MEXICO: THE MOVEMENT YO SOY 132 SURROUNDS THE TELEVISA TELEVISION STATION
On July 26 protesters from the Mexican movement Yo Soy 132 marched towards the Televisa television station in Mexico City with the intention of circling it for 24 hours in a symbolic and peaceful demonstration denouncing the “manipulation” of this channel in the electoral campaign in favor of Enrique Peña Nieto, the presidential candidate from the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Carrying posters with slogans such as “We want schools, not soap operas” and chanting “Mexico without the PRI,” thousands of people, including unions and civil organizations, walked in the rain towards Televisa, where a large contingent of police awaited them. The demonstrators have said that “any confrontation with the police force or the company security guards will be avoided at any cost” with a ‘peaceful’ surrounding wall. As the protests continue, the left-wing coalition Progressive Movement has proposed naming an interim president while the legitimacy of the July 1 elections is confirmed.
SPAIN: BALTASAR GARZON WILL DEFEND JULIAN ASSANGE
Former judge, Baltasar Garzon, will lead the legal team representing the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, who is currently seeking refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is accused of sexual crimes. He is waiting for an answer from the Ecuadorian government for his asylum request. The legal process against Assange began at the end of 2010, shortly after WikiLeaks published 250,000 secret cables from the U.S. State Department, unleashing a world-wide diplomatic hurricane. The rejection of the publication from Washington was categorical. Garzon expressed his “grave preoccupation with the absence of guaranties” that is practiced in the United States against Assange. This then will be the first significant case that Garzon has taken as lawyer, after having had a world renown career as judge, which included effectively ordering the capture of August Pinochet in 1998 for crimes during his Chilean dictatorship. This year the Spanish Supreme Court suspended his judgeship for 11 years.