Gloria also received a phone call from Inés Rodolfo Cuellar who has become the spokesperson for the imprisoned comrades. Several other individual prisoners sent out letters to Gloria and Jacobo, which Gloria gladly promised to answer.

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!

THE OTHER CAMPAIGN GOES ON!

During her visit to the Molino de Flores Otro Plantón, Gloria Arenas Agis read the following statement:

ATENCO PRISONERS MUST BE FREED

My name is Gloria Arenas Agis, former political prisoner. I’m here today at the gates of Molino de Flores to demand freedom for the political prisoners in this prison and those in the Altiplano prison.

The federal Supreme Court has decided to hear the petition for a protective order in the case of the 12 Atenco political prisoners. Right now, the highest court in the land has the opportunity to correct the tremendous outrage of their imprisonment. It has the opportunity to resolve a conflict in which the dependence of the State of Mexico’s judicial bodies on the Chief Executive has been clearly shown.

It is both politically and legally untenable to keep these 12 prisoners behind bars. Their imprisonment only shows that vengeance rules in this case and that the judges have followed orders from above. The illegality of the prisoners’ arrest and imprisonment is so obvious that people all over the world have demanded their freedom ever since 2006. Last year, members of the Peoples’ Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) traveled to 12 different states in the country and were received in a show of solidarity by social organizations that organized 100 public events and actions to demand freedom for these 12 prisoners. Several days ago, 11 Nobel Prize winners met with the Secretary of the Interior to deliver a letter to Calderón seeking freedom for the Atenco prisoners; they also met with a magistrate and with several legislators.

Nobel Prize winner Jody Williams said, “What they’re doing to the Atenco political prisoners disgusts me. I mean they’re doing this because it’s a political issue.” In effect, that’s the way the imprisonment of the three prisoners in the maximum security Altiplano prison and of the nine prisoners at Molino de Flores is seen in Mexico and the world –as a filthy, rotten business, a foul display of illegality that has nothing to do with justice or with the state of law. It’s an act of vengeance against the FPDT, which succeeded in avoiding the expropriation of their lands where an airport was to be built. It’s a message sent to teach an insubordinate people a lesson for defending their lands and rights, for standing in solidarity with other struggles, and for telling others about their experience. The imprisonment of the Atenco prisoners is a message sent to keep their example of organization and resistance from being followed by other peoples throughout the country who are now being dispossessed. The imprisonment of the 12 political prisoners of Atenco is also a security message to world capital that says: “Capital can strip peoples of their lands, pollute and loot the natural resources of the country, and the Mexican state will take care of jailing and punishing resistance at all costs to make sure this example will not be followed by others.”

The imprisonment of the Atenco political prisoners is an attempt against freedom of expression and organization that exposes the authoritarianism of the federal, state, and local governments. The Atenco case is political and not legal because the state Governor is campaigning for the Presidency of Mexico in the 2012 elections and wants to send out a forceful message even though it’s based on a chain of illegal acts.

The political nature of the case cannot be hidden from people in this country and the world, and neither can the illegality of the trials and sentences of the three FPDT members and the nine growers found near the scene of the repressive attack against the people of Atenco. In its zeal to lock them up, the government at all three levels has expressly resorted to crimes of repression in the name of defending a non-existent state of law.

Several decades ago, the crime of “social dissolution” was invented, and it was necessary to repeal the statute in order to free political prisoners. Today the measures that criminalize people’s struggles have to do with “organized crime,” “aggravated kidnapping,” and “damage to public thoroughfares,” and these are applied respectively to social organizations, to the retention of functionaries, and to roadblocks, all of which are characteristic expressions of social movements. Putting manifestations of discontent and dissidence on the same level as totally unrelated common crimes is typical of dictatorships. And these are precisely the charges leveled against the Atenco prisoners.

The organized crime charge has been dropped, but the prisoners were tried, found guilty, and sentenced for aggravated kidnapping and for damage to a public thoroughfare. They’ve been unjustly imprisoned for four years. The prison terms of 112 for some and 31 years for others are an abomination that seriously harms the entire country.

