FIRST STATEMENTS BY THE POLITICAL PRISONERS
Brothers and sisters,
According
to the habit of the State Justice (injustice) Office, at 11.47pm on
the night of 14th September our brothers and sisters began to give statements,
after a 4-hour meeting between their lawyer, Rogelio Chagoya, and state
prosecutors.
The
attitude of the state prosecutors, the police and other functionaries, given
that the statements of our brothers and sisters directly accuse the police
of bad treatment to them, and of having beaten them, tortured,
manhandled, offended and injured them, was to quietly intimidate them or
to
change their declarations while they were being dictated.
The Magonistas were badly hurt, far from how they were shown in the
photos that the police fixed, but we saw them in fine spirit, feisty, denouncing
all the aggressions and injustices which they have suffered at the hands
of the
AFI, the UPOE and even the human rights commission. For that reason when
the
prosecution officials changed their statements, they signed them only
under protest.
The women were taken first to give their statements, followed by the
men. The first group of statements were finished by 5.00am and there was
then a
break until 11.00am on the 15th September, all under article 1778 (PME/2004)
for crimes relating to "injury" to members of the ministerial
state police,
resistance of individuals, crimes against government officials and
damage to an official vehicle, naturally without showing any evidence. In
fact, the
only evidence that exists - a video that they removed from us together with
the camera - disproves everything.
Now
they have taken statements from all the fine indigenous people of
the CIPO-RFM. No-one was saved, for the bad government we are guilty,
dangerous.
They have sent us to Ixcotel Prison because we do not have the money to
pay the bail that was set for our rebellious dignity.
The
authorities have fixed bail (according to their danger?) for
Dolores Villalobos Cuamatzin at $61,000, for Leonor López Alavez
(aged 16),
Carmen López Pérez, Kalid Pérez Gómez, Guadalupe
García García, Miguel Cruz
Moreno, Reynaldo Feria Hernández, Gumaro López Alavez, Gildardo
Pérez Gómez,
José Cruz Cruz, Abel Ramírez Ramírez and Mauro García
García at $45,000.
Margarita García García, Abacuc Cruz Cruz were not offered
bail terms as there are 4
cases regarding them waiting to be heard. But the most serious case is that
Hipólito Rodríguez Soriano has "disappeared".
This
act of repression against the CIPO-RFM demonstrates the
co-ordination between the State and the federal governments, between Fox
and Murat,
between the PRI and the PAN when it comes to attacking poor indigenous people.
Accordingly, the state attorney of the PGR, Álvaro de la Peña
Ang ulo
and the Federal Attorney Rubén Casanova Medellín who directs
operation, align
themselves with José M. Vera Salinas and Manuel Moreno Rivas (the
escort of the "attack" on José Murat) and compete among
themselves to see which of
them can hit harder but leave fewer marks on the defenceless bodies of women
and
children.
Although
all the police officials involved say that violence was not
used, the evidence says the opposite: the files (0009636) (0009643) of the
State
Commission on Human Rights of Oaxaca, dated 14th September 2004, when
talking about the prisoners says: "the visiting inspector certified
the
existence of injuries that some of them presented", while in another
paragraph, it
says: "Carmen López Pérez requires medical attention
and should be handed
over to a Medical Institution so that professional medical aid can be offered
her" (sic). Big business, the PRI-ist authorities and all those who
are the enemies
of us, the indigenous people, are paying for large announcements in the
newspapers, the radio and the television in order to speak badly of us,
and treat
us as stinking brigands and worse.
But
we will continue, firm in our struggle, until such times as we see
the release of our prisoners.
WE
NEED YOUR DONATIONS! PLEASE PAY WHAT YOU CAN TO FINANCE THE BAIL ON
OUR
COMRADES WHICH TOTALS 556,000 PESOS
For the re-organization and free association of our people
FOR THE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE OF THE CIPO-RFM (those who remain free)
ELIZABETH
PEREZ CRUZ
LEONARDO LÓPEZ SARABIA
ROSARIO GÓMEZ HERNÁNDEZ
RAUL LÓPEZ DÍAZ
Translation by nmcn/fdca