Letter From Recently Released Political Prisoner, Álvaro Sebastián Ramírez

To the compañer@s of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

To the compañer@s of the National Indigenous Congress

To the compañer@s of the Network Against Repression and for Solidarity

To the compañer@s of the Sixth in Mexico and the World

I, Álvaro Sebastián Ramírez, want to inform all the compañer@s that on July 7^th, 2017, at around 11 pm, I left prison, ending 19 years and seven months as a prisoner.

I was detained, processed, tried and sentenced for behavior that didn’t constitute a crime, within the specific context of the accusation. However, the Mexican State named me responsible for homicide, condemning me to 27 years in prison.

I have managed to leave the prison through a process soliciting “early release”, provided in the Federal Penal Code as one of the “benefits” for those who have served two/thirds of their sentence.

To leave prison is one thing, freedom is another that is completely different. Freedom does not exist even though I am outside of prison. It is not difficult to realize that the masters of power and money have converted the world into a massive war camp, where we find death roaming around everywhere.

Even in prison, I never renounced my political ideas and never thought of surrendering myself. To the contrary, I embraced my principles of struggle more tightly because it is the political struggle that gives us the best possibilities of opening the gates of prison and that truthfully bring down the prison walls.

I want to thank all of the compañeras and compañeros of all the different communities, organizations, collectives, families, individuals, that from corners of Oaxaca, Mexico and the world, offered me their solidarity and support in the different stages of the last nearly 20 years of incarceration. The accompaniment, letters, books, economic solidarity, telephone calls, activities of diffusion, protest and denunciation; your greetings, hugs, words, publications, interviews, visits, all of this and much more is what gave me the strength to resist and struggle, not only to leave prison, but to feel that struggle can take place from within prison to end this system of death called capitalism.

Freedom to all of the political prisoners of Mexico and the World!

Long live the Zapatista Army of National Liberation!

Lone live the National Indigenous Congress!

Long live the Network Against Repression and for Solidarity!

Long live the Sixth in Mexico and the World!

For the Voice of the Zapotecos Xiches in Prison:

Álvaro Sebastián Ramírez

Oaxaca, Mexico, July 2017