Mayor elect of Álvaro Obregón Lía Limón García. Photo: Google

By KELIN DILLON

Eight elected borough mayors from Union of Mayors of Mexico City (UNE-CDMX), all of which come from parties opposing current head of Mexico City Claudia Sheinbaum’s own leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena), were beaten and attacked by city police after they approached the capital’s local congress on the morning of Monday, Aug. 30.

Mayor-elect of Álvaro Obregón Lía Limón García was struck in the face with a riot shield, leaving an visibly bloody gash, while Miguel Hidalgo Mayor-elect Mauricio Tabe Echartea claimed to have been tased and beaten by the police. A further official, Deputy-elect of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Tania Larios Pérez likewise said she was physically assaulted and had her phone stolen.

The attack came after the union attempted to deliver a document to local deputies at the Mexico City congressional building surrounding the current legislative session, with the group of mayors claiming beforehand that Sheinbaum had “besieged the premises to prevent us from arriving.” Their words proved truer than they could’ve imagined, as the police turned the situation violent in an attempt to prevent the elected mayors’ entry to the congressional premises. 

“We are not the ones who sought the confrontation with the elected mayors and much less, a public confrontation,” Mexico City’s Secretary of the Government Martí Batres said in an attempt to shield the administration from culpability. “It was not from us; it was not from us.”  

Members of opposition parties claimed Sheibaum was shutting down dialogue surrounding the incident after the fact, while Morena President Mario Delgado claimed the elected mayors had mounted a provocation against the capital government.