The federal Supreme Court’s verdict must be favorable because the social struggle is not a crime. But converting social activists into criminals is, in fact, illegal; it’s a crime. Furthermore, there’s no evidence whatsoever of the participation of the Molino de Flores prisoners in the events, so, according to law, there are no grounds for a guilty verdict. Legally, there is no proof of the responsibility of those charged; accordingly, they must be found innocent of the crimes for which they were tried. The verdict must be favorable because the case of the 12 prisoners is plagued with government misconduct and arbitrary actions beginning with the arrest and continuing throughout the entire judicial process; thus the sentences are illegal.

But the imprisonment of these 12 political prisoners is not the only legal travesty in this case that has damaged the country as a whole; there is also the impunity for the rapists of at least 26 women, the torturers of the 207 people arrested, and the murder of a child and a youth on May 3 and 4, 2006, in Atenco. Authorities at all levels are the intellectual authors and the perpetrators of these crimes, and this matter falls into the public domain. Impunity for these authorities clearly shows the political nature of this case and shows the rotten illegality now impossible to cover up with lies in the news media.

IMMEDIATE FREEDOM FOR THE 12 POLITICAL PRISONERS OF ATENCO!

February 26, 2010

For more details and photos of Gloria Arena Agis’s visit at the Otro Plantón at Molino de Flores, see http://penaldebraye.blogspot.com

Abraham Ramírez Vásquez, Juventino García Cruz and Noel García Cruz, the first political prisoners of the Ulises Ruiz regime in Oaxaca, are from the Zapotec town of Santiago Xanica. The three members of the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Rights (CODEDI) and the Popular Anti-neoliberal Oaxacan Magonista Coordinating Body (COMPA) were arrested on January 15, 2005, after hundreds of preventive and judicial police opened a crossfire on a group of 80 men, women, children and old people who were unloading bricks from a truck as part of a community work project. Abraham, Noel and Juventino were seriously wounded by gunshots. The people responded to the attack with sticks and stones, but more police came in, dragged the three wounded people out of the clinic, and took them to a house to be tortured by the police. After a few days, they were taken to the Ixcotel prison and then to the prison at Pochutla. Despite their serious wounds, they received no medical treatment until 36 hours after being admitted to the Pochutla hospital.

The comrades were jailed under prefabricated charges of homicide, attempted homicide, kidnapping, and felonious assault. In truth, they were being punished for daring to choose their own local officials according to their own customs and traditional decision-making process, and for protecting the rivers, forests, and ecosystem from the destruction caused by the big Huatulco hotel chains.

Several hours after the January 15 shooting, around 300 police showed up in Xanica and stayed for six months. Townspeople were subjected to constant searches, interrogations and surveillance. The police profaned their houses, held children at gunpoint, and harassed the men when they went out to work in the fields. Arrest warrants were issued for many people, who have lived with the constant threat of being detained. When Subcomandante Marcos was on his way to the area with the Other Campaign in 2006, Sergio Ramírez Vásquez, Leoncio Cruz and César Luis Díaz were arrested while putting up posters to announce an event. Policemen and their civil henchmen tortured Sergio and tried to hang César, who was rescued by the women and children of Xanica.

2009 was no exception to five years of mistreatment and abuse. At the first of the year, Abraham Ramírez Vásquez submitted a denunciation of torture to the National Human Rights Commission and sent this message to the public: “…Today, January 15, 2009, marks the fourth year we’ve been held captive by tyrants protected by laws that give them the right to kidnap, kill, and disappear our brothers and sisters who go against their projects. We say to the neoliberal puppets headed by the killer Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO) and to his scroungy dogs turned loose on a crime spree to fill the prisons with innocent people, that our people’s only crime is demanding their rights. As these killers well know, our rebellion comes from the heart and we’ll never just sit back and watch this injustice go on. All their chains and cells and walls aren’t strong enough to keep our voice from being heard… They sell our resources to the highest bidder while our people bear the brunt of the direst poverty, and then they act like they’re so concerned about how terrible the economic crisis is….”

