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A lo opinión publica

A los medios de comunicación nacional, estatal e internacional

A lo medios alternativos

A la sexta

A la organizaciones independientes

A los organizaciones independientes y ONG’s

Presos políticos de la Voz del Amate adherentes a la Sexta, Alberto Patishtán Gómez recluido en el penal número 5 de San Cristóbal de Las Casas Chiapas

Las verdades corrigen pero también las verdades incomodan a otros, digo esto ya que un día 30 de mayo del año 2000 estuve denunciado las arbitrariedades, atropellos entre otras en lo que concierne la injusticia y elaboré un documento por estas violaciones a los derechos humanos que eran atropellados los habitantes del pueblo de El Bosque, estas violaciones fueron ejercidas en aquel tiempo por el C. alcalde municipal Manuel Gómez Ruíz.

Estos documentos ya mencionados obran en los archivos en las diferentes dependencias del gobierno, ya que este documento no sólo contenía las denuncias del presidente sino que también se estaba pidiendo la destitución inmediata del C. antes mencionado, doce días después de este mes que fue el 12 de junio del 2000 sucedió una emboscada en el tramo carretero del Bosque a Simojovel, donde perdieron la vida varios elementos de la seguridad pública.

Estos hechos ocurridos el C. alcalde autoritario utilizó esta desgracia en mi contra con el fin a que esto mantuviera su autoridad en el enriquecimiento ilícito y a la vez en seguir oprimiendo al pueblo, a causa de estos delitos prefabricados cumplo ya casi 13 años por estos encarcelamientos injustos, delitos que no tienen fundamento sino mas bien fue una venganza política.

De todo esto pido al Primer Colegiado de Circuito en Chiapas a que realmente cuando llegue el expediente bajo en sus manos analicen y estudien exhaustivamente para que me den mi libertad robada por estos años al mismo tiempo pido al pueblo de México y el mundo a seguir sumándose a este reclamo de verdad y justicia.

¡Morir o Vivir por la verdad y la justicia!

Fraternalmente

Alberto Patishtán Gómez

La Voz del Amate

Penal número 5 de San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas a 30 de mayo del 2013.

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A la Opinión Pública.
A los Medios de Comunicación Estatal, Nacional e Internacional.
A los Medios Alternativos.
A los Adherentes a la Sexta.
A las Organizaciones Independientes.
A los Defensores de los Derechos Humanos ONG’s.

Presos injustamente, Solidarios de La Voz del Amate, Adherentes a la
Sexta, recluidos en el penal nº 5 San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas.

Siendo las 4:30 de la tarde el día 18 de Abril llegó el Señor Gobernador
del estado Manuel Velasco Coello a este penal nº 5 a visitar al compañero
Alberto Patishtán Gómez y a nosotros los Solidarios de la Voz del Amate,
el cuál platicó con todos nosotros y dentro de nuestra plática el
Gobernador en presencia del señor procurador del estado y el Secretario de
Seguridad Pública del estado se comprometió a liberarnos en un corto
plazo, al mismo tiempo le dio indicaciones al Licenciado Raciél López
Salazar de actuar de forma inmediata para obtener nuestras libertades
robadas por las injusticias.

Y nosotros estamos en espera del cumplimiento de la palabra del Señor
Gobernador para salir de este sufrimiento injusto que ha vulnerado nuestra
dignidad con nuestras familias.
Por último invitamos a las organizaciones Independientes Nacionales e
Internacionales a que no se cansen de exigir la justicia y las libertades,
como también se le reclama la libertad de nuestro compañero Enrique Gómez
Hernández recluido en el Amate.

FRATERNALMENTE

Solidarios de La Voz del Amate.
Pedro López Jiménez
Alfredo López Jiménez
Juan Collazo Jiménez
Rosa López Díaz
Juan López González
Juan Díaz López
Alejandro Díaz Santís
Benjamín López Aguilar

Penal nº 5, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. A 22 de Abril del 2013.

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A la Opinión Pública
A los medios de comunicación estatal, nacional e internacional
A medios alternativos
A los adherentes a la sexta
A las organizaciones independicntes
A los defensores de derechos humanos ONG’S

Preso político de la voz del amate adherente a la sexta recluido en el penal No. 5, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas.
Hoy viernes 12 de abril terminó nuestro ayuno de la segunda jornada que tuvo y tendrá un fin de exigir la justicia verdadera como también el día sábado y domingo 13 y 14 del presente nuevamente estaremos protestando nuestras libertades con una marcha silencio dentro del penal.

