Inglés: Justice for Oaxaca

Facing brutality we demand justice, not impunity!

Campaign and collection of signatures to support ex-political prisoners in Oaxaca

JUSTICE FOR OAXACA

Please sign our petition before 20 November 2008

The Committee of Liberation 25th November came into being as an independent attempt to develop juridical resources to support detainees and individuals charged from 25th of November 2006, to demand the right of habeus corpus and the release of persons detained in confrontations which took place between the Federal Police (PFP) and the Popular Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO).

The purpose of our committee is to promote and defend human rights through legal means in addition to training and giving information to those affected in order to encourage their participation in the campaign. In this way they will be supported in their efforts to file legal complaints and to struggle against the impunity of the Mexican state authorities.

Campaign to support the collective penal complaint of ex-detainees

Coillectively and with the support of our committee, a group of 30 liberated detainees will initiate new juridical actions which consist in undertaking various legal actions whose objectives are to prevent more impunity in the state of Oaxaca and to demonstrate the grave situation of human rights in Oaxaca.

This campaign wishes to give a wide-ranging endorsement to and solidarity with the complainants and the committee, to discourage future acts of agression or intimidation as well as to gain more support for our demands for justice using legal channels. A formal complaint will be lodged against those responsible for public security in the government of Oaxaca as well as at the federal level. This complaint will cover crimes of torture, cruel and inhuman treatment of detaineees, sexual abuse, illegal detention and other abuses which may come to light. It should be mentioned that various human rights organizations- both national and international- have documented serious violations of the right of security of persons and freedome from arbitrary arrest.

We should not forget that according to CCIODH during the political conflict which began in Oaxaca in 2006 more more than 450 individuals were arbitrarily detained, 23 were assassinated, at least 5 were disappeared – all subject to violation of their human rights by government agents. Special mention must be made of those detained on the 25th of November by the Federal Police (PFP) in which 139 persons were detained and sent to the prison at Tanivet Tlacolula and Miahuatlán and a day later illegally moved to the high-security prison in José del Rincón, state of Nayarit. Neither the detainees nor their families nor their lawyers were informed of this move.

The complainants – all of whom were detained on the 25th of November 2006 – are between 23 to 55 years of age, 14 are women and 16 are men, 3 are students 8 are trade union members, and 12 have other forms of employment. 16 have a university education and 16 belong to various ethnic groups- Mixe, Mixteca, Mazateca and Triqui.

Ways You Can Help Us

The objective of our committee is to spread information in order to increase our solidarity – local, national and international – with the complainants all of whom are ex-political prisoners detained on November 25, 2006. In this way, we hope to obtain more security and to give more information about our ex-detainees and our committee.

How You Can Help Our Campaign- “Justice for Oaxaca”:

- Sign our petition as an individual or as an organization
- Send letters of support to ex-political prisoners (please contact us for information)
- Include information about our campaign in your newsletters or webpage
- Demand that the Mexican state authorities (embassies) comply with exisiting human rights law and end their impunity
- Respond to urgent action bulletins where there are cases of intimidation or aggression against complainants or members of our committee

Follow-up

Our committee will send a bi-weekly bulletin and weekly information regarding our progress on the legal front and our activities to all those persons and organizations that support our campaign. All information as well as a report covering our activities between 2006-2008 is available on our webpage http://comite25.blogspot.com

Our letter requiring your signature

Because we will present our formal legal complaint end of November of this year we wish to demonstrate the support we have received by means of the following text:

Various organizations – local, national and international – as well as individuals who have signed this petition wish to reiterate our support for the legal complaint to be filed on behalf of 30 ex-political prisoners from the exisiting conflict in Oaxaca. We wish to add our voice to yours in order to strengthen our campaign. For this reason, we demand the following:

1. A complete legal inquiry and complaint regarding the repression that took place in Oaxaca on 25th November 2006.
2. A guarantee of security, physical and psychological integrity of the complainants and their families.
3. Punishment of those reponsable for very serious violations of human rights including crimes of torture, cruel and demeaning tereatment, sexual abuse , illegal detention and other violations which may later come to light.
4. Down with impunity and repression against activists of social movements in Oaxaca.

Information We Need:
- Organisation / City / Country / e-mail address
- Name and Surname /Profession / City / Country/ e-mail addresss
- Please send the message SUSCRIBIR with your information to the following email address:
comite25noviembre@yahoo.com.mx

Thanks