Hate-fuelled Attacks in Mexico City: What Happened at “La Tianguis Disidente?”

www.instagram.com/la.tianguis_disidente/?hl=en

25/09/21
Members of the project “La Tianguis Disidente” took to social media to denounce the attacks.
 
On Thursday 23rd September, “La Tianguis Disidente” [The Dissident Market], situated next to the Glorieta de Insurgentes roundabout in Mexico City’s Zona Rosa, was brutally attacked by a group of people armed with pipes and wooden poles. The next day, while different gender-dissident collectives protested against what had happened, the police kettled and detained the protesters for at least an hour.
 
So, it was on the same day that equal marriage was approved in the state of Sonora that, in Mexico City, a group armed with sticks and rocks went into La Tianguis Disidente, “a space for gender-dissident protest created in response to economic violence”, and beat people they found inside, including minors. The attack left several wounded.
 
What this assault also makes clear is that the police aren’t there to protect us. They’re capitalist guard dogs; a group of police officers who were at the scene did nothing to stop the attack. In fact, they even laughed at what was happening, saying, “That’s what they get for being gay.”
 
The next day, various organisations went out to protest against the hate crime suffered by the vendors at the market and, once again, the police made it clear that their role is as a force of repression, kittling the protesters for at least an hour at the Glorieta de Cibeles, Medellin Street and the Glorieta de Insurgentes. In doing so, they criminalised the gender-dissidents that were there in protest, calling for justice for their injured comrades and respect for the few spaces of our own, created in response to this economic crisis.
 
What these situations highlight is the precariousness with which women, young people and the gender-diverse community are forced to live. This is why we have to create such spaces, to be able to cope with an already gruelling situation that has worsened during a pandemic that has seen women, young people and gender-dissidents worst affected. What’s also evident is the real function of the police - ignoring and even participating in the hate-fuelled attack against the vendors at La Tianguis Disidente, then ‘doing their duty’ the next day by repressing the people who raised their voices against the queerphobic attacks.
 
At Izquierda Diario, we join in the condemnation of this violence towards members of La Tianguis Disidente, and we stand against the repression of protest at the hands of the police.

Translated by Molly Shevlin - Original article by Emilio Bustamente: www.laizquierdadiario.mx/CDMX-Que-paso-en-La-Tianguis-Disidente