TO THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS
TO THE UNIONS
TO THE NGOs IN DEFENSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS
TO THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
TO THE PEOPLES OF MEXICO
Please accept warm greetings from the San Pedro Pochutla Regional Prison on behalf of Noel García Cruz, Juventino García Cruz, and Abraham Ramírez Vásquez of the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Rights (CODEDI) and the Magonista-Zapatista Alliance (AMZ).
Once again, we want to let you know that instead of resolving our problem, the just demands of our organizations, and our demand for a decent life, the tyrant Ulises Ruiz Ortiz has responded with repression. He is holding us in terribly unhealthy conditions, thereby trampling on our constitutional rights. In spite of our constant denunciations of this situation, the murderer has turned a deaf ear to our petition. He keeps us under constant surveillance, using other inmates to do his dirty work and placing us in a critical situation. He thinks he will be able to humiliate us with his threats. THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. Three months from now, we will have spent four years behind bars without having committed a single crime, and we can tell you that with every passing day, we feel stronger and more certain that we will never desist in our struggle. Our just demands are non-negotiable.
The tyrants who now rule our country are dragging it to the edge of chaos. Every day there are fewer jobs; everyday there is less support for the countryside. They continue to privatize our beaches and are using all means possible to privatize PEMEX. Their projects of ethnocide are well underway, aimed at doing away with our ethnic groups and our culture, dividing our peoples, and profiting from our misery.
We indigenous people are a stumbling block for the State, that’s why they don’t think twice about ordering the death of our brothers and sisters or sending them to jail to stop our organizational process.
We will continue to denounce the injustices that our brothers and sisters suffer in our country and our state.
We will continue to demand a democratic country.
We will continue to demand justice for our APPO members who’ve been killed and disappeared.
We will continue to demand justice for our indigenous peoples and the right to a life of dignity.
We demand respect for our autonomy as indigenous peoples.
We will continue to seek peace––but peace with justice.
We will hold firm in our struggles and will not take one step backwards.
San Pedro Pochutla Regional Prison, Oaxaca, October 5, 2008.
Noel García Cruz
Juventino García Cruz
Abraham Ramírez Vásquez