A blanket against militarization is displayed in the Estela de Luz

Jessica Xanthomilla

Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday September 17, 2022, p. 9

In an unprecedented event, two women from the Hasta Encontrte collective – members of relatives of the disappeared – climbed the 104-meter-high Estela de Luz monument last Thursday to unfurl a huge blanket against militarization for 10 hours: 16 years of military impunity. No to the military coup. For when our independence from the Army. The military pact is also patriarchal. National Guard in Sedena equals more Militarization.

This initiative, which was accompanied by the Security without War group, took 20 hours and required support from elements of Civil Protection and the Red Cross.

The day began at 6:30 in the morning, when the two activists began their ascent wearing helmets, harnesses, ropes and the huge blanket 4 meters wide and 100 meters high, weighing 70 kilos. A fence formed by members of the aforementioned group, as well as the Marabunta Brigade, prevented the police deployed in the area from stopping the action.

For the relatives of the victims – mostly women from Guanajuato – on the 212th anniversary of Mexico’s Independence there was no nothing to celebrateand they shouted it out: Long live Mexico, the country of the more than 100 thousand disappeared.

At the same time, they reproached that the Congress of the Union approved that the Secretary of National Defense take administrative and operational control of the National Guard, without consulting the victims.

We are the ones who suffer as a society from their bad decisionsthey expressed, while their companions continued to climb the wake.

Although the two activists – whose identity was withheld – reached the top of the disputed monument built by former President Felipe Calderón to commemorate the Bicentennial of Independence in 2010 around 11 a.m., the maneuvers to secure the blanket required several hours; Its deployment began after 10:30 p.m., with the support of two elements of Civil Protection and one of the Red Cross, who also climbed the wake.

The blanket was fully placed four hours later – at 2:30 am on Friday – to shouts and applause. That is, 20 hours later.

The activists – who have received climbing training since the beginning of the year – descended from the monument to make sure that the upper sheets of the structure did not collapse.

Later, elements of the Heroic Fire Department of Mexico City, with the support of Civil Protection, climbed the monument and removed the blanket around 12:40 p.m., due to the risk of detachment.