Mexico: Federal Police Attack Five More Electricians' Blockades, One Electrician Shot

The Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) reports that this morning federal
police violently attacked five blockades outside Luz y Fuerza del Centro
(LyFC) buildings in Mexico State in what appear to be coordinated actions.
The attacks left multiple electricians wounded and detained. One
electrician is the in hospital with a gunshot wound.

The blockades outside former LyFC buildings are part of the SME's national
strike
which it declared on March 16, the day its collective bargaining contract
expired. In October, President Felipe Calderon unilaterally fired 44,000
LyFC workers at gunpoint and shut down the state-owned electric company.

This morning's attacks began in Ecatepec county. The SME reports that 100
federal police arrived at the blockade outside the substation there and,
without a word, attacked the striking workers. SME member Alejandro Lopez
Perez was "gravely wounded" in the attack and remains hospitalized. As in
Juandho,
Hidalgo, the federal police are using the LyFC complex to detain and torture
workers. During the attack, police took SME member Luis Vald?s and LyFC
retiree Ra?l Villase?or inside the LyFC building. The SME reports that the
two men have been "severely beaten" and remain detained.

Likewise, federal police attacked the blockade outside the electrical
substation in Toluca. Police detained five SME members and supporters,
including the daughter of a former LyFC worker. Ten people were seriously
injured, including Juan Ceballos Flores, who was hospitalized with a bullet
wound.

This morning police also attacked blockades in Vertiz, Indios Verdes, and
another LyFC building in Ecatepec.

Today, SME Secretary General Martin Esparza announced that the federal
Secretary of the Interior, Fernando G?mez Mont, has agreed to sit down with
SME leadership tomorrow for new negotiations. The SME does not hold out
much hope for successful negotiations, but say it will bargain in good
faith. Pending the negotiations, Esparza has requested that members
maintain their protest encampments outside their former workplaces, but that
they unblock the entrances so that police and contractors and freely enter
and leave.