MEXICO: Street-sweepers’ Hunger Strike Ends, but Protest Goes On

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Jan 20 1997 (IPS) - Opposition and human rights groups in Mexico were sharply critical the government after the police broke up the street sweepers hunger strike camp, imposing medical aid on two who fasters who were seriously ill.

Early Sunday morning, some 200 riot police launched a surprise attack, beating the small group of street sweepers out of their temporary site opposite a public building in the capital on “humanitarian grounds” and arresting two hunger strikers.

These two men were on their 97th day of a hunger strike, protesting against unfair dismissal by a cleaning company in the city of Tabasco, on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, where some 300 people lost their jobs for refusing to clean the houses of the higher echelons of company personnel.

“We would like to state our indignation at the events suffered by the workers (…) and we reject the action taken,” said a letter from the National Network of Human Rights Organisms, the Movement for Peace with Justice and the Associations of Democratic Lawyers released Monday.

“Once again the authorities are contradicting themselves: while they claim they are ready to resolve the conflict, they do the opposite, violating fundamental human rights and endangering the lives of the workers,” they said.

When explaining the motives of the operation, the authorities in the capital said the “transferral” of the workers to a hospital had been carried out for humanitarian reasons, meeting demands for medical intervention for the two now seriously ill men from individuals, groups and social organisations.

The legally backed eviction was carried out with the aim of “inviting” the hunger strikers to receive medical attention, they said.

However, the lack of attention to the demands stated and the violent eviction on Sunday, led to the camp being promptly reestablished Monday.

A further five workers now on their 50th day without solid food are installed there.

According to the authorities, the two arrested hunger-strikers are out of danger and have already accepted medical help.

Deputies from the opposition Revolutionary Democrat Party (PRD) and leaders of the Zapatista National Liberation Front – which represents the Zapatista guerrillas’ supporters – asked the public to protest in support of the street-sweepers.

“We are protesting against the unfair and brutal eviction suffered by the cleaning workers and we strongly plea that their demands be met. We call on society to participate in acts of solidarity and support,” said a press release.

According to the sweepers accompanying their fasting companions, at three o’clock Sunday morning dozens of police attacked the camp, beating the workers before carrying off the two dangerously ill hunger-strikers.

When the event became public knowledge, opposition leaders, intellectuals, artists and religious representatives visited the remains of the camp to express their solidarity with the Tabasco workers.

Former PRD presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas blamed what he classified “agression against the sweepers” on president Ernesto Zedillo.

“Far from resolving the simple problem of these cleaning workers by economic and political means, (Zedillo) once again opted for the use of violence,” said Cardenas.

The Jesuit Augustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Centre, sent a visitor to the site of the eviction to collect evidence for a complaint to Amnesty International and the InterAmerican Human Rights Commission.

Secretary General of the Tabasco state government, Victor Barcelo, said Mexican society should thank the authorities for deciding to dislodge the camp, as “they saved the lives of the hunger-strikers.”

“We are worried about our companians who have been manipulated and brought to the Mexico City in a situation which could endanger their lives. We want them to return to their state, where they will be welcomed with open arms,” said Barcelo.

Authorities from Tabasco and representatives of the sacked sweepers have been negotiating an end to the process since the hunger-strikers completed their 80th day more than two weeks ago.