Activists for Indigenous Rights declare themselves political prisoners in Oaxaca
Oaxaca February 21. Having endured five months imprisonment and deterioration
of health brought on by blows from police as they were evicted from the
sit in demanding justice held by the CIPO-RFM in the city square, still
has not undermined their morale: Dolores Villalobos Cuamatzin, Habacuc Cruz
Cruz, inmates in the Etla prison, José Cruz Cruz in Ixcotel, and
Margarita García García in Miahuatlán, declare themselves
"political prisoners" and state that they will not renounce the
struggle for the rights of indigenous peoples, union democracy and against
injustice.
They fear for their lives inside the prisons. They comment on the brutality that the administration of José Murat and Ulises Ruiz have unleashed on the CIPO-RFM and especially Raúl Gatica, and they speak of rumors that in the state government there has been talk about possible "riots in the prisons". One never knows.
The march to "reestablish the state constitutional guarantees, against repression and for the liberty of prisoners" was also for them, held on February 18, and carried out by thousands of members of indigenous, popular, human rights organizations and unions.
The response from governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz the next day was that he is neither an oppressor nor an authoritarian. "I am committed to the people of Oaxaca to uphold state law" he said and offered "to continue his policy of open doors calling on dialogue and conciliation, everything in the framework of the law". (El Imparcial, February 20)
An example of exactly how law is implemented in Oaxaca can be seen with Margarita García García, ex organizing secretary of the Union in the Service of the Three State Powers, who having been freed in a half a dozen of trials, now is confronted with five more months, being accused of things like attacks on means of communication, theft, damages, injuries, resistence, illegal deprivation of freedom...
In the criminal trial 324/2004, even having been proved, with the records of the passport and eyewitnesses, that she was out of the country, in el Salvador-on the day of a she supposedly committed the bank robbery that she is being accused of, the judge has ordered her into prison. Roque Martínez Vázquez, lawyer of the prisoners, explained that it had to be through appeal that she achieved to get out free from that case.
In this trail accused are also, Habacuc Cruz Cruz and Oliverio Neri, both members of the directive of the Union of Workers in Service of the Three State Powers and Decentralized Institutions. Allegedly both of them and Margarita robbed a auxiliary police of a video camera and a radio communicator, who was "spying the CIPO".
Supposedly the camera and the radio together came to about 36 thousand pesos, the crime is described as "serious" and did not achieve bail. For this reason Habacuc, 33 years of age with a daughter of 10, has to confront this trail in jail. "The alleged witnesses do not recognize me" he said.
On top of that, they have two more trials for the illegal deprivation of liberty. "During my peaceful sit in, Irma PiZeiro, secretary of the Agrarian and Forest Development, an agency now controlled by the state, refused to leave the building and has accused us of retaining her". In another trial the accuser is a visitor of the State Commission for Human Rights that "arrived as a observer to the sit in, stayed on his own free will and is now accusing us."
Margarita, mother of two children, one 12 old the other 15 years old, has been sent to the Miahuatlán prison, two hours away of Oaxaca, since September 15. All of those interviewed confirm that after the sit in was evicted, they were "brutally" hit by ministerial police, farmers and elements of the Agency for Federal Investigation (AFI). She was left with two black eyes and bruises in different parts of her body from strikes and kicks. Dolores Villalobos suffered a strong vaginal haemorrhage due to all the blows. To Habacuc and José Cruz Cruz, who are not related, and to other men arrested, were struck on the ears with open palms, now they complain of strong ear pain, loss of hearing and a buzzing sound.
The other trial against Margarita is 269/2002 in the eighth district courthouse for attacking the means of communication. She received an appeal against formal imprisonment. In that trial, it was ordered to apprehend all the executive committee of the union, they arrested three, which were later freed due to an appeal, and for the rest the attorney of Murat asked for the reversal of the order of apprehension and was only left the one of Margarita.
In Etla, Dolores Villalobos, 37 years old, school teacher, member of the Coordinating Assembly of the CIPO-RFM, explained that the sit in was to demand punishment to the "PRIist paramilitaries of Tanetze of Zaragoza and Santa Lucía Monteverde". In Yaviche the community organised itself, declared autonomy, and elected their union through their rights and customs. Tanetze is a PRI enclave and this bothered them. The paramilitaries attacked and killed two communeros. The protest sit in installed itself in the city square. And then it was evicted. She was accused of hitting and injuring ministerial police and damaging a truck with a stick during the eviction.
There were 14 arrests. Each one was give a bail of 43 thousand pesos, but Dolores was given one of 61 thousand because she is being accused of a crime against a civil servant.