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Around 2 p.m. on Thursday the 23rd, members of La Tianguis Disidente , a marketplace for LGBTQ+ and LGBTQ+ people in Mexico City, reported on social media that they were being attacked with sticks and other objects by male vendors in the area. They allege that at least five people suffered serious injuries and that police officers present did not intervene to stop the attack.

The Dissident Market is a space created by LGBTQ+ people to confront economic violence. It emerged during the pandemic and is located in the Zona Rosa, a neighborhood in Mexico City historically home to LGBTQ+ spaces and communities. There, they sell food, zines, t-shirts, secondhand clothing, and art, and organize cultural events such as concerts and performances. 

“It’s not the first time vendors have intimidated us, but it is the first time it’s been this violent. It’s a hate attack against the trans, queer, and lesbian resistance; there’s no other way to describe it,” members of La Tianguis told Presentes.

“They attacked us with sticks and knives.”

“It all started because today we accidentally stepped on things from the stall of the guy who started attacking us. This guy has harassed us with words and stares before, but today he came with others—there were about 15 cisgender heterosexual men at most. They hit us with pipes. There were about six of us who tried to defend ourselves as best we could, but they attacked more. The first thing I saw was how they started attacking Santiago, a trans woman, and us women—those who physically look like 'women.' It all looked and felt like it was planned,” Dulce, a member of La Tianguis Disidente who was attacked, said in an interview. 

Santiago is a sex worker and non-binary person. For some months now, he has been part of La Tianguis and says that it is not the first time that vendors in the area have intimidated them with homophobic and transphobic insults. 

“Since last week, the same guy who threw the first punch today had already come to intimidate us, but without anything physical happening because there were more of us. But today, when there were very few of us (at the market), they came with everything they had to beat us. They attacked us with sticks and knives, with whatever they could find. The florists intimidated us with their scissors in their hands,” she says. 

Santiago and Dulce say that at least five members of La Tianguis were seriously injured and had to be rushed to the hospital. “They beat up underage friends, and a fifty-year-old trans woman had her head split open. Most of us who were here and got beaten up are women.”

“The police don’t protect me, my friends do.”

About 200 meters from where La Tianguis is located, are the offices of the Secretariat of Citizen Security of Mexico City, so it is common to find a police presence in this area. 

“There were two police officers present, and they did nothing. During the attack, they just watched. Far from catching the people who were attacking us in the act, they surrounded us in our own space, and that was it. I yelled that they were still hitting us, and they told me mockingly, 'My superior hasn't arrived yet. We're here to maintain order, not create disorder .' It's tremendous impunity, and it's outrageous that the authorities, seeing what was happening, did nothing but the opposite: they surrounded us and mocked us,” Santiago commented.

“Well, it’s well known that the police don’t do anything, on the contrary, they probably protect them. They approached them first to help them, but so far they haven’t come to us. Feminist friends came to support us, and people from ERUM (Emergency Medical Rescue Squad) came to check on us. But what can we expect from the police? In the end, as they say, right? The police don’t protect me, my friends do,” Dulce said.

In addition to the ERUM team, they say that a representative from the local Human Rights Commission was also present to guide them in filing the corresponding complaint. Santiago believes it is important to file a complaint regarding the police's negligence. 

“We will resist the mafias and economic violence”

The members of La Tiaguis Disidentes will collectively decide on future actions to protect themselves and the space, they say, and they ask other LGBT+ people to support and stand with them to "continue maintaining the occupation, because that's what it is, it's a place of resistance that has been maintained by our resistance in which we believe everyone has a space to survive. Here we will resist the mafias, economic violence, and transphobic queer and lesbian violence."

“We know that they (the other vendors) also sell to feed their families, but we also sell to survive, and we don't bother anyone. La Tianguis is a place of resistance for everyone. We don't commit violence, but sometimes this seems unsustainable because there are mafias here, there are fees for occupying street space to sell, and La Tianguis doesn't do that. The street is free; it belongs to those who work it, and we resist this idea of ​​wanting to privatize everything. Here, dissident people and LGBT+ people—minors, adults, whoever—have a space that we've built as a safe place to sell what we can and survive because we can't get jobs, and when we look for them, we're discriminated against,” Dulce commented.

From 2020 to May 2021, the Council to Prevent and Eliminate Discrimination in Mexico City ( Copred ) received 147 complaints of workplace discrimination against LGBT+ people, of which 23 cases resulted in an investigation.