For the criminal, impunity (August), for the good, punishment (october)

For the criminal, impunity

More than two months ago, exactly August 4, a 30 person group, composed of Igualdad Animal (*) activists, independent activists and neighbors that sympathize with the protest were in front of the Edwin Sierra Circus carryng posters and banners and giving out to the people in the street and assistants to the circus flyers against the mistreatment and slavery that suffer non-human animal in all circuses. Some criminals went out of the tent and attack us. The result was that I suffered a wound in the head produced by a padlock (eight stitches).
This situation was observed by two policemen, one was civil dressed (who said that he was Mayor in PNP) an the other with policeman uniform (a suboficial). Having identified the aggressor and asking the policemen that arrest him, he ¨invites¨ me to retire.

Despite that, after this, I present charges in the prosecutor´s office, against the circus, the policemen and against the Brigadier Córdova who did not accept my report some days after the incident in the police station, it was only two months later that I was notified for giving my declaration in the Sol de Oro police station in Los Olivos. Almost three months later there is no punishment for the agressors or policemen.


For the good, punishment

Peru Antitaurino, an association formed by several animal defense and social organizations, organized a protest agains bullfighting. The protest have the autorization of the public ministry but regrettably we realized too late that the autorization only let until block 3 of Av Abancay . It was there where we found the policial repression. Some minutes later, when the walking was stopped, the policemen throw some lacrimogens bombs and the compact group of one thousands persons was divided. Some could arrive to Plaza de Acho, others walked through the other streets and some others were waiting for a bus for returning home. Being the activists alone or in little groups, the policemen start to beat some of us without reason and even to the people that defended us.

Walking through a street near Av. Abancay with eight or ten other activists, two of us were beated by the policemen. For avoiding the beating I ran, but regrettably I went directly to the Batallón de Asalto of PNP, being arrested, and beated again in the head and forearms. In this place I was also beated by about five persons, recognizing two policemen with the names Ramirez and Calle. Because of the hardness of the beatings I thought that the room where I was being conduced would be the place where they would beat me to death. Fortunately it was not so. There, there were other six activists, two of them under 18. Some of them had been arrested in some bus station. One of them (Luis Berrospi) was beated even more than me, he had the mouth blown up and one of the policemen have stoled his movil phone (until now he had not recovered it). Beside of being beating we received verbal aggressions and mistreatment. The congresist Urquizo arrived to the police station for protesting because of our arbitrary detention. Then the agressors disappeared. After this, a lawyer arrived but the policemen didn´t let her to speak with us. After this we were taken to the San Andres police station where the treatment was better. There, we give our personal data and our property was confiscated. In some moment a prosecutor and a judge arrived, because of the habeas Corpus interposed as a response to the arbitrary detention and the aggressions. Physicians acknowledge the beatings. After this I knew that the policemen reacted to the Habeas Corpus and because of that they do not let our exit immediately but follow all the process as if we were delinquents.

After this we were taken to another dependence for being examined by another physician and they pretend to take us to the local of state security in Av. España, where we were not received because there wasn´t correspondence with the document elaborated in the police station and other reasons. Then we were brought back to the police station and we were forced to sleep in a dungeon.

The next day we were transferred to the prosecutor´s office where we supossed that would be liberated immediately. We weren´t. We were caged with dangerous convicts. It were six horrible hours. It was not until 6:30 pm that we were transferred to the fiscal office and after a long procedure we were let free, because there wasn´t any proof for the charges against us (crime against the public order.

All this was not only an outrage against our physical and psicological integrity. Moreover, an activist lost an exam, I lost a work day and almost all have got problems in our house and all because of doing something good and legal.

I’m grateful to Vanesa, Ericka, María (UPA y ALCO), Martín (IA), congressman Urquizo, to my sisters July and Fanny and to Nestor (Fanny´s boyfriend) because of their support during this problem.

*Igualdad Animal/Animal equality, organization founded in Spain with representation in Perú and other countries (www.igualdadanimal.org)
Igualdad Animal wasn´t part of the protest of Sunday 28, but some of their activists participate independently in it.

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