Mexico: Prisoners in Struggle Begin Indefinite Hunger Strike

This communique comes from the working group, No Estamos Todxs, and reports on the launch of a hunger strike in various prisons in the Mexican state of Chiapas.

March 15^th, 2019

Statement in solidarity with the hunger strike of our imprisoned compañeros in struggle in the different prisons of Chiapas.

Today, our imprisoned compañeros in struggle informed us that they will begin an indefinite hunger strike demanding their immediate and unconditional freedom.

The list of compañeros that will be part of the action and the prisons where they will be carrying out the strike is below:

CERSS 14, El Amate (Cintalapa)

Abraham López Montejo

Germán López Montejo

Organización: La Voz Verdadera del Amate

CERSS 5, (San Cristóbal de las Casas)

Adrián Gómez Jiménez

Juan de la Cruz Ruiz

Organización: La Voz de Indígenas en Resistencia

CERSS 10, (Comitán de Domínguez)

Marcelino Ruíz Gómez

Baldemar Gómez Hernández

Organización: Viniketik en Resistencia

Different organized compañeros in other prisons will be supporting, disseminating information and following up on this action from within their detention centers.

From our trench of struggle, we show our utmost solidarity and respect with this action being undertaken by our compañeros. We also declare our intention to be totally and absolutely attentive so that the well-being and security of our compañeros is guaranteed at all times.

Our compañeros have continually denounced the injustice they are facing with their imprisonment; the arbitrary nature of their detentions as their cases have been fabricated with no logic to sustain them. Our compañeros have shared with us the heartbreaking experience of physical and psychological torture to which they have been subjected and the inhumane conditions of their imprisonment. They speak of the pain caused by the separation from their families, of the pain caused by the rupture in their lives, of the cruelty that they face seeking to make them believe that they are nothing. Our compañeros tell us how it seems that everything is meant to make them surrender to a cruel and degrading destiny to which they deserve for the simple reason of being Indigenous.

But there have been many occasions that our compañeros have shown us the degree of their dignity and resistance. They have shown us their determination in search of their freedom and to make visible the cruel situation of the inhumane life they have to face inside the prisons of Chiapas.

We have been witnesses, on many occasions, to their pain. Witnesses of the negligence and mockery of the legal system that reeks of rot; of prison conditions that seek at all times to produce pain, submission, dehumanization.

Now our compañeros announce their decision to carry out an indefinite hunger strike with the demand for their unconditional and immediate freedom, as well as another series of demands related to the conditions of life inside the prisons related to food, health, security and justice. This is not a struggle that seeks to impact only them. They know perfectly well that their experiences are not isolated, but are reflected in the experiences of practically all imprisoned people—those submitted to carry the heavy weight of the supposed law on their backs.

Day in and day out, the prison seeks to divide them, reduce them, isolate them and subdue them, but it never succeeds. Because they know that their struggle makes them free, that solidarity is the tool with which the prison walls are torn down. Their determination will be the best weapon to defeat the prison once and a thousand times.

We share the vision of our compañeros in a total and absolute manner. Organization and solidarity are our weapons and tools, that is why we will never stop accompanying our compañeros. We walk together in resistance. Together we will defeat the beast which is the prison. We will make it disappear.

We make clear that the prison will never be part of the solution to anything. Prison is part of the problem of an unjust, cruel and inhumane society that needs to separate those that bother it, that hinder it, that do not serve its capitalist plans of extermination.

From the working group, No Estamos Todxs, we denounce the justice system based on classism and racism that imprisons principally poor people. We denounce the use of systemic physical and psychological torture as a means to force the confession of crimes and the fabrication of cases.

We denounce the negligence and intentional actions inside the prisons that perpetuate permanent punishment and vengeance that our compañeros and the prison population as a whole have to face.

We denounce the existence of prisons and the social complicity that legitimizes them.

We demand the unconditional and immediate freedom for our compañeros.

We demand that the prison system respect the decision of our compañeros to undertake this hunger strike and that they be guaranteed the conditions to carry it out.

We demand that the prison system respect their visits, as well as access to honey, serum, jelly or whatever is necessary to insure the physical safety of our compañeros.

We demand that the place where they will carry out this action be respected.

We demand access to health officials, trusted by our compañeros, when they consider it necessary.

We demand that none of our compañeros suffer the punishment of transfer as a way to break the organization and action.

We demand that the physical, psychological, and emotional well-being of our compañeros be guaranteed at all times.

We warn beforehand that we already know the tricks of repression and punishment. These tactics will not work this time. Those of us who are determined and dedicated to the struggle, we are also going to resist wherever necessary, whatever the circumstances.

To our compañeros, as always, goes our complicit and fraternal embrace, and our absolute respect. Here we are and will continue side by side breaking the walls that separate us, slashing the amount of days before we will embrace them on the outside. Our firm and unwavering commitment to walk alongside this action, each and every one of the steps in the quest for freedom.

Dear comrades, we are with you…always!

To those who separate us from our compañeros, to those who build walls and fabricate lies, pain and punishment as a form of life. To all of you, once again, goes our total hatred, disgust and contempt.

We will continue to punctually report on the development of this action and we will accompany our compañeros in the development of the same.

Until we are all free…struggle, rebellion and resistance!

Freedom to all!

Working Group, No Estamos Todxs