SANTA Fe: 8 Arrested Protesting Conquistador Celebration on Stolen Pueblo Land

A demonstration of several hundred Natives and non-Natives protesting La Entrada, the annual celebration of the reconquest of Natives by Spanish Conquistadores in 1692 twelve years after the successful Pueblo Revolt, ended in a dozen arrests of protestors, primarily for criminal trespass.

At 5:09 pm, the individuals singled out for arrest at the 3rd consecutive protest of La Entrada at the Fiestas de Santa Fe were brought into the Santa Fe County Detention Center for booking. At least eight of those were arrested for Criminal Trespass, a misdemeanor, and one of the eight was additionally charged with Disorderly Conduct, a petty misdemeanor under the New Mexico criminal statutes.

At around 8 pm, Santa Fe Police Department Public Information Officer Greg Gurule told Censored News that 80 officers were involved in the arrests, and that no one had been hurt.

The irony of Natives and their non-Native supporters being arrested on stolen Pueblo land for criminal trespass was not lost on the friends and partners of some of those arrested, who were waiting along with Censored News for the arrival of the arrestees at the Detention Center. Ordered by a stern group of four security officers to vacate the parking lot, or be subject ourselves to arrest for trespass, we were not permitted to stand at a distance even of a hundred yards and watch them get out of the van to make sure they were all intact. There was cause for concern because at least half a dozen of those arrested had been held in the police van for over four hours, and temperatures had risen outside to 81 degrees.

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