MEXICO CITY 

At least 18 people have been arrested following a massive protest over the weekend in Mexico City against the president’s handling of violent crime, the Public Prosecutor’s Office announced Monday.

Speaking at a press conference, Mexico City chief prosecutor Bertha Alcalde Lujan said those arrested have been indicted following violent clashes between demonstrators and the police.

The charges vary from damage to private property to assault and attempted murder.

“They opened several investigation files based on complaints for the crimes of assault, theft and damage to property as well as referrals made by elements of the Secretariat of Citizen Security. All of the people detained were given medical evaluations, had contact with their families and have accredited legal defense,” said Alcalde Lujan.

Of those arrested, three are being investigated for attempted murder, five for resisting arrest, two for robbery and assault, and eight for battery and assault.

On Saturday, thousands of demonstrators marched on the capital’s historic main public square, the Zocalo, to protest the insecurity crisis in the country largely attributed to drug cartels and President Claudia Sheinbaum's administration.

While attendants and sympathizers tallied the total number of demonstrators in the hundreds of thousands, the city's government recorded 17,000 people.

The march gained rapid notoriety worldwide as images of the violent clashes between the police and demonstrators surfaced on social media and in the local press.

The footage was soon criticized, with people condemning the violent response of the local police.

However, instances of attacks by protestors against authorities were also recorded on social media and by the government, with authorities documenting 84 cases of assault against police officers along with four against civilians.

During her daily briefing, President Sheinbaum condemned the violence at the march and pinned the attacks on a specific group of people that attended.

“A very violent group that arrived at the city’s main square, very violent. Some dressed in black, others not. Some with their faces covered, others not. Most were not young people from this violent group that arrived,” she said.

In addition, the human rights watchdog Article 19 documented 13 instances of repression and violence carried out against members of the press in Mexico City and at similar demonstrations in other cities.

“ARTICLE 19 is documenting at least 13 attacks against the press, caused both by participants in the demonstration and by police in the context of Saturday’s protests,” they wrote on the US social media company X’s platform.

The rights organization reported six cases of aggression in Mexico City, six in Michoacan and one more in Jalisco.

While Sheinbaum condemned the group of people responsible for the attacks against the police, she also criticized the attacks on journalists covering the march.

“Our solidarity also goes to the reporters, to the journalists who were beaten. And if it was police who beat them, there must be sanctions,” she added.