Freedom for Manuel Gómez Vázquez, Member of the Zapatista Support Bases

Communique from the Ajmaq Network of Resistance and Rebellion demanding the release of Indigenous Zapatista political prisoner, Manuel Gómez Vázquez.

Manuel Gómez Vázquez is a member of the Zapatista Support Bases. For two years and three months, he has been imprisoned in the Centro Estatal de Reinserción Social de Sentenciados No. 16, in Ocosingo, Chiapas. It is important to mention that Manuel is Maya-Tseltal, a 22-year old campesino, originally from the Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón, belonging to the Good Government Council of Pensamiento Rebelde, in Caracol IX, Nuevo Juresalén, in the official municipality of Ocosingo, Chiapas.

The imprisonment of our compañero fills us with rage. He was arrested illegally by an armed civilian group and by community authorities. He was tortured and his human rights were violated. He was accused of a crime that he did not commit. Fabricating crimes is common practice of the judicial power of Chiapas, and this entire country. The state public prosecutor’s office shows its most racist and classist face without remorse, filling the prisons with those from below. The prisons are extermination camps for those same people. Yet, our compañero is not only imprisoned for being Indigenous and poor, but also for being a Zapatista. Because for the Mexican state, it is not only a crime being poor and racialized, but also being rebellious and dignified. Regardless of who is in power, criminalization against the rebellion of those from below is part of the strategy of war against those who organize and struggle. As our compas of FRAYBA rightly say:

“Manuel is being criminalized because him and his family are members of the Zapatista Support Bases. The prosecutor’s office lacks the evidence to accuse him, so it has fabricated evidence in its favor, without presenting the supposed witnesses to testify. This has led on two occasions to the trial being deferred. Furthermore, the autopsies for the homicides do not exist. The state judicial power has already exceeded the two-year limit for any prisoner to be held in pretrial detention.”

We join in demanding that the public prosecutor’s office free our compañero Manuel immediately. We want to make it clear that we will not back down in this struggle until he is released. We know well that in this struggle we are many. From our rebellious hearts, we make a call out to the National and International Sixth, to the individuals and collectives, to the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion, to do everything in your imagination and hearts, according to your forms, times, and geographies, to demand that the public prosecutor’ office and the judicial power of the state immediately free our companeño Manuel, member of the Zapatista Support Bases.

We ask those who can to sign on to this statement with your signature, sending it to the following email: [email protected].

A combative embrace from the Jobel Valley and from other corners of the world.

Immediate freedom for our compañero Manuel Gómez Vázquez!

End the criminalization of those who struggle!

Down with the prison walls!