Mexico
Police raid shuts down radio stationPosted Nov 9 2010
On the night of Oct. 12, Mexican police forcibly entered the broadcast station of Radio Proletaria in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, according to Reporters Without Borders. Twenty-five to thirty heavily armed policemen entered the station without providing any identification and arrested members of the station while dismantling all of their equipment.
Six people were arrested, including a 14-year-old boy who was held for 24 hours without being allowed to contact his family.
A variety of organizations, including Reporters without Borders and the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, have called on the Mexican government to explain the reasons for the raid and why it was carried out in violation of the American Convention on Human Rights.
The Mexican government has a history of using force to shut down community radio stations, including a 2009 raid on an indigenous station in Michoacán.