Indigenous Prisoner in Struggle, Marcelino Ruiz Gómez, Joins Hunger Strike in Chiapas

Below we reproduce two communiques speaking to the hunger strike initiated by Indigenous prisoners in struggle inside two different prisons in Chiapas—CERSS No. 5 in San Cristóbal de las Casas and CERSS No. 10 in Comitán de Domínguez.

 

CERSS No. 10

Comitán, Chiapas, Mexico

To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

To the National and International Society

To the National and International Sixth

To the Indigenous Governing Council

To the Believers

To the People of Mexico and the World

Companerxs, brothers and sisters,

Amidst this health emergency, I send you a combative salute from my trench of struggle.

Today, May 21, 2020, we again begin a hunger strike. The governor of Chiapas, Rutillo Escandón Cadena, has ignored the demands for our freedom. More than a year and two months have passed since we went on our first hunger strike. Since then, the government has responded to our demands with pure lies.

Today, with the pandemic of COVID-19, our health and our lives are at risk.

I demand my immediate freedom. I have already been unjustly imprisoned for 14 years, paying for a crime that I did not commit. I am a victim of torture carried out by the public prosecutor’s office. I thus raise my voice against injustice and inequality. My voice is one of an Indigenous person, facing the injustice of this repressive system and state, that abuses marginalized and vulnerable people. We are also human beings with dignity. I demand my freedom. I am not a criminal. The public prosecutor’s office prefabricated crimes against me. The state has stolen what is most valuable to us as human beings, our time, which is equal to life. I’m leaving this life behind these bars which not even the government can recompensate.

That is why I make a call out to the social and human rights organizations that have always accompanied us, and to the collectives and media, to unite in our demand for justice and freedom for all political prisoners and Indigenous prisoners in struggle and of conscious.

Sincerely,

Marcelino Ruiz Gómez

Communique from Marcelino’s wife, Karla Guadalupe Meza Medez

Comitán Chiapas

May 20, 2020

To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

To the National and International Civil Society

To the National Indigenous Congress

To the Indigenous Governing Council

To the Believers

To the People of Mexico and the World

Dear compañerxs,

I send my greetings to you all and thank you for the support during this very difficult time of the pandemic. We continue attentive to the situation of our imprisoned compañerxs, and we continue to share their realities.

Due to the health emergency, as family members of prisoners, it is impossible not to worry for them. The situation is alarming. The possibility of contagion is ever greater as they do not have what is necessary to prevent and fight off the disease. We know the risk, and we know that the prisoners can possibly lose their lives—lives that the government doesn’t care about. We have not seen any response from the government addressing the demands for their freedom. Thus, our imprisoned compañeros have decided to initiate a hunger strike as they have already spent years in prison for prefabricated crimes. In the case of my husband, Marcelino Ruiz Gómez, he has been in prison for 14 years, paying for a crime that he didn’t commit. There is so much injustice on part of the bad government. The government has seen arguments proving their total innocence and yet that has not been sufficient.

If the government is bothered by their resistance, it’s authorities do not seem comfortable with the idea of releasing them, since these same authorities are the ones who have them kidnapped. They are not in prison because they like it. They are survivors of torture and they live with physical and psychological damage. Yet the bad government continues torturing them, carrying out this oppression toward our families.

We demand justice and freedom for our compañeros in struggle.

In CERSS No. 5

Adrián Gómez Jiménez

Abraham López Montejo

Germán López Montejo

In CERSS No. 10

Marcelino Ruiz Gómez

We call on all those who are outraged by the injustices to continue struggling in an organized manner against impunity.

Sincerely,

Karla Guadalupe Meza Medez