Prisoner for stealing a slice of watermelon: the unusual story of the young man who spent nine months in prison and was released thanks to the owner of the greengrocer

At San Salvador Atenco, Mexico, everyone has their version of what happened in the Nancy vegetables last October 5. Some say that Uriel Nuñez (a 24 year old young man) walked in drunk and with his machete he slit a watermelon in the middle. Others claim that Uriel actually asked Nancy for a piece of fruit and gave her an apple. They explain that the young man remained hungry and that it is there that a portion of watermelon was cut without the permission of the greengrocer.

Some say Uriel is the pride of his mother Jovita (with whom he still lives) and that he carried a machete as he returned to help his grandfather Manuel cut the plants. While others argue that Uriel came in drunk and aggressive and that’s why Nancy denounced him. Some say Uriel wanted to steal Nancy. Others believe Nancy called the police because she was scared.

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The interpretations are so different that they make us think that we will never know what happened. But don’t despair. Very often the versions, although contradictory, are not exclusive: that is to say that they can all be true. Of course, at different doses. This is what is happening in the case of the Atenco watermelon and it is something that we will confirm as the rating progresses.

But on the one hand there are the versions and on the other there are the facts. And the latter have no discussion. We will now talk about it a bit. Of the harsh reality that Uriel must have experienced as a result of his visit that day at the greengrocer.

• Uriel was imprisoned for 9 months in the Texcoco prison, near Mexico City.
• They did not allow him to call a family member or a lawyer who, for several days, did not know his whereabouts. The whole process was very irregular.
• Eventually, they took him straight to jail where he slept for 15 days on the dungeon floor. He never knew what he was accused of until the day the trial began. The cover of the file read: “United Mexican States against Uriel Núñez for robbery with violence in case of attempt”.

So let’s start there. Uriel was also charged with theft. The police said he wanted to take 180 Mexican pesos, something like nine dollars or 1,503 Argentine pesos depending on cash with liquid. Uriel says it’s a lie and even Nancy the greengrocer told Jovita (Uriel’s mother) it wasn’t. Either way, the process continued.

The only proof of the theft is a photo. There you see a basket with 2 banknotes and 5 coins. But notice a scandalous contradiction. The photograph that took Uriel to prison is the same that would have acquitted him. Because if the money was in Nancy’s basket and not in Uriel’s pocket, where’s the theft?

Good question. But let’s not stop there because The whole business is so crazy. Let’s move on to the issue of cutting the watermelon. And let’s start with the proven data. Uriel walked into the grocery store drunk and asked Nancy for a piece of fruit. She gave him an apple. The atmosphere at the greengrocer was very tense (I’m speculating now). Imagine: on one side, a drunkard with a machete in his hand; on the other, a working woman.

Uriel says he remembers asking Nancy for the apple with great respect, but it remains to be seen if Nancy ever played it. In Atenco, violence against women has reached unthinkable limits. Fifteen years ago an aberrant event took place, the case known as “The Women of Atenco”. During a demonstration on May 3, 2006, police arrested 11 women, tortured, mistreated and raped them. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights intervened, which in 2018 condemned the Mexican state. The sentence is considered historical. Mexico admitted responsibility for torturing 11 women and having resorted to physical, psychological and sexual violence against them.

The decision is very good, but the government has not complied with the sentence. It has yet to find and punish those responsible, compensate and provide medical and psychological treatment to the victims. And something else: the State will have to hold a public document where you must recognize your responsibility and apologize to the victims. But he didn’t do any of that.

We are talking about this case these days in Atenco. There are demonstrations in the streets and the newspapers pick up on the subject. This is important information. Because without taking Uriel’s statement that says that he didn’t want to fly, I think it’s very possible that Nancy was very scared. The proof is that he went bankrupt and went to the police. And that’s where Uriel was left alone.

Watermelon expertise on file

It is a watermelon about 45 centimeters long with a circumference of 50 centimeters. A diagonal cut with an approximate length of 25 centimeters is observed. There is no data on its mileage.

