On March 27, Tulum police allegedly killed a Salvadoran woman who had been detained for disorderly conduct. Now, less than two weeks later, a video has surfaced of police in Tulum using excessive force to detain a young man on Wednesday night.
In the video, the man can be seen face down on the ground, with his hands cuffed behind him. Officers dragged him up by his hands into the back of patrol pickup, then beat him as onlookers watched and recorded the incident. The man did not appear to resist, but called for help and asked that the number of the patrol vehicle be recorded.
“We are recording!” shouted the man wielding the cellphone that was recording the scene. A woman approached the police and tried to intercede, but was turned away.
The violent incident comes to light less than two weeks after 36-year-old Victoria Esperanza Salazar died after municipal police held her down by kneeling on her back, breaking two vertebrae. Salazar was a mother of two, living in Tulum on a humanitarian visa.
The Quintana Roo Attorney General’s Office (FGE) determined that the cause of death was her broken back. They said that the force used by police was disproportionate, unreasonable and generated a high risk of death. The office has opened a murder investigation in light of the incident.
A 10 días del asesinato de Victoria Salazar a manos de policías municipales de #Tulum, hoy otro caso de brutalidad policiaca sale a la luz, luego de que un joven fuera sometido por uniformados de la patrulla 12233. pic.twitter.com/Vs9oOs3pjY
— De Peso (@DePeso_) April 9, 2021
Salazar’s death has drawn comparison with the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last May.
“I join the demand for justice and zero impunity for the murder of Victoria, a woman who lost her life at the hands of municipal police from Tulum, Quintana Roo. I condemn… the excessive use of [police] force. It must be punished,” said Martha Lucía Micher, a Morena party senator.
Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín González and federal Interior Minister Olga Sánchez also condemned the brutality and called for justice.
Source: Milenio (sp), Noti Tulum (sp)