Por lo tanto sigo exigiendo a las autoridades del 1er tribunal Colegiado del Vigésimo Circuito de Chiapas a que tomen en cuenta mi Reconocimiento de Inocencia y que resuelvan mi caso y sea otorgado mi Libertad Inmediata e Incondicional.
Así también exijo al Gobierno Estatal Manuel Velazco Coello a que otorgue la libertad de todos mis compañeros solidarios, la voz del amate que me acompañen de acción de exigir libertad conjunta, porque de igual manera son acusados falsamente que a través de las torturas y mutilaciones se autoculpara de los delitos, prefabricadas de las mismas autoridades.

Por último invito a la sociedad civil a las organizaciones independientes Estatales, Nacionales, e Internacionales a seguir exigiendo nuestras libertades ante el gobierno porque no es justo que no tienen secuestrados por parte del mal sistema.
¡vivir o morir por la verdad y la justicia!

FRATERNALMENTE
Preso Político de la Voz del Amate
Alberto Pathistan Gómez

Penal No. 5 San Cristobal de Las Casas Chiapas; a 12 de abril del año 2013.

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A la Opinión Pública

A los medios de Comunicación Local, Nacional e Internacional

A los medios Alternativos

A los Adherentes de la Otra Campaña

A la sexta Internacional

A las Organizaciones independientes

A las derechos humanos no gubernamentales

A todos ustedes en general, al estado, país y a todo el mundo entero. Hago de su conocimiento a mi petición ya que a partir del día 11 de abril del 2013 realizare un Ayuno durante 9 días, finalizando el día 19 de abril del 2013 en este penal el Amate No. 04 de Cintalapa, Chis solidarizándome con mis compañeros que a continuación expongo sus nombres:

Alberto Patishtán Gómez

Pedro López Jiménez

Juan Collazo Jiménez

Rosario Días Menéndez

Juan Díaz Santiz

Benjamín López Aguilar

Juan López González

Alfredo López Jiménez

Rosa López Díaz

Para que juntos con ellos alzar mi voz pidiendo y exigiendo libertad e igualdad para todos debido a que no hemos sido escuchados durante mucho tiempo. A pesar de que en muchas ocasiones he alzado mi voz en las cuales no he tenido respuesta alguna a mi petición con los Gobiernos anteriores por tal motivo hoy halzo nuevamente para una vez más exigir justicia y libertad.

Y un gran agradecimiento a dios nuestro señor por todos estos años de vida y salud que me ha regalado y bendecido porque mientras haya vida siempre habrá esperanza.

Dios con su gran amor siempre nos llena de bendiciones.

Y haci saber cómo sobre llevar este problema jurídico y poder conducirnos ante tantos atropellos e injusticias.

Así como los altos mandos de gobiernos, quienes se encargan de impartir justicia prometen muchas cosas que en muchas ocasiones no cumplen y hacen caso homiso de sus promesas y de las necesidades de las demás personas. Así como también los encargado de impartir justicia, aplican La Ley a su conveniencia y voluntad sin importarles a Quien o Quienes perjudiquen con sus actos inconscientes y abusivos violentando los derechos humanos y las garantías individuales de los seres humanos.

Espero que el nuevo gobernador: Sr. Manuel Velasco Coello cumola lo que ha prometido o con los compromisos de todos los ciudadanos chiapanecos.

Con justicia siempre unidos pueblo, ciudad, país y el mundo entero para que juntos lograr justicia verdadera e igualdad para todos y cada uno de nosotros. Al presidente de la República y a los 3 niveles de gobierno. Exijo de tomar cartas en el asunto y sociedad, pueblo logremos justicia y asi salir adelante.

Fraternalmente

Enrique Gomez Hernández

Solidario La Voz del Amate

CERSS Num 014 “El Amate” Cintalapa, Chiapas

A 9 de abril del año 2013.

Sign the petition for the Freedom of Political Prisoner Alberto Patishtán

Sign here:

http://www.avaaz.org/es/petition/Preso_Politico_Alberto_Patishtan_pide_apoyo_a_sociedad_civil_1/

Why it matters:

This month a court in Mexico will decide whether the political prisoner Alberto Patishtán is freed or will spend another 48 years in prison.

