January 11, 2007
LETTER FROM POLITICAL PRISONERS AT TLACOLULA
Prensa, Noticias
Tlacolula, Oaxaca, México, January 5, 2007
To the people of Oaxaca. To the state government. To the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. To the president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. To the international community.
We, the undersigned, are writing to you with regards to the following situation:
As a result of the events in the city of Oaxaca on November 20 and 25 and December 1, we were arbitrarily apprehended with extreme violence by members of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP), the state ministerial police, and individuals in street clothes traveling in vehicles without plates. From the very first, there was absolutely no respect shown for our individual guarantees delineated in the Constitution of Mexico.
On November 25, before being transferred to this prison, some of us had our eyes covered with masking tape and were tortured with electric shocks on different parts of the body while we were being interrogated. All the while, we were threatened with execution.
On November 27, we were transferred to the Federal Re-adaptation Center (CEFERESO) Nº 4 in Tepic, Nayarit, where we were held prisoner for 23 days. Throughout our trip to this maximum security prison, the entrance procedure and our stay there, we were treated like we were the most dangerous of all criminals. The entire time we were there, we were held incommunicado, locked down in a 2x2 meter cell without ever being able to go out into the sunshine.
On December 20, due to the measures taken by our families, as well as to local, national, and international pressure, we were transferred back to this prison at Tlacolula, Oaxaca, where 16 of us are now being held as political prisoners. We are charged with several different crimes by the government of the state of Oaxaca, including robbery and kidnapping, sedition, criminal conspiracy, and property damage. These charges are based on reports of the federal and state police, who have never been able to legally prove them; they are, therefore, inadmissible in a court of law.
For these reasons, we reiterate our innocence and demand our immediate, unconditional freedom, as well as respect for our individual guarantees and our physical and emotional integrity.
For a State of Law with peace and social justice.
RESPECTFULLY YOURS, Juan Carlos Luis Mendoza Cornelio López Sánchez Abraham Reyes Herrera Uriel Julio Méndez Hernández Rosein García Guzmán Manuel Ventura Santiago Alejandro Luna López Edgar Alejandro Molina Cuevas Flaviano Juárez Hernandez Pedro Garivo Pérez Alberto Alejandro Correa Orozco Felipe Sánchez Rodríguez Armando García Salas Arturo Reyes García Gilberto Toledo de los Santos Marco Antonio Aquino Silva