On January 31, 2009, a heavily armed police commando made a surprise appearance at the San Pedro Pochutla prison to move Abraham Ramírez Vásquez to the higher security Miahuatlán prison. Calls for urgent action in his support were sent out by CODEDI, Indian Organizations for Human Rights in Oaxaca (OIDHO) and the Magonist Autonomous Collective (CAMA); the three groups make up the Zapatista-Magonista Alliance. On Tuesday, February 10, CAMA called a press conference and rally at the National Human Rights Commission in Mexico City.

In a letter sent to Josefina Jaime Quiroz on March 5, 2009, Abraham wrote: “When they took me out of the Pochutla prison, I wasn’t informed of anything. They didn’t give me time to get my things together, and my wife along with my three children, who are four, six and eleven years old, were left inside, putting their lives and physical integrity at risk. What do you have to say about the rights of women and the rights of children that sound so nice in the articles of our Constitution? The psychological damage inflicted on my children is irreparable, as is the loss of my belongings, kitchen equipment, products used in food preparation, refrigerator, grills, gas tanks, paintings and handicrafts that were thrown out into the street. All this simply reflects the scorn that you have for the life of your fellow man”.

On March 19, 2009, Abraham began a short hunger strike to demand his release from the punishment area of the security prison where he is isolated and barely fed, where his family members are unable to visit him, and where he is only allowed to go outside for exercise one hour a day.

On Friday, March 20, around 30 members of Nodo Solidale demonstrated outside the Mexican Embassy in Rome, Italy. They reported: “Despite the presence of an overly large deployment of police and guards, we shouted out our rage and demanded the immediate freedom of the comrades for more than two hours.”

At the beginning of May, the family members and APPO militants who make up the Xanica Prisoners Committee, set up camp to demand freedom for the three political prisoners.

On May 19, 2009, Carolina Cruz of CODEDI sent out a denunciation of a foiled search of the town of Xanica on the night of April 25: “Once again the intimidation of the marginalized peoples in our state is on the rise. They send us military troops, supposedly to disarm the citizens when the reality is that entire families have nothing to eat. Many children didn’t eat breakfast before going to school today, and the federal government is shoring up its battalions sent out to intimidate Mexican people. Troops came to Santiago Xanica on April 25 to do a general house search in the town that night. Under federal orders they had searched towns in the surrounding area in the early morning hours the day before. In a show of power, they went in raping people, stealing their money and jewels, and they came to Xanica the next day with the same intentions. They weren’t able to do what they wanted, thanks to the intervention of citizens and comrades, but they stayed in the town for three days. Today they went up into the mountains, and we ask: What is their next plan? The children are terrorized. They’re afraid. When will they come back? Are they nearby? What will they do to us? In this region, everybody lives with this fear….”

On June 10, 2009, members of the Xanica Prisoners Committee demonstrated outside the 4th Criminal Court to demand freedom for Abraham, Noel and Juventino.

On August 4, 2009, the First Penal Court at Santa María Huatulco dictated a prison sentence of 8 years for Juventino and Noel García Cruz.

On October 2009, a Pulque Fair was organized by CAMA at the Libertarian Social Center to raise funds for the political prisoners of the Zapatista-Magonista Alliance.

On November 5, 2009, the Xanica Prisoners Committee demonstrated outside the State Human Rights Commission to demand the intervention of the state Ombudsman in the case. Their representative Yolanda Ramírez Vásquez, Abraham’s sister and also member of the Sentenced Prisoners Committee for Absolute Freedom, denounced the Commission’s failure to act.

On November 11, 2009, Yolanda Ramírez Vásquez stated that even though Juventino and Noel’s sentence was dictated on August 4, it was only recently that one of the parties was notified of this sentence. She said: “They were forced to sign a document that was their sentence although they didn’t know it, thereby leaving the youth with no right to appeal. Neither their family members nor lawyers were informed of the decision.”

