Protest over the Liberation of the Torturers of Emeterio Marino Cruz

By: Daniel Arellano Chávez, November 17th, 2010.
Translated: Erica Lagalisse

On November 17 2010 at 9 o’clock in the morning, a meeting was held in the Criminal Courts of the Judiciary of the State of Oaxaca, which is located right behind the Central Prison of Santa María Ixcotel, to express indignation due to the liberation of five policemen that had been arrested for the torture of Emeterio Marino Cruz on July 16th 2007.

It was denounced in these Criminal Courts of the Judiciary of Oaxaca that Juan Cuevas Venegas, Agent of the 4th Table of the Public Mininstry, had announced the end of the trial of the policemen Alejandro Franklin Ortiz, Nemesio Vázquez Matus, Alfredo Luis Santos, Eugenio Silva Santiago y Javier Díaz Miguel, at which point the Judge of the Second Criminal Court issued them an in-progress sentence of 3 years, 3 months and 9 days that freed them that same day.

Among the participants in this meeting was Trinidad Cervantes, sister of Lorenzo Sampablo Cervantes (assassinated by the Caravana de la Muerte [Death Caravan] August 22nd 2006), who reiterated the people’s demand for the punishment of the assassins of more than 26 people in Oaxaca, and who emphasized that rather than being afraid it is important to continue the struggle and push forward the demands of the people of Oaxaca. Among others who spoke were the displaced townspeople of San Juan Copala who denounced how they were pressured to leave the Zócalo (main plaza) between the night of Nov. 15 and dawn Nov. 16 by functionaries, dozens of Preventative Police and the Special Operations Police Unit (UPOE). They warned that they would continue their struggle from wherever they happened to be, which at that point was a few blocks from the Zócalo in the San Agustin Church, and that they would return to the Zócalo of the Oaxaca city.

Emeterio, during his two turns at the microphone, thanked the Sección 22 (22nd section of the National Union of Education Workers – SNTE) and the people of Oaxaca that were gathered there, and reminded everyone that the policemen arrested so far, although surely responsible, are “scapegoats” of both the police functionaries and civil authorities that ordered the repression, who have not been brought to trial, and that all remain unpunished.