Letter From Compañero Luis Fernando Sotelo, After the Aggressions He Suffered in Reclusorio Sur

Translated and Submitted to It’s Going Down

I want to make this communiqué public considering three things:

The first would be that the actions of the personal administration and security were unjust, disproportional, and that is to say illegal.

The second is the speculation around my political alliances.

The last, the action carried out by prisoner Jessie Motaño and I was not an act of disobedience at all; more of an act of resistance toward the system, poorly named, justice.

The only thing upon which we agreed was to put up a padlock to protect our space, the space that has been our house for more than two years. Protect if from what? (from institutional imposition)

On the morning of November 9^th, around thirty people arrived (translated from reclusorio norte). It was thought that we were talking to them and that they were already in the area of COC of the North. After forty minutes, some custodians arrived with the director; they wanted to break our lock. They succeeded in doing so, after which Jessie was subjected to extensive violence. And when they went to remove him through the entrance, I yelled to them that they certify him here (medically). That was enough for them to also try to subdue and beat me (with punches to the head and elbows).

I want to mention something the director of Reclusorio Sur asserts. He says that the promoters of amnesty and those that work for the sub-secretary of the penitentiary system are helping us. What worth would a person be that is concerned for the situation of the prisoners at the expense of the work of the representative institutions? They are the consequences of the repressive silence that accompanies the action of the legislators. First, it is given as fact that there was an intention to free us; thus discarding the opinion and the necessities of the daily life of the prisoners. We do not defend privileges gifted by the powerful. We defend the dignified resistance unaffiliated with corruption and the negotiations of power.

Now I fear more for my integrity inside the prison, as well as for the families and friends on the outside. However, I carry on in overcoming that fear: to name responsible the custodians and administrators (and particularly Tonatiuh, the director of the Reclusorio Sur) as well as the functionaries of the sub-secretary of the Penitentiary System of the Federal District, for the aggressions that we suffered and also for the theft of those that benefited…by stealing some of my belongings.

Luis Fernando Sotelo

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