Mexico ( Mexican Rights Body Investigating Attacks on Reporters During March )

MEXICO CITY – The attacks on five journalists by unidentified individuals during a march marking a massacre anniversary in Mexico City are under investigation, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) said.

The incidents occurred last Tuesday, the CNDH said in a statement.

Young men attacked reporters covering a march to mark the 42nd anniversary of the “El Halconazo” massacre with stones and sticks, the CNDH said, citing media reports.

“The CNDH condemns such acts of violence, which violate the free practice of journalism and calls on authorities to investigate the incidents and impose the corresponding penalties on those responsible,” said the rights body, Mexico’s equivalent of an ombudsman’s office.

The reporters attacked during the protest were identified as Paris Martinez, of Animal Politico; Luis Castillo, who works for the daily Reforma; Leonardo Casas, who is with Agencia Quadratin; Nestor Negrete, a freelance journalist; and Marco Ugarte, of the Associated Press.

Ugarte “received a hard blow to the nose and left cheek for which he remains hospitalized,” the CNDH said.

Thousands of people, led by students and teachers, took to the streets of Mexico City last Tuesday to mark the 43rd anniversary of the “El Halconazo” massacre.

A group of self-proclaimed anarchists joined the march and threw fire bombs and stones at the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) headquarters.

National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) students took to the streets of Mexico City on June 10, 1971, to demand that President Luis Echeverria, who governed Mexico from 1970 to 1976, allow political freedom and democratize higher education.

The protest started peacefully but turned violent when “Los Halcones,” a paramilitary group, opened fire on demonstrators, killing at least 22 people and wounding around 50 others.

Several protesters were reported missing after the demonstration.