A Police Officer Broke Ranks: This Happened on July 7, 2012 in Mexico

Testimony of the Commitment to Nonviolent Resistance in #YoSoy132

By Erika Pacheco de la Rosa
Special to The Narco News Bulletin

July 11, 2012

From the moment I joined the march, I was impressed to see so many different kinds of people. It is impressive how the people of Mexico have united. There were many students. I wouldn’t dare to put a number on them. I was demonstrating with a book, a book that I was reading, and a bouquet of flowers. I didn’t shout slogans. I just walked trying to see the entire march.

We began to chant, “Nonviolence! Nonviolence!” And next, we chanted, “Sit down! Sit down!” Everyone listened and did it. Everyone respected the guidelines.

I was impressed to see translations, even in Japanese, of the slogans, everyone chanting, everyone saying that in the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE, in its Spanish initials) there had been fraud and demanding that they respect the vote. I continued marching to the Zócalo. I was able to identify infiltrators of the PRI party who tried to listen in on groups of people and how they organized. I walked around and around to see how the march developed. From there they called on people to march to the Claustro de Sor Juana, the church patio where Televisa – in lieu of covering the mega-march – broadcast the wedding of comedian Eugenio Derbez and the actress Alessandra Rosaldo. I decided to go there.

I saw how people chanted slogans at Televisa. When night fell I decided to videotape the light repression that the police caused when they pushed us to one side so the wedding guests could pass. There were riot cops and walls of police officiers, they were big, and they began to push us.

We began to chant, “Nonviolence! Nonviolence!” And next, we chanted, “Sit down! Sit down!” Everyone listened and did it. Everyone respected the guidelines. We were seated for a while. Next, a girl gave flowers to the police officers. She put them on their uniforms. Things began to calm down.

Someone said, “women in front!” And we put ourselves there. The men of the movement protected us and we protected them. One young woman kissed a police officer and all of us women who were in the front started kissing them on the cheek. We are friends, not enemies.

After we began chanting and demonstrating, the night ended when a police officer broke ranks, which I respect and admire for his bravery. Had he been a member of my family I would love him for being congruent with his role in society.

This happened on July 7, 2012.

Erika Pacheco de la Rosa.

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