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Mexico City Activist Targetted and Arrested

10:00 H | Topics: Activism - Justice - Mexico

Chanti Ollin is a six-year-old community center in Mexico City. One of its core founders and organizers, Hard Coreen, was wrongfully arrested by the police at the end of April.

Hard Coreen is a longtime activist. He has done a variety of work from helping at the Biblioteca Social Reconstruir, to organizing radical art shows and diy punk shows, to making art in a political silkscreen collective. He has also been a wonderful host to the myriad of travelers and foreigners coming to mexico city, and a great introducer to the city's diy political scene.

Around the beginning of May, Chanti Ollin hosted a punk show which many people attended. At one point in the evening, Hard Coreen and some friends left to buy things at the corner store which is when the police first started their intimidation, not an unusual occurrence in Mexico City, especially for those involved in political activities. The police searched everyone and, upon finding nothing, let them go.

Later that evening, two young men that were attending the show started acting erratic, throwing rocks at walls and breaking windows. Hard Coreen and his friend, Itza, told the two guys to leave. Instead of leaving, they returned with the police and accused Hard Coreen and Itza of either stealing their wallets or of assault (here, the stories differ, but neither of these had happened).

The police arrested Hard Coreen and Itza and let the two guys who started the whole situation go. We strongly believe this is due to Hard Coreen's and his friend's past political connections and activism. Chanti Ollin has been targeted by the police and by real estate developers interested in the building's location in the not-too-distant past.

Currently, they are jailed in Mexico City's Reno (north detention center). They appeared before a judge on June 9th.

While Hard Coreen and Itza are sitting in jail, they need money for their food (since food typically contains urine and feces), bed space (if an inmate has no money to pay for a bed, he or she does not get a bed) and protection from the cops and other inmates. Friends on both sides of the border are raising money to send to their families so that the two can eat, sleep and survive. For those in Mexico who are interested, click on the espacioperdido blog link below for contact For those in the U.S., please e-mail vikkiml [at] yahoo [dot] com

Via / Victoria Law and Espacio Perdido