Alleged Provocateurs Planned Violent Acts Two Weeks Before #1DMx Protests

More details have emerged about the alleged anarchist provocateurs who were paid 300 Mexican pesos to incite acts of vandalism and violence during Saturday's #1DMx protests against Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto. (Pictures from #1DMx can be found here.)

According to news reports from Mexico, the provocateurs planned their attacks at least two weeks before the December 1 protest date. The newspaper Reforma reports that social media played in a key role in gathering those interested in committing violent acts. There was also a physical meeting where the agitators discussed details on how it they would commit the acts of vandalism, and that those details were later shared on the Internet.

CREDIT: Eneas De Troya

It is still not known who in fact organized the actual acts of vandalism during #1DMx.

Student movement #YoSoy132 has already gone on record to distance itself from last Saturday's violence. We asked their international media arm if the movement thought that Peña Nieto and the Instructional Revolutionary Party (PRI) were organizing provocateurs. This is what they sent us via email:

You claim that EPN and the PRI have sent infiltrators to the movement?

That is right. There is growing evidence that the old tactics were employed again to try to diminish a genuine pacifist movement by turning the public opinion and giving the impression that the movement is “violent” (Using again the commercial-­‐private-­‐official #Televisa and #TVAzteca duopoly, which owns 30% of the open channels in Mexico, a country with 19% of internet access). It is imperative to break this social information barrier. It is important to mention that as #YoSoy132 movement, we are sympathetic with the causes of the genuine Anarchist movement in Mexico. It is still unclear to us, whether or not some genuine Anarchist participated in vandalism (maybe more close to the truth as you only need a few infiltrators to get a lot of people in chaos).

If anyone that was identified previously with #YoSoy132 and unequivocally had participated in violent acts, him or herself is automatically out of the movement (General Principles of #YoSoy132). However, given the irregularities and inconsistencies in the accusations, we decided to ask for the release of all the comrades as we cannot risk at any time that an innocent would go to jail for 5-­‐30 years!

We demand an investigation and an official explanation about the rubber bullets used for the first time in Mexico, breaking the police protocols to only shoot up to the air. Also, we demand an investigation on the infiltrators and the persons or groups behind them, answering the question: Who paid them?