On November 23, 2009, members of the Xanica Prisoners Committed demonstrated outside the Court at Santa María Huatulco to pressure the Judge Magaly Medina to release Abraham Ramírez Vázquez and the two brothers, Noel and Juventino García Cruz. A banner and graffiti demanded freedom for the three and an end to the hostile acts against Abraham.

On December 12, 2009, the State Assembly of the Section 22 Teachers Union issued a statement “supporting freedom for the Xanica prisoners: Abraham Ramírez Vásquez and Noel and Juventino García Cruz and repudiating the unjust sentence of 8 years in prison for the latter two”.

In closing, we go back to Abraham Ramírez Vásquez’s message of January 15, 2009: “We must always remember, people, that if we bow down to this treatment, our children will suffer the consequences. We were born free. We love freedom. So seeing as how all those puppets still don’t wear chains, we’ll never slack off in our struggle. And since so many of us have been killed, disappeared, or locked up, we can’t take one step backward.”

To support the prisoners of Santiago Xanica, come to the dance on February 18 at 6:00 pm at the Multiforo Cultural Alicia, Av. Cuauhtemoc 91- A, Col. Roma. $40 pesos. Groups include Santocho Antifa (on their second anniversary), Salario Mínimo, Son Solidaridad and the Tlaxiqueros. Sponsors: Colectivo Autónomo Magonista, Cruz Negra Anarquista and Alianza Magonista Zapatista.

Amidst the clouds and rainy day, the Martinez Moreno family was greeted by community members, teachers, friends, and media. Family and friends marched from the prison to the Zocalo. Juan Manuel was imprisoned for approximately 16 months without any solid evidence or witnesses proving him guilty.

photos by Sylvia Gonzalez

Juan Manuel (green shirt) walks free with his family, friends, and teachers at his side while leaving Ixcotel prison.

The media captures the release of Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno

The family greets friends waiting for the freedom of Juan Manuel

The family stands strong as they receive the support of the crowd

Family members, friends, teachers, and community members march from the prison to the Zocalo to celebrate the liberty of Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno

Rally in the city center

Audio

In this clip, a community member shares with us some words while waiting for the release of Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno. Juan Manuel was imprisoned for over 16 months for being wrongly accused for the assassination of Bradley Will, Indymedia reporter.

In this clip, Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno shares with us words of hope upon recently being release from prison. He was imprisoned for over 16 months for being wrongfully accused for the murder of Bradley Will, Indymedia journalist, who was documenting a mobilization in Oaxaca during the 2006 APPO movement

As many people already know, Emeterio Marino Cruz, one of the many social justice fighters that was repressed by the assassin governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO) and Felipe Calderon, filed a criminal complaint against Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, Jorge Franco Vargas, Sergio Segreste Rios, Aristeo Lopez Martinez, Daniel Camarena Flores, Alejandro Barrita Ortiz, and Evencio Nicolas Martinez on charges of abuse of authority, attempted murder, physical torture, moral torture, psychological torture, cruel and inhumane treatment, destruction of public service, and injuries.

This complaint was filed at the Mexican Attorney General’s (PGR in Spanish acronym) office. But after time, the complaint was suspended. Months later we found out that the complaint was in the hands of Evencio Nicolas Martinez, agent and defendant of the state of Oaxaca. Again, another crime was committed, because he did not step up to be a judge in this case and because he delayed the process that should proceed according to law.

A couple days ago, the Licenced Wilfrido Bemardino Garcia Olivera, agent of the Public Ministry and associated with the Mexican Attorney General of the State of Oaxaca (PGJE in Spanish acronyms), announced that the aforementioned people denounced by Emeterio are exempt of all criminal charges, and therefore there is no guilty party for the actions on July 16, 2007.

It is clear what we have already known, that “justice” in our country was not intended for the poor.

