Truck rushes against police blockade in Baja California

Four agents were severely injured during the round up of protesters encamped in the PEMEX facilities in Rosarito beach in the municipality of Tijuana, Baja California, after a truck, property of “Del Valle Spare Parts Shop” broke through the police siege earlier today.

Over 300 anti-riot police members of the municipal police of Rosarito, police of the National Gendarmerie and members of state preventive police of Tijuana tried to remove protesters from the site.

Sources of the Federal police said to EL UNIVERSAL that the rammed police members are severely injured. Authorities spread the video where the truck impacts the police blockade, while videos circulating in social media show different angles of the protester’s assault.

In the same protest, Laura Sánchez Ley, correspondent of EL UNIVERSAL, was beaten by female police members of the National Gendarmerie, while her husband and journalist Luis Alonso Pérez was arrested and allegedly released a couple of hours later in a different location.

Photojournalist from Frontera Media, Jesús Bustamante, was sprayed with pepper gas in his eyes, after refusing to leave the site while shooting pictures of agents beating a protester.

For her part, the head of the Special Monitoring Committee for the Attacks to Media Workers and Journalists of the Lower Chamber, Brenda Velázquez, condemned the violent acts against the three journalists and labeled them as inadmissible:“ Due to the evets registered and denounced by the journalist, Laura Sánchez Ley, this Committee requests the Attorney General’s Office to begin with the legal process against members of the police Gendarmerie, which resulted in the physical and verbal abuse of the media workers, as well as the investigations and proceedings required”.

“It is the responsibility of the authorities to guarantee the safety and the full exercise of the freedom of speech, expression of ideas and journalistic profession”, she added.