Patishtán is an indigenous Tzotzil teacher, who was very politically active in his community when he was arrested on June 19, 2000, and unjustly sentenced to 60 years in prison. In prison he has continued to fight for justice, organizing prisoners to demand humane conditions in prisons in Mexico. The Mexican government tried to stop his struggle by sending him to a maximum security prison where he suffered various forms of torture. Thanks to the intervention of civil society, after a year he returned to a prison near his family. He was awarded the jCanan Lum Prize in recognition of his struggle for “social transformation in a peaceful manner”. The people of his community to this day continue to demand Patishtán’s freedom.

Patishtán suffers from a brain tumour as a result of which he is losing his sight. He had an operation six months ago, but there are not adequate conditions for his recovery within the prison.

Patishtán has not given up and keeps fighting. His case reached the Supreme Court in Mexico where one of the judges said publicly that Alberto Patishtán is innocent and should be released immediately. Unfortunately the Supreme Court sent the case to another court which will decide this month whether he can be released. Overall the judicial system in Mexico is discriminatory, Patisthán is indigenous and therefore public support is important.

Alberto is currently fasting in prison; he calls on civil society to speak out for his freedom, so that justice can finally be achieved.

Sign this petition and share it with everyone!

Wording of petition:

Your Honours, you have in your hands the opportunity to give justice to Professor Alberto Patishtán, a man whose fundamental rights to due process and the presumption of innocence have been violated, and who was arrested because of his social struggle. We ask you to grant him his freedom through the recognition of his innocence.

The case of Alberto Patishtán Gómez and the Culpability of the Mexican State: “We are governed by Injustice”

Alberto Patishtán Gómez is a basic education teacher from the indigenous Tzotzil community of El Bosque, in the highland region of the state of Chiapas in South-east Mexico. Known as ‘the Professor’, he has now served nearly thirteen years of a sixty year sentence for, as his supporters say “struggling for social justice among the poor and indigenous”. This article seeks to question the reasons for his conviction for a crime he quite clearly did not commit, and the reasons for the extraordinary reluctance of the Mexican state and legal system to release him despite overwhelming juridical reasons to do so.  

Alberto was detained following an ambush, on 12^th June 2000, in which seven police officers were killed, a crime no one, from the state governor to the bishop, believes he committed. He has always had the full support of his community, who know very well he was elsewhere when the attack took place, as many witnesses testify. The true perpetrators of the crime remain unpunished.

As so often with cases of political prisoners, neither Alberto’s obvious innocence, nor the many violations of his human and legal rights, will be enough to secure his liberation, only with pressure from national and international solidarity will he be able to return to his family and community.

His time in prison

The Professor has suffered innumerable violations of his human rights and his rights to judicial guarantees and due process during his time in various prisons. He was arrested without a warrant, denied access to a lawyer or translator, and tortured physically and psychologically, all common practices in the treatment of poor indigenous prisoners. It is this remarkable man’s profound concern for the denial of basic rights to these prisoners that has led to his becoming an organizer for justice and human rights and for better conditions and treatment within the prisons, inspiring the setting up of groups of prisoners who participate in prayers and fasts, implement semi-permanent sit-ins, hold large annual events for their anniversaries and write powerful letters, all of this as adherents to the Zapatistas’ Sixth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle. Alberto has organized, acted as spokesperson for, and participated in several hunger strikes, leading to the release of hundreds of indigenous prisoners. As a result he is greatly respected and has become the best-known, and the most iconic, political prisoner in Mexico.

Despite his almost universally acknowledged innocence and there being no credible evidence against him, despite having nearly lost his sight due to an unidentified brain tumour after years of being denied proper medical treatment while in prison, and despite having thousands of national and international supporters calling for his release, it seemed Patishtán had now exhausted all avenues of legal appeal when the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation refused to consider a motion for the Presumption of Innocence in his favour, in March 2013. But the appeal has been delegated to a local court, and those working for his release have launched another campaign. This may be the last chance.

Innocence does not Count

Just one week after it refused to hear the motion for the recognition of Patishtán’s innocence, which asked for his release on account of a profusion of violations of due process, the first hall of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Mexican Nation decreed the immediate liberation of Marcos Arias Pérez, accused and convicted of participating in the Acteal Massacre, in which 47 Catholic pacifists praying for peace were brutally slain on December 22, 1997. The reason given for his release was due process violations. “Impunity spreads like a bad weed in our country”, declared the Civil Society Las Abejas, victims of the massacre. “What we are seeing now in Mexico confirms what we have always said: the bodies for the procurement and administration of justice in Mexico are serving not justice, but the interests of the powerful.”

“Justice is upside down, since those who have committed a crime, like those sentenced for the Acteal case, are released, and the government keeps those who, like myself, are innocent, imprisoned”, said the Professor. “It seems that you have to kill to get out of prison”.