It is for that reason that we make this public denouncement. This is an act of total impunity, but nothing strange for a country where a union of more than 60,000 workers could disappear from one day to the next, where the state is saturated with military and paramilitary troops under the pretext to stop narcotrafficking, a country that passes reforms to make the powerful more powerful, a country where the freedom of expression is a crime and the price is either death or imprisonment, as is the case for the political prisoners and those who were assassinated in 2006.

It is for this reason that we make this call to organize and mobilize since this is the only way to achieve justice.

2010 will be a year in which justice and repression will switch names, where even if the tyrant URO leaves his position of power, it will not guarantee that there will be change in Oaxaca.

We know that the impeachment of URO will not be easy but it is not impossible either.

Fraternally,

Emeterio Marino Cruz y familia

On January 28, 2010 a local newspaper published an article written by Reynaldo Bracamontes titled “Political Alliances: The Only Exit in the Face of Oppression: Emeterio”. In the article Emeterio supposedly says that the Political Alliance is the citizen’s alternative in order to free ourselves from the oppression of the current PRI government.

We deny this supposed declaration. The press conference held on the 27th of January was held in order to show the total impunity of the government in Oaxaca.

Our position on the elections has been clear since the moment we joined the struggle. We are sure that change will not come from a political party and it is even less likely to come from this corrupt alliance, which allegedly contains leftist political parties. In reality the leftist parties are like all political parties, reformists and thieves. All of the political parties supported the repression in 2006-2007. Change is only possible with the reorganization from the people of Oaxaca.

We remember the experience in 2006 when the PRD took advantage of the crisis in the state by declaring a punishment vote against the PRI and the PAN. They won the election, but once in power they abandoned the people. The PRI, PAN, PRD, PT, CONVERGENCIA, and other parties ordered the repression against the people of Oaxaca and allowed the PFP to enter the state in October of 2006. These experiences made the political situation in Oaxaca and the rest of the country very clear to us.

We completely reject all the political parties that are participating in the Political Alliance because they are all the same as the PRI, but with another name.

We will continue moving forward without political parties. The only popular power is in the people and we will continue moving forward with the people through this period of reorganization.

Our dignity has no price. Our ideas are clear. We will not stop until there is profound change not superficial change.

Sincerely,

Emeterio Marino Cruz and Family

Because you drank from my chalice of bitterness, grief, rage along with me, and made my fear, my anger, my impotence yours. It’s not my intention to praise you or to move you with empty words. I’d reproach myself and you wouldn’t accept it.

Putting one’s conscience above mean interests devoid of solidarity principles is inconceivable for those who have let themselves be dragged down by greed and personal abundance, denying their brothers and sisters, denying their people. They’ve put a price on their dignity.

They’ve forgotten their roots, thereby denying a decent, dignified future to their offspring. They’ve become the puppets of those who repress us, those who pursue us, those who jail us, those who massacre us, those who hand over our homeland to the foreign interests that are the cause of our rebellion. And they condition what rightfully and legitimately belongs to us ––a life of freedom and dignity, the right to health, education, jobs, tranquility, and land, things that all human beings deserve, just as our ancestors said when they gave their blood for the people 500…200…100 years ago.

What are we going to celebrate? What do we have to remember? What do we need to reflect on? The abuses are still being replicated and there’s no lack of puppets who’ve fallen to new levels of servile, immoral shamelessness. They’ve put a price on everything, even the blood and the dreams of our ancestors.

[Placing conscience above mean interests] is inconceivable for those who never experience the absence of bread at their table.

It’s inconceivable for those who have forgotten that our origins give us our identity –what we are today and what we’ll continue to be ––living by principles of unity as a great family; shaping the mornings of each new day without forgetting our yesterdays, even the hardships and shortages; longing for a new day with more light for our children, for our sisters and brothers, for everyone; always sharing our sorrows, our joys, our bread, our willpower.