This is when the incident with the watermelon occurred. It’s unclear if Uriel was still hungry and decided on the watermelon, or if the madman grabbed him and started with the machetes. These are the two versions. It is difficult to come to a conclusive conclusion because there Uriel was alone.

But back to the data. From a cold reading of the file we can undoubtedly know that it was a watermelon about 45 centimeters long with a circumference of 50 centimeters. From the expertise, we deduce that “A diagonal cut with an approximate length of 25 centimeters is observed”. There is no data on its mileage.

From the data provided, we can conclude that it was a medium watermelon, rather round than oval, different from what we eat here. It can also be deduced that the damage inflicted on the fruit would not have been so serious. There is no solid evidence of what Uriel did or did not do.

In subsequent statements, Uriel admitted he was very drunk and the last thing he remembers is that he ate an apple. Therefore, nothing could add to what happened with the watermelon. Since he was alone at the time, he doesn’t remember what happened and we will never know. We’ll never know if he wanted to eat him or hit him and hit him like crazy with the machete.

Very good. We had agreed that Uriel was left alone at the grocery store (that’s what greengrocers are called in Mexico) and that he was doing something with a watermelon. Nothing else for now. Some time passed and Nancy returned with members of the security forces.

Police viewed the incident as an act of intimidation. It doesn’t seem like an unreasonable note. Let’s review: A town where they still call for the torture and rape of 11 women just a few years ago, a drunkard with a machete walked into a woman-run greengrocer to ask for fruit.

But to that “Act of intimidation” the police added an alleged theft to the file and with that the case took off. And he went up into the stratosphere. They arrested Uriel who spent 15 days in a dungeon, nine months in prison and with the possibility of having to spend nine years behind bars if the judge had convicted him.

Part of the reason for this disproportionate police response is the level of violence in Mexico. There, the fight with drug traffickers reached alarming levels. Crazy things are happening to prove it. For example, the city of Aguililla has been isolated for months. The soldiers only block the city, but do not dare to enter. This is because in Aguililla there is a war without quarter between two criminal gangs who fight to control their dirty affairs.

This is how we see that the security forces in Mexico are not so involved with the drug dealers, but when it comes to the people attacking the watermelons. the batteries are there. Instead of going against serious criminals, the security forces prefer to target the youngest, the poorest, the indigenous and the most disadvantaged in society. Does this mean anything to you?

In Mexico there are many stories of innocent prisoners. The most extreme case is that of Ramón Ramírez Valdovinos who for 19 years was deprived of his liberty accused of murder. What is disturbing is that the person whom – according to Justice – he killed is alive. Ramón is 41 years old and He still has 21 years of sentence left.

Human rights organizations calculate that there are 17 thousand Mexicans unfairly imprisoned. This is what they call those who have been convicted with confessions made under torture, those who fabricated evidence or those who have been detained without a judge’s order, among other irregularities.

The cases of “Unjustly imprisoned” it is a subject of weight in the public debate. So much so that it was discussed a lot during the last electoral campaign. The candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador He promised an amnesty for those accused of minor offenses when the process was irregular. AMLO won the election and is now president. And he kept his promise and sanctioned the amnesty.

It is thanks to this amnesty law that Uriel succeeded in having his freedom signed by the judge. But the watermelon story doesn’t end there. The judge made a final condition for Uriel to return home. I was only able to do it after paying Nancy, the vegetable seller, 86,680 Mexican pesos, just over $ 900.

Compensation was very high for the Núñez, which is why Uriel was detained despite being included in the amnesty. But not for long. The solution did not come from the hand of the president, nor the police, let alone the justice system. Jovita Núñez (Uriel’s mother) approached Nancy’s greengrocer. It is said that the latter, sensitized by the absurdity of the situation, promised that she would do everything to have her son released. And he acquitted himself.

Nancy signed that she had received $ 900 from Jovita. No one in Atenco believed it. Where was Jovita going to get this money from? In The Upside Down, it was this signature, that of the victim, and not that of a judge, that allowed Uriel’s release after nine months in prison for picking a watermelon.