April 27, 2008

Police Invade Cruzton, Disappear Other Campaign Adherents
Police Previously Promised They Wouldn't Raid the Chiapas Town

Police carried out an early morning operation today directed at adherents to the Zapatistas' Other Campaign, detaining three men whose whereabouts remain unknown. The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center ("Frayba") is currently attempting to locate the three men, José Lázaro López López, Robeto López López, and Manuel Gómez, all adherents to the Other Campaign, but has thus far been unsuccessful. The men were last seen in police custody during the raid. It is also unknown what charges the government will bring against the men.

Police raided Cruzton in the Venustiana Carranza municipality in Los Altos at approximately 5am this morning. The Other Campaign in San Cristobal de las Casas reports that armed police kicked down doors and leveled residents' houses during the raid.

Residents report that the police were directed by civilians, presumably members of the Emiliano Zapata Peasant Organization (OCEZ-CMPA in its Spanish initials) who claim to be the legitimate owners of land the Other Campaign adherents claim as their own. The OCEZ is a peasant organization that has existed in Chiapas for over forty years. Throughout its history of advocating for peasant land rights, it has maintained a contentious and at times hostile relationship with the government. However, members report divisions in the organization, with some members choosing to work with the government, while others continue to reject government aid.

The Cruzton Community Committee Against Repression, adherents to the Other Campaign, released a communique (translation forthcoming) explaining the history of the land dispute that presumably led to the police raid. Despite having arrest warrants for several residents of the autonomous territory in Cruzton, police had promised to not take any action against the community until negotiations with the government over the disputed land were settled. Negotiations were still ongoing at the time of the raid.

Friday, April 25, 2008
Good Government Council's Declaration on the Kidnapping of Zapatista Prisoners

GOOD GOVERNMENT COUNCIL NEW SEED THAT'S GOING TO PRODUCE
CARACOL V THAT SPEAKS FOR EVERYBODY
CHA'AN LAK PEJTELEL
TE PUY YA XC'UPOJ HABLA PARA TODOS
PUY MU'UBATI T' ' YU'UN TA JPISILTIC

TO THE ADHERENTS TO THE OTHER CAMPAIGN AND THE ZEZTA INTERNACIONAL
TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SOCIETY
TO THE DIGNIFIED PEOPLES OF MEXICO AND THE WORLD

Compañeras and compañeros,
Sisters and brothers,

We urgently contact you to bring to your attention that yesterday, April 24, at 4:30pm, our compañeros Bases of Support of the EZLN Ángel Concepción Pérez Gutiérrez and Francisco Pérez Vázquez were taken out of the prison where they were held in Tacotalpa without giving any explanation to their families, and they were taken to the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, and there they kept them in a hospital in the city. Now, Friday, at 3pm, we know that they transferred them to the Yajalón prison, Cereso number 12.

We, as autonomous authorities of the Good Government, say very clearly, the Bad Government kidnapped them and keeps them kidnapped and with this has provoked great pain and suffering in their hearts and bodies which suffer from illnesses. But not only them, also their families and those who have walked together with them. And all this because of the simple fact that they belong to our dignified struggle.

As the Good Government Council we demand the IMMEDIATE and UNCONDITIONAL liberation of our compañeros Bases of Support who are innocent of all of the accusations made against them. We do not accept that they remain kidnapped in other prisons. We said it before and we'll say it again louder and with more indignation, not one more day of their unjust and painful kidnapping under the Bad Justice of the Mexican State and its Bad Governments.

We make an urgent call to national and civil society that we demand together, in whatever we you see fit, the liberation of our compañeros Bases of Support who have been kidnapped for more than eleven years and eight months.

DEMOCRACY, LIBERTY, AND JUSTICE
SINCERELY
LEAD BY OBEYING
GOOD GOVERNMENT COUNCIL NEW SEED THAT'S GOING TO PRODUCE
CARACOL V, THAT SPEAKS FOR EVERYBODY
Nothern Zone, Chiapas, Mexico, April 25, 2008

Translated by Kristin Bricker. Originally published on Narco News.

----------------------------------------------
Letter from Brutalized Chiapan Prisoners
Cereso #5 San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas
April 24, 2008

Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center and other organizations and Pueblo Creyente, compañeros in the EZLN, compañeros from The Other Campaign and the Mexican people and other national and international organizations

We denounce the current situation of the group of political prisoners The Voice of los Llanos and the other three compañeros who are in solidarity with us. Today marks 72 hours since the beating the following precisos gave us: Bartolo García Suarez, Damián Gutiérrez García, Elías Domínguez Trejos, and Eleuterio de la Cruz Martínez [translators' note: Precisos are mestizo prisoners who who maintain control, discrimination, and racial violence within the prison with the tacit approval of prison authorities.]. Today, at 72 hours after the attack, they called us to the judicial area, asking us what happened. At the same time lawyer Jurídica Rocío Victoria used intimidating words and harassed us, asking us if we'd already thought long and hard about bringing charges against the precisios because Bartolo is going to defend himself, and he has the full support of the prison population. These words are very telling, but we're also aware that that's not the real situation. We also responded to her asking why 72 hours passed before they called us, when they as the prison authorities could have acted in the moment instead of waiting until now. But they did take action against The Voice of Los Llanos, requesting that we be transferred to another prison while the aggressors enjoy privilege and we are suffering. We're in a very small medical area without medical attention. We can't make food, we can't send anyone to bring our clothes so we can change, and as of this time the director hasn't resolved anything. We talked to him on Tuesday morning, and at this time we don't know if we're waiting for a solution or if we're being punished. And the people who should be here in this area are the aggressors. At this time we don't know how the prison director is managing the situation.