These are principles passed down to us by our grandparents that we carry on in our blood, that emerge from our skin, from the voices of each child, each woman, each young person, each old person, each brother, each sister, all of us together. Our present has been forged from heavy blows, from blood, from grief and rage, and even so, we hold hope in our hearts and we still keep on smiling when everything goes wrong.

We’re made of pounded metal forged in fire that doesn’t break apart or tarnish; on the contrary, it shines more brightly.

It holds an active reflection, a date with our past, an inner journey to light the lamp that guides our way.

It’s the reflection of ourselves as the owners of time, which enables us to design new futures without borders for those who want to share their bread, for those whose hands grow fruit for everyone, and for those who hold love in their hearts for others.

In this slice of life that’s ours to share, we’ve learned…

-that resisting isn’t the same thing as conforming, that withstanding hardships is not the same as resigning ourselves, that faith doesn’t fall from the sky, that hope isn’t brought in by the swallows;

-that we have to resist by struggling; that we withstand hardships so we won’t fall down, but instead will be able to take the next step;

-that hope is built through actions, and that by joining our hands, hearts, and songs, we can make the sun come up;

-that we’ve never been alone, that we need to come together again as brothers and sisters;-that we don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to be free;

-that what belongs to the people must be defended with a fight to the death, that it can’t be bartered, that defending it is our obligation, and that every sacrifice is an honor;

-that when we raise our voices to be heard, it’s not to arouse the pity of those at the top, but to awaken our brothers and sisters, and

-that the root of all social inconformity is the seizure of the labor of the people by those who institute the most perverse forms of control and subjugation.

Injustice is offered to our people in all shapes and sizes ––small, medium, large, and if necessary, extra-large. Which do you prefer? All are easily affordable, depending on how combative you are.

And if your pocket is empty and your hunger is unbearable, and if you speak out or join up with others to shout louder or demand justice, the system has the time-tested antidote ready in all kinds of packaging –threats, clubbing, teargas, punitive prisons, persecution, life sentences and other innovations carefully administered to the people with just the right dosage of repression and death.

We’ve learned that no sacrifice is in vain when adversity is resisted in relentless struggle, but that indifference and a lack of consciousness of our reality blurs our vision and complicates things, deterring the struggle against our natural enemy, our common enemy, the one that tricks us with alcohol and circus used as make-up for its perverse face.

On this journey, women have shown us their true place, the one they’ve always held with their tremendous force ––women who engender hope deep within, who embellish our dreams with a kiss, who weave us an overcoat of caresses and take us by the hand to inaugurate our own destiny, who know our childhood secrets and lovingly hold even the smallest memories in their hearts, who never disown us before anyone, who become fierce beasts if they see we’re in danger, who break the silence to shout “Enough is enough!”

Daughters, sisters, compañeras, mothers, who give their all without asking anything in return, who become flowers to adorn our universe, who become eternal stars with a light that never goes out, who give birth to luminous dawns, and who light up the world with a wink of the eye! To you, sisters, our eternal gratitude.

To all of you who have welcomed us, to all of you who have written to us, to the fathers and mothers of children who’ve been massacred, pursued, jailed, threatened, I am deeply saddened by the pain and suffering you’ve been through and are still going through. It is hard for me to express my feelings in the face of such adversity. I know that words don’t heal your wounds, but I feel obliged to send you my humble greetings and a warm embrace of respect and admiration.

To all my brothers and sisters who have worked so hard for our freedom, I send you greetings and my heartfelt desires for your well-being and revolutionary convictions.

To the comrades in the camp outside the Molino de Flores prison at Texcoco, all our affection.

Here, there and everywhere, the struggle will go on! Zapata lives! The struggle continues!

To all our brothers who have already gotten out of prison, I offer you a moment of applause and our commitment to keep up the struggle!

Héctor, Felipe and Ignacio.

Neither time nor distance keeps us apart!

It’s our obligation to dig our battle trenches right where we are!

Long live the struggles of all oppressed peoples!

Long live the struggle of SME!

