[narconews] Bricker: Facing Escalating Protests, Chiapas Frees 30 Political Prisoners
 
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 18:13:29 -0500 (CDT)


April 2, 2008
Please Distribute Widely

Dear Colleagues,

This week, in an unexpected turn of events, the government of Chiapas
freed thirty political prisoners. The release comes in the face of
continuing protests in the Chiapas capital Tuxtla Gutierrez, as well
as from inside the prison walls in the form of a hunger strike. Narco
News Kristin Bricker reports on the details that led to the release
of the prisoners and what actions are being made to ensure the same
for the remaining prisoners.

Bricker reports:

The prisoners were incarcerated under a wide array of circumstances.
Paramilitary organizations accused some Zapatista support bases of
crimes the paramilitaries themselves committed. Antonio Garcia
Flores, for example, is a member of the EZLN and participated in the
Zapatistas 1994 uprising. He was arrested then in Ocosingo after
members of the paramilitary organization Chinchulines turned him in,
then later released under an amnesty law that freed all Zapatista
prisoners In 1999, Oppdic members accused him of robbery with
violence, and in March 2006 the government imprisoned him under
those charges. After serving two years in prison for a crime he did
not commit, he was released last night.

Most of the ex-prisoners report that they had inadequate legal
defense and did not understand court proceedings because the
government did not provide a translator into their native languages
of Tsotsil and Tzetal. In this sense, the common thread that links
all of the political prisoners is that they are poor indians.

According to Jose Perez Hernandez, father of Julio Cesar Perez
Ruiz, the movement within the prison began when prisoners from
various organizations began to talk to each other about how they were
unjustly imprisoned. In this way they became aware of the epidemic of
unjust imprisonment and their common willingness to do whatever it
takes to win their freedom, so they decided to organize.

Listen to journalist Kristin Bricker tonight on 89.3 FM WPFW Pacifica
Radio in Washington, DC, or via the station's Internet live stream at
9 p.m. ET, where she'll report the latest developments with the
remaining political prisoners still on hunger strike in Chiapas:

http://www.wpfw.org/

Read the rest of the story online at Narco News:

http://www.narconews.com

Also new at Narco News is our translation of La Jornadas Gloria
Munoz writing about the organization of minorities in east-side of
Harlem (a.k.a El Barrio) to fight the maneuvers of a large foreign-
owned corporation to expel the area of low-income residents.

 From somewhere in a country called Amirica,

David B. Briones
Webmaster
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com
webmaster@narconews.com

Narco News is supported by:

The Fund for Authentic Journalism P.O. Box 241 Natick, MA 01760
http://www.authenticjournalism.org

The Fund receives online donations at this web page:

http://www.authenticjournalism.org

Apply for your co-publisher's account, here:

http://www.narconews.com/copublisher/application.php

Subscribe for free alerts of new reports:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narconews

Suscribete gratis para alertas de nuevos reportajes en espanol:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narconewsandes

Inscreva-se para alertas gratuitos de reportagens do ultimo minuto em
portugues brasileiro:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narconewsbrasil