We've received information from fellow prisoners that the precisos are waiting for us together with the workers. They've suspended their work under the condition that they greet us with a beating when we return to the general population--these are the plans of the precisos. We want justice and that they be transferred as soon as possible. If not, the authorities give the orders, meaning that they're involved in the actions against The Voice of los Llanos.

We request that you keep yourselves informed of our situation and that you continue demanding justice so that prison corruption can be done away with.

Respectfully,
Political prisoners, The Voice of los Llanos, adherente to the EZLN's Other Campaign

Tiburcio Gómez Pérez, Agustín Rodríguez Jiménez, Antonio Díaz Pérez, Diego Rodríguez Hernández, Juan Díaz López, Miguel Díaz López, Nicolás Pérez Núñez

and other compañeros in solidarity: Mateo Gómez Santiz, Agustín Díaz Gómez, Orlando Santiso Castillo

Translation by Kristin Bricker. Originally published in Narco News.
---------------------------------------------
Zapatista Prisoners Transferred from Tabasco to Chiapas
The Other Campaign is Skeptical of Gov. Sabines' Promise to Free Them

Yesterday afternoon, without prior notice, the government transferred Zapatista political prisoners Angel Concepción Pérez Gutiérrez and Francisco Pérez Vázquez from the Tacotalpa, Tabasco, prison where they've been incarcerated for almost twelve years to a hospital in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas.

The Other Campaign in Veracruz immediately condemned the transfer as a disappearance because the government did not announce where or why it was transferring the two hunger striking prisoners.

However, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center ("Frayba") reports that it is with the prisoners in the Tuxtla hospital where they're being evaluated by medical professionals. The prisoners told Frayba representatives that they were not mistreated during the transfer. Frayba has not commented on the diabetic prisoners' health condition. Today is their fifth day of hunger strike.

Frayba reports that Chiapas Gov. Juan Sabines say he requested the prisoners' transfer so that he can grant them their freedom. Pérez Gutiérrez and Pérez Vázquez are Chiapan Zapatistas of Ch'ol ethnicity. They participated in the February-April hunger strike waged by Chiapan political prisoners, but were not among the thirty political prisoners released by the Chiapas government because their cases did not fall under Chiapan jurisdiction.

The plantón outside the Tabasco prison where the prisoners were being held has been lifted as family members and supporters moved to Tuxtla pending more information on the prisoners' situation.

Frayba and the Other Campaign in San Cristobal request that adherents and sympathizers keep up their protests until Pérez Gutiérrez and Pérez Vázquez are free. The Other Campaign in San Cristobal notes that the government is notorious for not following through on its promises.

Photo courtesy of Zapateando 2.

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Posted by Kristin Bricker at 2:32 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: Chiapas, political prisoners, Tabasco, the Other Campaign, Zapatistas
Open Letter from Tabasco Political Prisoners to Prison Authorities
Public Municipal Prison Tacotalpa, Tabasco
April 23, 2008

Warden of the Tacotalpa, Tabasco, Public Municipal Prison: PRESENT

In the most thoughtful manner we direct this letter to the General Management of Prevention and Social Readjustment of the State of Tabasco.

First let me inform you of the subjects that concern you.

Our innocence and our unjust sentence without having committed a single crime, nor having participated in one. For this reason we declare ourselves on hunger strike for an indefinite period of time. Yes, it's possible that you'll take us out of here dead, because we've had enough of this injustice. Eleven years of asking for justice, but we're never listened to. The response of the government is that we're guilty, that we don't belong to an ethnic or indigenous group. This imprisonment-- the illegal deprivation of our freedom, for a crime you accuse us of committing--is a premeditated kidnapping with malice aforethought.

You don't recognize our rights as indigenous people of Ch'ol ethnicity from Tila, Chiapas. We are 48 hours into our hunger strike and we continue onward.

We would like to recognize national and international civil society, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center, and the public opinion for publicizing and spreading the word about the illegal deprivation of our freedom and the lack of justice for us. Eleven years, ten months of imprisonment without crime; the hunger strike and our children's and family's plantón outside the prison won't end until we receive freedom with justice.

There not being any other subject to address, this letter is ended at 9:10am.

FREEDOM WITH JUSTICE FOR ALL OF MEXICO'S POLITICAL PRISONERS.

Sincerely,

Ángel Concepción Perez Gutierrez
Francisco Perez Vazquez

For more information about Ángel Concepción Perez Gutierrez and Francisco Perez Vazquez's case, please see Zapatista Prisoners Threaten Hunger Strike in Tabasco