A Mexican police officer placed his knee on the neck of a migrant and choked her to death.
Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) on Monday expressed "shame" for the police officers who killed Salvadoran migrant Victoria Salazar in Tulum on Saturday.
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"She was subdued by police... brutalized and killed. This fact fills us with sorrow, pain, and shame," he said.
Her murder was denounced on social media through a video showing a police officer placing his knee on the neck of the victim, who could barely moan.
"We only ask for justice. Let the full weight of the law fall on those who did this," El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said.
36yo Victoria Salazar died in the street after ��s held her to the ground with a knee in her back on Sat. She complained of not being able to breathe before passing out. Officers then slung her body into the back of a pickup truck like a sack of potatoes. https://t.co/t8IzodPQwE https://t.co/A36vA4ccwr
— sahra (@sahrasulaiman) March 29, 2021
AMLO promised that those responsible will be punished. So far, however, the police have not yet been able to clarify why they subdued the 36-year-old woman whose death leaves two orphaned daughters.
Human rights defenders compared this act of police violence to the murder of George Floyd, who was also suffocated to death by police in May 2020.
In the Mexican case, however, the death of the Salvadoran migrant represents a hate crime that synthesizes racism, xenophobia, and machismo. The autopsy revealed she died as a result of the rupture of her first and second vertebrae.
"The injuries... coincide with the subjugation maneuvers applied to the victim during her arrest and before her death," outlet El Universal pointed out.
#Qatar | An estimated 6,500 South Asian migrant workers have died to date during the construction of the venues for the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup. pic.twitter.com/6YDGwax342
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) February 24, 2021