizations, according to organizations. Civil, although the authorities only reported 37 deaths.
With EFE information.
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