Tag: Alberto Patishtán

By Luis Hernández Navarro
La Jornada
September 13, 2013
Translated by Scott Campbell

Alberto Patishtán is not a French kidnapper like Florence Cassez, nor a narcotrafficker like Rafael Caro Quintero, nor one of the killers from the massacre in Acteal. He is a Tzotzil schoolteacher, a member of the Other Campaign, unjustly imprisoned for 13 years. She, they and he are not the same. For Cassez, Caro Quintero and the paramilitaries from Chenalhó, despite their guilt, justice let them go. For teacher Patishtán, the justice system has him in jail, despite being innocent.

The judiciary recently had the possibility to rectify the damage done to the indigenous Tzotzil man from El Bosque. But this Thursday, the 20th Circuit First Appellate Court in Chiapas declared baseless the evidence with which his attorneys sought to obtain his release.

Thursday, July 26, 2012, San Cristóbal de Las Casas

It’s half a victory, but a victory for us all

Alberto Patishtán, emblematic political prisoner of Mexico and comrade, founding member of the “Voz del Amate” (Voice of Amate) organization and part of the Other Campaign, was returned just a few hours ago to the prison known as CERSS No. 5 in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. He was taken out of there in the early morning hours of October 20, 2011, in the middle of a hunger strike that he was waging along with his comrades, “los Solidarios de la Voz del Amate” (Solidarity Prisoners, Voice of Amate).

The vile government is finally abiding by the ruling issued on July 13 by the judge in the court at Tuxtla Gutiérrez, granting a protective order sought by the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Center for Human Rights on the basis that Albert’s transfer to the maximum security prison at Guasave, Sinaloa was unacceptable.