“Join in the march to the beat of the drum. Listen to the people speak through my voice. Join in the march to the beat of the drum, march to the beat of the revolution!”

NACHO

January 22, 2010

Oaxaca — January 30, 2010

Press Release

On Thursday January 28, at around 9 p.m. Andrea Caraballo, Guadalupe Rodriguez Lopez, James Wells and Jennifer Lawhorne were eating ice cream in the zocalo of Oaxaca. At that time, one of us recognized the face of the governor of Oaxaca who was about nine feet away from us. As a friend of Brad Will, a U.S. journalist who was killed in Oaxaca in 2006, one of us took advantage of the governor’s presence to ask him about the case of Mr. Will, which to this day remains unresolved. We didn’t receive a response from the governor who continued walking and we continued strolling in the zocalo with our ice creams. Five minutes later, between six and eight police agents, some in official uniform and others dressed in plainclothes, surrounded us, demanding to see our identifications and made us walk with them to a municipal police truck. While the police forced us to get into the back of the truck, we asked them why they were taking us away and to where they were going to take us. The police refused to give us any information. We were actually very afraid and worried for our safety.

After traveling for half an hour, we arrived at the police headquarters of Santa Maria Coyotepec, located outside of the Oaxaca city limits.. Once we entered, the police took photographs of us and asked us questions. We demanded the presence of an attorney, which was denied by the police officials. We spent an hour there surrounded by police, faces covered with ski masks, who humiliated and threatened us. Later, the police put us once again in the police truck and without telling us to where we were going, we left the headquarters. The truck stopped about half a block away from the state General Procuradaria of Justice (PGJO in its letters in Spanish), the police ordered us to leave our belongings in the darkness of the street and when we refused to do that, they insisted by threatening us for half an hour while recording us with video. After entering the offices of the PGJO, the police ordered us to leave our belongings with them and that we make a declaration one by one without the presence of an attorney. We remained firm that we weren’t going to do anything until our attorney arrived.

After waiting for more than an hour, we were taken to a room where we supposedly were going to make a call to our lawyer. While in the room, a police officer read to us a document explaining our charges and to our surprise we were accused of scuffling and causing harm to two police agents. In that document, our arrest was ordered and without making the call to our lawyer, we were pushed and dragged out of the room, while twisting the wrist of one of us. That’s how we were taken to the jail cells at 12:30 in the morning. At 1:30, we were allowed to see a lawyer, Jesus Alfredo Lopez Garcia, who we agreed to be our legal representative. From then on we knew that we were going to spend the night in jail. Throughout the night, the police continued to intimidate us, asking us why we were there. We continued to state that we didn’t do anything to cause our incarceration because we never committed any crime. Confused, we did our best to sleep on the cold jail floor.

The next day, Friday January 29, we learned that the gravity of charges that had been filed against us had increased. One of us was taken to make a statement when she learned that we were being accused of assaulting two police officers and damaging a police radio valued at about $3000 (USD). We continued to demand our right to not make a statement. At around 4p.m., our attorney informed us that for a lack of evidence, we were going to be set free without charges and without having to pay bail, under the provision of passing through a review with officials from National Immigration Institute. Upon arrival at the federal immigration offices located in the center of the city, we presented our passports and visas and shortly we were allowed to walk free.

After learning about the situation, the U.S. consul, Mark Leyes, invited us to visit him at his office the same evening and told us that he was sorry for what had happened to us. We would like to thank the attorney Jesus Alfredo Lopez Garcia from the Mexican Protectorate for Human Rights, our friends and family members for all of their support and care.

Sincerely,
Andrea Caraballo, Guadalupe Rodriguez Lopez, Jennifer Lawhorne and Jimmy Wells

Testimony from one of the arrested tourists

download video

a bad night in oaxaca
http://unamalanocheenoaxaca.blogspot.com

FIRST OF THE YEAR 2010

Our compañero Víctor Herrera Govea is still unjustly held prisoner since his arrest at the march of October 2, 2009, where he was beaten and accused with the lie of having robbed an OXXO convenience store…

WE NEVER FORGET AND ARE KEEPING UP
THE FIGHT FROM PRISON…

…He’s inside, we’re outside..

