INTENSE PUBLIC ANGER HAS ERUPTED IN MEXICO AFTER A 30-YEAR-OLD BRICKLAYER WHO HAD BEEN TAKEN INTO CUSTODY BECAUSE HE FAILED TO WEAR A FACE MASK IN PUBLIC WAS LATER BEATEN TO DEATH.
Man in custody for not wearing protective mask
Intense public anger has erupted in Mexico after a man who had been taken into custody because he failed to wear a face mask in public was later beaten to death.
Guadalajara was the scene of violent protests at the government palace Thursday, the Guardian reports, after the death in custody of Giovanni Lopez, 30, a bricklayer who had been arrested by police on May 4.
In social media videos of Lopez’s arrest, he can be seen struggling with armed police as they bundle him into a patrol vehicle in the small town of Ixtlahuacan de Los Membrillo. Some of the officers have their faces covered, and bystanders video the scene. Those who were with Lopez can be heard in clips asking how officers could justify taking the man away for simply not wearing a mask.
“You can’t take him because he’s not doing anything wrong,” says one woman.
“If you kill him, we know you,” says another man.
“He was resisting arrest,” one officer can be heard to say.
“No, he was sitting and was about to eat,” comes the response from a female bystander, before the male bystander adds, “He was calm, you guys beat him up.”
“Why are you taking him away like this?” one says. “Call the human rights commission.”
Lopez can be heard screaming throughout.
The Guardian reports that when relatives of the dead man went searching for him after his arrest, they were told at a local police station that he was in a Guadalajara hospital. However, at that hospital they found Lopez dead. He had been shot in the foot but died of head trauma, the Guardian reports.
In videos posted to social media on Thursday, protesters could be seen spray-painting the walls of the government palace in Guadalajara, and police vehicles were set on fire. In one video, a policeman sitting on a motorcycle was set on fire by a protester, who crept up behind the officer, poured a liquid on his back and ignited it. Other officers could then be seen trying to aid the stricken policeman, but the officer’s health status is unclear.
Jalisco’s governor, Enrique Alfaro, had implemented some of Mexico’s tightest laws on face mask use to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in a country renowned for police brutality and official impunity, it had been feared that the new rules would give police too much of a free hand.
Father Robert Coogan, a Mexico-based American priest, told the Guardian:
“Corrupt police are taking advantage of this. It’s giving police one more reason to detain people (and) steal from them.”
According to the Guardian, Gerardo Octavio Solis, a Jalisco state prosecutor, is insistent that Lopez was arrested for “aggressive behaviour,” not a breach of mask rules.