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Viridiana Hernández, the police officer who pointed a gun at herself to report harassment in Ecatepec

2023-06-02T10:53:54.689Z

Highlights: Viridiana Hernández is a municipal police officer in Ecatepec, in the State of Mexico. In a live video from a patrol car, she drew her service weapon and said: "He keeps harassing me, but they don't have the damn pants to listen to me" The video became famous on the internet and began to be published in the Mexican media. She says she acted out of "desperation" to see that her complaints of labor and sexual harassment within the corporation never had results.


The agent tells EL PAIS that she fears for her life after denouncing the head of the municipal corporation for labor and sexual harassment


Viridiana Hernández, a municipal police officer in Ecatepec, in the State of Mexico, was broadcasting a live video from a patrol car when she drew her service weapon and looked at the camera said: "He keeps harassing me, but they don't have the damn pants to listen to me. If they don't come, I'm going to take my own life right here with my weapon." The video became famous on the internet and began to be published in the Mexican media. How was it possible for a police officer on duty to do something like that? Agent Hernández says she acted out of "desperation" to see that her complaints of labor and sexual harassment within the corporation never had results. Neither the Prosecutor's Office of the State of Mexico, nor internal affairs, nor the institution itself reacted to their demands until Viridiana Hernández's face ran like wildfire on social networks.

The officer points to a plot of corruption, harassment and harassment by her superiors that reaches the director of the municipal police, César de Jesús García and the municipal president, the Morenista Fernando Vilchis Contreras. A week after that, Hernández talks about what pushed her to record the video. "My last year has been hell," he describes. She is a blonde woman of fifty meters. He wears jeans, tennis shoes, black t-shirt. Despite her courage, she says she is afraid of what may happen to her and her children after this, so she carries under her arm a folder full of documents with copies of all the complaints and writings she has filed. "All this happened because I refused to sign an illegal detention," he explains.

On May 8, 2022, Hernández says he participated in an operation in a warehouse located on López Mateos Avenue by order of his superiors. Dozens of elements were displaced there because shots had allegedly been heard. That day there were seven detainees, according to the police report to which this newspaper has had access. Several of these people later reported being tortured during the detention. "A fifteenth birthday party was taking place there and there was very little family left," recalls agent Hernández.

Always according to his story, he explains that he never entered the warehouse and that his mission was to surround the perimeter. According to the same report, two weapons were seized in that raid: a pistol and a shotgun. Hernandez has other data. "They didn't find a single weapon inside that building. The commanders asked us for 500 pesos each for the purchase of weapons and they are the ones they planted and appear in the report." After that, the head of the group to which agent Hernández belongs demanded that she sign the arrest of one of the people who was in the warehouse, "but I refused because I never entered, so they threatened to file a complaint for injuries and theft of the detainees." In videos shared by the relatives of the prisoners, Viridiana can be seen very nervous explaining that she never touched or hit those people. "Everything is recorded and we have the faces of those who participated in the operation, don't worry," they tell him. In other recordings circulating on social networks, you can see the moment in which more than 20 police in khaki uniforms break into the family party. The uniform Hernández was wearing that day was blue.

After that, the police say that the harassment and harassment at work began. Hernández was assigned to monitor some of the most dangerous places in the city without a partner, her cell phone was stolen inside the police station, there were months that they stopped paying her full salary, about 5,500 pesos a fortnight (300 dollars), and she began to receive hostile messages on social networks that have now become death threats.

Almost a year later, on January 23, 2023, Hernández was at the fixed surveillance point of Villalta, under a pedestrian bridge. It was 4:00 in the morning and as she says, she fell asleep. Suddenly, his boss appeared. "That day I felt bad and I explained it to him, but it was worth it and he told me he was going to exhibit me." Viridiana says her boss asked her to perform oral sex on her in exchange for not processing the reprimand. After that, she went to report what had happened to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the Women's Prosecutor's Office, where she says "they ignored me."

Ecatepec is one of the most dangerous municipalities to be a woman in the State of Mexico because of the high rate of femicides and the high crime rate.

The officer does not perform work at this time and was turned over to Semin, the institute that attends to the health of public workers, to perform an assessment and be given psychological therapy until the medical institution considers that she is fit to carry a weapon and be reinstated in her task, "responds a spokesman for the municipal presidency of Ecatepec. Regarding the investigation of the case, where the chief of police has been called to denounce, the City Council responds: "We will wait for what the State Prosecutor's Office resolves and what is determined, we will abide by it because this case is not the only one. But there are other files that have denounced citizens or alleged criminals for abuse of authority. That of the Municipal Presidency is to respect what the competent authority says."

02:04

The police who reported harassment

Viridiana Hernández denounced sexual harassment by one of her commanders through a video on social networks. Photo: Hector Guerrero | Video: RR FF.


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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-06-02

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