Methodology:
To facilitate comprehension of the video by non-Spanish viewers, I kept track
of the elapsed time and tried to note the points where significant segments
begin. I also translated those portions of the report that appear as print on
the screen and the voices that closely track the printed messages. To identify
the speakers, I used “R” for “Reporter” and “W” for “witness”. If there is no
attribution noted, the speaker is the Reporter. The only speakers who are
identified in the video are Dr. Carlos Torres Vega, Director of the Ramon Ponce
General Hospital, and, of course, Alfredo Castillo, former Federal Security Commissioner
in Michoacán who was recently appointed Director of the Conade (the national
sports commission).—un vato
00:15
Screen: Apatzingán Massacre: “It was the
Federal Police.
00:19 Voice and screen: “With shouts of, ‘Kill
those dogs!’, they began to shoot. To kill us.”
00:27
Voice and screen: “They’re still shooting over
here, over here! One of the comrades can’t get out. The Federales are
shooting!”
00:34
W: “It’s like an execution, that is, at
very close range and this causes powder marks on the skin…”
00:44 R: At dawn on January 6, federal police fired on members of the Rural Police in
Michoacán and their supporters who, unarmed, were conducting a sit-in
demonstration at the Apatzingán municipal palace.
00:56
In the ensuing moments, members of
self-defense forces and day laborers were murdered by gunfire and their bodies
were left strewn on that city’s streets.
01:05 The preliminary toll is 16 persons dead and
tens wounded.
01:10
Everything indicates that what happened
in Apatzingán was a crime against humanity.
01:15 R’s voice and screen: The official version
states that in the two attacks, there were:
8 dead, 1
person run over by a vehicle, and 44
arrested on charges of; criminal association, possession of illegal firearms
01:15
R: …and that Federal Police arrested 44
persons on charges of criminal association and possession of illegal
firearms, and that the persons killed in the second attack were hit by
“friendly fire” between civilians.
01:40 Screen:
Alfredo Castillo, Commissioner of Security in Michoacán.
01:40:
Castillo: Practically all the persons killed could have been killed by their
own comrades, that is, a matter of cross fire.
01:50 But there are statements that demolish this
version of the facts. Victims and witnesses say that it was the Federal Police
that executed unarmed civilians.
02:00
That none of the demonstrators had long
weapons (rifles).
02:03
Also, the medical staff at the Ramon Ponce
General Hospital asserted that the persons they treated had been shot at close
range, with (powder) marks that point to an execution.
02:20
Screen:
The facts presented in this investigation were reconstructed from the
testimony of 12 of the 44 persons arrested and subsequently released after the
first gunfire attack (among them a businessman).
02:20 R: The facts presented in this investigation are
reconstructed from recorded statements from 39 persons:
02:24 12 of
the 44 persons detained and later released as a result of the first attack;
7 survivors from the
second attack;
(3 were hospitalized)
1 legal representative;
8 civilian witnesses
(neighbors, businessmen, passersby);
6 relatives (of
victims) who witnessed the events