Mexico City - August, 2017

PRONOUNCEMENT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE POLITICAL PRISONERS OF CNTE-MEXICO

TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

TO SOCIAL, CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS

TO INTELLECTUALS AND PERSONALITIES COMMITTED TO THE DEFENSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS.

TO THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD

On May 17, 2013, teachers and social activists were arrested arbitrarily by federal agents in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico. They were: Sara Altamirano Ramos, Leonel Manzano Sosa, Lauro Atilano Grijalva Villalobos, Damián Gallardo Martínez and Mario Olivera Osorio. At the time of their arrest, they were beaten and threatened with death; They were disappeared for more than 24 hours; During which time they were tortured and forced to sign self-incriminating statements to be later imprisoned in high-security prisons as if they were the worst offenders. Our comrades are no delinquents: they are teachers and members of social organizations who have fought in defense of education and in favor of different social causes. They were arrested as part of a campaign of smear of the federal government towards Section XXII and the National Coordinator of Education Workers since the government of Enrique Peña Nieto needed to justify the approval of the so-called educational reform that had been approved on 25 February of 2013 and for this they used to our companions like a form of lynching towards the democratic teaching. More than four years have passed since these cases in which the lawyers of our comrades have demonstrated conclusively that the accusations that are imputed to them are false. To the degree, not even the accusers themselves have come forward to testify throughout the trial. Also, experts in medicine and psychology demonstrated, through the Istanbul Protocol, that they were tortured; Which was accredited by the Fifth Unit Court of the Third Circuit, on March 13, 2015, within the Amparo Judgment 48/2014; Which ordered self-incrimination to be excluded as evidence of the case. It was from these legal actions and denunciation that we succeeded that the comrade Mario Olivera Osorio was released on April 21, which should mean the freedom of all. However, this has not happened. This month of September 2017 the comrades are forty months of being imprisoned unfairly. Forty months in which their lives have been truncated and those of their families. That is why the social organizations, intellectuals and people who sign this pronouncement we manifest for their immediate freedom and cannot continue prisoners indefinitely. We consider that various evidentiary means have already been offered and released, which make possible an acquittal in their favor; So we call on the judicial authorities to dictate their freedom ¡Ya!

Finally, as Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners of the CNTE, we pronounce ourselves for the freedom of the political prisoners of the Heras, Argentina and for the presentation with life of comrade Santiago Maldonado, who was kidnapped by the Argentine gendarmerie.

Free the Political Prisoners!
For the disappeared to appear!
In Mexico and in Argentina the State is responsible!

SINCERELY,
COMMITTEE ON THE FREEDOM OF THE POLITICAL PRISONERS OF THE CNTE