The reaction to both of the Court’s decisions was one of outrage. Arias Pérez is only the most recent of a large number of the paramilitary perpetrators of the Acteal Massacre to have been released. Their guilt is not in doubt; the reason for their release is failings in the legal process. On the other hand, Patishtán remains incarcerated, even though, as his lawyer Leonel Rivero Rodríguez points out about his case, “there is no controversy, no sector is opposed to his release or doubts his innocence”.

Who really committed the crime?

We are now in a time when killings and mutilations fill the news in Mexico. It was not so in 2000, and the events of the morning of June 12, in Las Lagunas de Las Limas, Simojovel, shocked the nation and grabbed the headlines. It appeared that a truck carrying eight police officers and a driver had been ambushed at a sharp bend on the road from Simojovel to El Bosque. It was said that a commando force of between ten and fifteen individuals, carrying high velocity firearms, had constructed trenches and barricades along the roadway in order to carry out the ambush. A great many shots were fired – 85 bullets from AK-47 and R-15 rifles were counted – and seven police were killed. One officer, and the driver, survived, both seriously wounded. It was in the period of the run-up to the elections, and tensions were already high.

The day following the ambush, the Clandestine Indigenous Revolutionary Committee, General Command of the EZLN declared in a communiqué: “According to information, the attack was carried out using the tactics of drug traffickers, paramilitaries or the military….The attack took place in an area saturated with government troops (Army and police), where it would have been very difficult to mobilize an armed group without being detected and without the complicity of the authorities. The attacking group had inside information about movements and the number of people ambushed. This information could only be obtained by people from the government or close to it……Everything points to those who carried out the attack being from the government (or under governmental auspices), since this would give them a pretext for increasing the militarization of Chiapas, and for justifying an attack on Zapatista communities or the EZLN. It is noteworthy that this act reinforces the climate of instability, with which the official candidate threatens [the state] if he doesn’t win”.

Nevertheless, on June 19^th, in the El Bosque municipal headquarters, the Army and the PFP detained the teacher Alberto Patishtán Gómez, without showing an arrest warrant. He was held for one month without charge. No one explained how one man, without experience of firearms, was supposed to have conducted this attack on his own. On July 10^th, two Zapatista support bases were also arrested, but they were subsequently released; Alberto alone was to be punished for the ambush. In March 2002, he was finally given the maximum sentence, one of sixty years in prison.

Situation in El Bosque

When Patishtán was arrested, “nobody believed it”, say his friends in El Bosque. People went into the streets, and occupied the City Hall. They knew that he was teaching at the time of the ambush, many witnesses had seen him, so they knew he could not have done it. There was great concern in El Bosque at this time about the corruption and the abuses being committed by the mayor and the local authorities. As a well-educated and respected member of the community, and an actively practicing Catholic, the Professor had helped to document these abuses and to write a letter denouncing them.

By a remarkable coincidence, the main witness to identify Alberto as having been involved in the ambush was Rosemberg Gómez Pérez,the son of that same mayor, who happened to have been the driver in the convoy, and who said he recognized Patishtán’s voice. Rosemberg is said to have later admitted, when drunk, to have fabricated the charge in return for a pickup truck from his father, Manuel Gómez Ruiz. The mayor, according to Patishtán’s fellow-teacher Martín Ramírez López, quoted in Mexican newspaper La Jornada, “was at the point of falling, the protection of the Deputy was no longer enough; nor was that of the Albores Guillén government…. So the massacre saved him, and even more so did the apprehension of his principal critic and denouncer….The danger was Patishtán, not the opposition movement; once he was a prisoner, the protest collapsed.”

Why does Patishtán remain a prisoner despite his obvious innocence?

“Since at least 2007, a question has been making the rounds among lawyers, bishops, human rights activists and observers of the legal process of Alberto Patishtán Gómez: if the evidence is so overwhelming that he was not involved in the ambush, then why is he still in prison, sentenced to 60 years? If more blatant cases resulted in the freedom of criminals who were caught in the act or who even confessed, when confronted by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), what walls prevent the Professor from going free? Who benefits from his imprisonment? Who would be affected by his acquittal?”

This is the question asked by an article in La Jornada on March 24^th, 2013, which highlights “the ‘special interest’ of the current Secretary of Government in Chiapas, Noé Castañón León, in the case”.  “Noé Castañón León….presided over the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of  the State (STJE) during the capture, processing and final imprisonment of Patishtán….. Having been at the head of the Chiapas tribunals both before and after the acts, Patishtán’s lawyers question whether any conflict of interest is implied by his current position of being responsible for the internal policies of the state, especially as the review of the case will soon be decided by a collegiate tribunal in Tuxtla Gutiérrez.”

