Transfer of Political Prisoners in Oaxaca

Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, November 27, 2008

To all organizations, collectives, and people of Oaxaca, México and the world.
To The Other Campaign.
To national and international human rights groups.

To the media.
To members of the APPO.
To sympathizers of the APPO in México and the world.

URGENT ACTION, REGARDING:

THE POSSIBLE TRANSFER OF COMRADES PEDRO CASTILLO ARAGÓN AND VÍCTOR HUGO MARTINEZ TOLEDO, POLITICAL PRISONERS AND PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE, FROM SANTA MARÍA IXCOTEL, OAXACA, JAIL. IT IS FEARED THEY WILL BE TRANSFERRED TO A MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON.

We request your U R G E N T intervention regarding the transfer of PEDRO CASTILLO ARAGÓN and VÍCTOR HUGO MARTINEZ TOLEDO, (as well as 9 other prisoners whose names we don’t know) from the SANTA MARÍA IXCOTEL CENTRAL PENITENCIARY to a place as yet unknown, today, November 27, 2008.

BACKGROUND:

PEDRO CASTILLO ARAGÓN is a member of the Citizens’ Defense Committee (CODECI), a member organization of the APPO, an adherent to The Other Campaign, and forms part of the Political Prisoners Committee of Santa María Ixcotel, Oaxaca. He is a law student at the Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca (UABJO). He is originally from San Pedro Ozolotepec, Miahuatlán, Oaxaca, he is 31, and has been a prisoner since 2002 for his support and activism as adviser to the indigenous movement in Oaxaca.

VÍCTOR HUGO MARTINEZ TOLEDO: Member of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), detained since November 3, 2006. An active participant in the popular movement in Oaxaca.

FACTS:

In a surprise police operation, coordinated by state and federal authorities, as well as their respective police forces, it seems, under the orders of Alan Loren Peña Arqueta, director of the State Investigation Agency of Oaxaca (AEIO), a search operation was carried out very early this morning in the above-mentioned penitentiary, where our fellow social fighters are unjustly imprisoned.

Government media stated that a Federal Preventive Police (PFP) plane numbered XC-OPF, was carrying these 11 people. Up to now, their families and friends don’t know where they were taken, the true reasons for their transfer, or their physical and emotional state.

Those responsible for the operation have not made public any official version that clarifies the reasons for the transfer of our comrades, the names of the other nine, or the reasons for the search operation in the penitentiary.

In these moments when there is no information to clarify the status of our comrades, it is feared that they’ve been transferred to a maximum security prison.

WE CALL:

For you to be aware of the current situation of our political prisoners. It is clear to us that this is a purely political act to continue repressing and physically and morally wearing down Oaxaca’s popular movement which demands justice and freedom for our political prisoners.

We are sure that the purpose of this operation is only to keep down the movement in Oaxaca in the face of continuing efforts to construct another Oaxaca.

We respectfully ask that those who receive this message demand the appearance of our prisoners and stand against their transfer to maximum security prisons, as well as to spread the word as to the real political reasons for these events.

We hold responsible the bad government of Ulises Ruíz Ortíz, the federal government of Felipe Calderón, and the heads of the police forces, for the well-being of our comrades. There is no action that can stop the fight for freedom and justice that the Oaxacan people have begun.