Community Seeks Impeachment of Eviction Judge
(Acapulco, AN 15 November) The leader of the “New Expansion of Puerto Marqués,” the unauthorized community built on private land ordered destroyed by a court order last week, has announced that the group plans to ask the local legislature to impeach the judge who signed it. Daniel Morales Serrano is the spokesman for this community, which last week awoke to the noise of 1,200 state police entering the property and evicting the residents. Violent outbreaks ensued between the residents and the police. Many of the simple structures used as houses were destroyed. The contents were hauled off by dump trucks, and the vehicles towed away. In all, about 350 families were dispossessed of their homes and possessions. Residents and some news reports characterized the actions of the ministerial and state police as unnecessarily violent.
Adolfo Van Meeter Roque, tenth criminal judge in Guerrero, signed the court order ordering the evictions. According to Daniel Morales Serrano, the community was covered by a protective order, so that the court order and the evictions carried out pursuant to it, were illegal. He also said that a formal complaint will be lodged with the National Human Rights Commission.
As of yesterday, the former location of the community, which is a field of about 13 hectares (approximately 32 acres), was surrounded by cyclone fencing, and guarded by state police. Heavy earth-moving machinery was at work inside the fence line, bulldozing what remained of the houses. A small church and a central marketplace, also part of the community called “New Expansion of Puerto Marqués” were razed. The evicted families are now living on the sidewalks and alleyways of the town of Puerto Marqués.
As concerns the court order of Judge Van Meeter Roque, the spokesman said that the eviction order was contrary to law, and “an unconstitutional decision because a protective order was already in place in a federal court, in the district where an appeal was pending.” The law suit in the federal court was filed by a company called “Residencial Puerto Marqués,” owners of the land, to evict the squatters. According to the community representative, the plaintiffs lost their case, as the appellate court held it to be untimely brought.