“What is prohibiting Patishtán’s release?” writes the Chiapas Support Committee from California in its recent newsletter, “speculation is mounting that influential politicians in Chiapas may be to blame”.

Amnesty International calls for a “fair and exemplary decision”

On 20^th March 2013, Amnesty International wrote to the magistrates of the First Appellate Court of the Twentieth Circuit in Tutla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, who are due to

soon make the final decision on Patishtán’s case, calling for “justice without discrimination”.

“After thoroughly reviewing the case of Patishtán, Amnesty International has concluded that there were serious flaws in the process, including irregularities and inconsistencies in the testimony of the witness who identified Alberto Patishtán as responsible for the crimes. This testimony was taken into account, while evidence indicating that Patishtán was elsewhere during the ambush was discarded.

“The organization also believes that Alberto Patishtán did not have access to an adequate defence…. Amnesty International has documented several times how the justice system in Mexico fails to ensure fairness and equality of process, especially when the accused is an indigenous person with scanty economic and social resources.”

Take action

The Court has been asked to make a decision before the end of April.  In March, Alberto’s supporters launched a new campaign “Fighting for Patishtán’s Freedom, let’s celebrate his birthday, 19^th April – 4,686 days in prison”. They called for 4,686 letters to be written in his support, to the local court in Chiapas, to the Mexican President, and to Embassies and Consulates throughout the world. They also called for actions on Facebook and Twitter.  Protests are taking place in his support in many countries in the lead up to his birthday, 19th April.

17^th April is International Political Prisoners Day, when we remember and call for the release of political prisoners everywhere. Along with Bradley Manning, Mumia Abu-Jamal and numerous others, Alberto Patishtán Gómez has been unjustly imprisoned for his belief in true justice and in a fairer world for all. As he said in a telephone interview from prison last week, “We must all join the calls for truth and justice because justice is essential to build a new Mexico where there is room for everyone”.

For further information: http://www.albertopatishtan.blogspot.mx/

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Estos próximos 15 días se estarán realizando diversas actividades tanto en Chiapas como en otras partes del país y del mundo, como parte de la campaña nacional e internacional por la libertad de Alberto Patishtán y de todos los presos políticos

– el miércoles 10 de abril el movimiento de El Bosque por la Libertad de Alberto Patishtán organizará un Marcha en la cabecera municipal de El Bosque. La cita es a las 10 am (hora de Dios o de resistencia) en el domo municipal.

– el jueves 11 abril se llevará a cabo una marcha/peregrinación a la ciudad de Tuxtla, para entregar firmas en apoyo a la libertad de Patishtán, tanto a la  secretaría de gobierno como al Primer Tribunal Colegiado del Vigésimo Circuito. Posteriormente se llevará a cabo una conferencia de prensa a las 10am en el Palacio de Justicia.

Las firmas que se están recaudando, se juntarán el 9 de abril, Puedes enviarlas a la dirección de correo presoschiapas@gmail.com o si gustas de manera física al Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, calle Brasil No. 14 Barrio de Mexicanos, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México, C.P. 29240.

– El domingo 14 de abril el centro educativo casa Gandhi organiza una Kermese de 14 a 21 hrs a favor de la libertad de Alberto patishtán. Se contará con música, comida, proyección de videos, entre otras cosas. La cita es en Casa Gandhi en el barrio de los alcanfores a un lado de la casacrita

– el lunes 15 abr se llevará a cabo un evento político cultural de lucha por la libertad de los presos políticos en la plaza de la resistencia en San Cristóbal. La cita es en la cruz de la catedral a partir de las 16:00hrs

– para el miércoles 17 de abril, como parte de la  movilización por el día internacional de los presos políticos, se proyectarán videos sobre la prisión política en méxico y el mundo en el restaurant-Bar Qué Barbaras en la calle Adelina flores #5 en el centro de San Cristóbal

– el viernes 19 abril  El Pueblo Creyente del Equipo Tsotsil de la Diócesis de San Cristóbal, con el Movimiento del Pueblo de El Bosque, convoca a una Peregrinación que se realizará en Tuxtla Gutiérrez, para exigir la libertad de Alberto Patishtán. El punto de encuentro es a las 9 de la mañana en la diana cazadora