Mexico: On the Political Prisoners of San Pedro Tlanixco

Words from the Movement for the Freedom of the San Pedro Tlanixco Defenders of Water and Life on the First Anniversary of Radio Tlanixco, the Spring of Freedom

To the tribes, peoples, neighborhoods and nations of the National Indigenous Congress
To the National and International Sixth
To the Network against Repression and for Solidarity
To the free, autonomous, alternative or whatever they’re called media
To the dignified peoples who struggle, resist and rebel
To those who join us today and stand in solidarity with Radio Tlanixco and the Movement for the Freedom of the San Pedro Tlanixco Defenders of Water and Life

Compañeras and compañeros,

We are very excited for you to be here at this very important moment for the Movement for the Freedom of the San Pedro Tlanixco Defenders of Water and Life, and for Radio Tlanixco, because we know you are aware that in order to continue opening the crack in the wall it is important to do it through collective organizing and solidarity, from that which is honest and which truly walks alongside the peoples.

Our Radio Tlanixco stems from the need of the Movement for the Freedom of the San Pedro Tlanixco Defenders of Water and Life to continue building a strong defense and struggle for the freedom of our compañer@s, but also to build a means of communication from below for those from below, to weave it from a place of dignity that like a seed we must continue to care for and spread, so our community is well-informed and also content knowing that this radio is a radio for all of the people, that it is in their service, and not to serve itself from them.

We’ve gone on about the reason for our frequency 96.2 existing, and we will not tire of repeating our pain, which we know is also the pain of those who have joined us on this long walk demanding freedom for our defenders of water and life. On the judicial side, we find ourselves with justice from above, traditional of the capitalist world of the Hydra. Not one direct piece of evidence against the imprisoned compañeros and compañera, much less for those being pursued for the supposed homicide they are accused of, and even less with respect to the supposed false imprisonment of which they are also accused. We can now say with total clarity that throughout the legal process, multiple rights were violated, such as the presumption of innocence and direct judicial oversight. It was never shown, nor has it been shown, that Pedro Sánchez Berriozábal (arrested in 2003 and sentenced to 52 years), Teófilo Pérez González (arrested in 2003 and sentenced to 50 years), Rómulo Arias Mireles (arrested in 2006 and sentenced to 54 years), Lorenzo Sánchez Berriozábal (arrested in 2006, awaiting sentencing since May 2016), Marco Antonio Pérez González (arrested in 2006, awaiting sentencing since May 2016) and Dominga González Martínez (arrested in 2007, awaiting sentencing since May 2016) are guilty. In just this one case an enormous number of judges and public prosecutors have paraded through, breaking the process’s dynamic. To mention a few: the statements, testimonies and procedural interviews of those considered to be the victims are contradictory, confused and surreal. At no moment are the statements of the compañeros and compañera taken into account. The evidence was not properly evaluated or handled, nor was respect or understanding of our ancestral way of justice as an indigenous people taken into account. The prosecutor and judges clung to the idea of sentencing three of our compañeros to 50, 52, and 54 years. And at the moment we are awaiting three other sentences for cases that have lasted more than ten years, ending in May of last year. It has nearly been a year and the judge in charge of sentencing apparently has a lot of work since he hasn’t had time to look at the injustice that has gone on for more than a decade.

Today, once again, as the Movement for the Freedom of the San Pedro Tlanixco Defenders of Water and Life, we insist on and demand their immediate release and acquittal, as well as the cancelling of arrest warrants for those who to this day have been unable to return to our town, to their families and community, and for them not to face legal action for any of the abovementioned crimes.

We also share that our movement walks with the National Indigenous Congress and as Mirror 18 we are in a period of intense work and organizing. The creation of our Indigenous Governing Council and the naming of a spokeswoman who will be our independent candidate for the 2018 elections, which will occur at the end of May, has meant for us a process of analyzing our way of organizing within our town, and has also strengthened the conviction that our space for struggle is in the National Indigenous Congress, the house of all peoples. We will continue to walk according to its principles, without surrendering, selling out, or backing down.

Finally, we want to thank those who from different geographies and in different ways have shown their solidarity with the Movement for the Freedom of the San Pedro Tlanixco Defenders of Water and Life by joining the Days of Action for the Freedom of the San Pedro Tlanixco Defenders of Water and Life that occurred August 24 through September 30, 2016, and to communicate to them that we are now gathering forces, resistance and rebellion, to collectively organize ourselves as we know that we must face what comes when they sentence our compañeros and compañera. We are aware that the dignified resistance and struggle should not fall into the hands of people, non-governmental organizations and institutions that profit from the pain of the prisoners’ families, compañeras, and compañeros. That is their way to keep existing and feeding the Hydra. On this path we have seen those who appear with supposedly good intentions, talking about defending those who defend life and the right to it, and then later it turns out that those are just means to continue exploiting us, to obtain awards and photos that appear in newspapers, and we think that it is all a smokescreen, something to keep doing the work of those from above, and for us, justice will never come from above, that is why we continue and will continue building from below, walking with you, our compañer@s.

Freedom for political prisoners!
For the integral reconstitution of our peoples
Never again a Mexico without us

Movement for the Freedom of the San Pedro Tlanixco Defenders of Water and Life
Radio Tlanixco, Spring of Freedom

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