POLICE ATTACK PACIFISTS AT MEDELLIN MAYDAY
At the annual Mayday march in Medellin, Colombia, members of the anti-war
group
Red Juvenil
(Youth Network) were brutally attacked by a special
anti-riot police squad, resulting in three injured and one hospitalized.
Twenty members of Red Juvenil,
which supports Colombian draft resisters and
citizen peace initiatives in the war-torn country, were at the march with
banners reading "NO ARMY DEFENDS THE PEACE" and "NEITHER WAR THAT DESTROYS
US OR PEACE THAT OPPRESSES US." The violence began when one of the trade
unionists in the march, apparently suspected of spray-painting slogans on a
wall, was chased down by the police and tried to get lost in the crowd.
Police caught up with him just as he reached the group of Red Juvenil
marchers, and began to beat him. Martin Emilio Rodriguez, who edits Red
Juvenil's newsletter Mal Creyente, threw himself over the unionist in an
effort to protect him. When he started receiving blows himself, other Red
Juvenil activists, in turn, threw their bodies in front of him. One
received a bloody nose, and two were sprayed with pepper gas in the eyes.
Among those attacked was Adriana Castaño, Red Juvenil's human rights
director (and invited keynote speaker at the upcoming national conference
of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Los Angeles, CA, in August).
Finally a police tank was brought to the scene, and Martin and the Red's
Diego Agredo were taken away in handcuffs, along with the unionist. Martin,
who got the worst of the violence, was hospitalized for several days with
fears of a fractured skull, but proved only to be badly bruised. He and
Diego were both released, and it is uncertain if they will face charges in
the incident.
Red Juvenil is calling for an investigation into the elite National Police
anti-riot team they believe was behind the attack, the Metropolitan Anti-Disturbance Security Corps (SMAD), accusing the unit of "physical and psychological torture."
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Special to WORLD WAR 3 REPORT, May 5, 2004
Reprinting permissible with attribution
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