We stand against the forgetfulness, the fatigue, the desperation, the uncertainty.

that you say you’re sorry and beg for a pardon for fighting and living with dignity…

From inside prison we’re determined to keep on being free despite the walls, guards, harassments, lies against us and court dates.

Heads up: This week they should make a decision about granting a protective order.

http://vsencapsulamiento.wordpress.com

A community radio in southern Mexico celebrated five years of being on the air despite all of the harassment it has suffered from local, state and federal authorities. Transmitting in the language of its people, amuzgo, Radio Ñomndaa has become a bastion of organization in the region.

By Ansel Herz
Special to The Narco News Bulletin

PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI, JANUARY 14, 2010: The roof of Haiti’s national penitentiary is missing. The four walls of the prison rise up and break off, leaving only the empty sky overhead.

The gate to the jail in downtown Port-Au-Prince is wide open; the prisoners and police are all gone. Bystanders walk freely in and out, stepping over the still-hot smoldering remains of the facility’s ceiling. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday afternoon broke it to pieces.

“I don’t know if he’s alive or not alive,” said Margaret Barnett, whose son was a prisoner. “My house is crushed down. I’m just out in the street looking for family members.”

“Where is the help?” she asked. The former government employee spits the question again and again, hands on her hips. “Where is the help? Is the UN really here? Does America really help Haiti?”

In the absence of any visible relief effort in the city, the help came from small groups of Haitians working together. Citizens turned into aid workers and rescuers. Lone doctors roamed the streets, offering assistance.

At the crumbling national cathedral, a dozen men and women crowded around a man swinging a pickaxe to pry open the space for a dusty, near-dead looking woman to squeeze through and escape.

The night of the quake, a group of friends pulled bricks out from under a collapsed home, clearing a narrow zig-zagging path towards the sound of a child crying out beneath the rubble.

Two buildings over, Joseph Matherenne cried as he directed the faint light of his cell phone’s screen over the bloody corpse of his 23-year-old brother. His body is draped over the rubble of the office where he worked as a video technician. Unlike most of the bodies in the street, there was no blanket to cover his face.

Central Port-Au-Prince resembles a war zone. Some buildings are standing, unharmed. Those that were damaged tended to collapse completely, spilling into the street on top of cars and telephone poles.

In the day following the quake there was no widespread violence. Guns, knives and theft weren’t seen on the streets, lined only with family after family carrying only their belongings. They voiced their anger and frustration with sad songs that echoed throughout the night, not their fists.

“Only in the movies have I seen this,” said 33-year-old Jacques Nicholas, who jumped a wall as the house where he was playing dominoes tumbled. “When American send missiles to Iraq, that’s what I see. When Israel do that to Gaza, that’s what I see here.” Late at night, Nicholas heard false rumors that a tsunami was coming and he joined a torrent of people walking away from the water.

Nobody knows what to expect. Some people said Haiti needs a strong international intervention – a coordinated aid effort from all the big countries. But it was evident on the streets that no immediate cavalry of rescue workers was on the way from America and other nations.

“My situation is not that bad,” said Nicholas, “but overall the other people’s situation is worse than mine. So it affects me. Everybody wants to help out, but we can’t do nothing.”

Haitians are doing only what they can. Helping each other with their hands and the few tools they can find, they lack the resources to coordinate a multi-faceted reconstruction effort.

A popular radio host here reminded everyone that the strength of the Haitian people cannot be underestimated, posting on his Twitter: “We can re-build! We overcame greater challenges in 1804” – the year Haiti threw off the yoke of colonial slavery in a mass revolt. As the days tick by and the bodies pile up, it will take bold vision and hard work on that scale for Haiti to recover from Tuesday’s tremors.

source: http://narconews.com/Issue63/article4010.html