Chiapas Support Committee Calls for signatures on petition to free Alberto Patishan and Francisco Santiz Lopez
Dear Friends of Chiapas, the Zapatistas and All Indigenous Peoples:
As you know from reading our monthly summaries, there is a 2nd week of worldwide struggle (June 8 to 15) by Other Campaign and International Campaign adherents to FREE 2 political prisoners, Alberto Patishan and Francisco Santiz Lopez. Patishtan is an Other Campaign adherent and Santiz Lopez is a civilian Zapatista support base. Both are unjustly imprisoned. The Chiapas Support Committee is circulating the letter below in both Spanish and English and asking for signatures from you, our friends and supporters.
The Worldwide Struggle to Free the Prisoners is called for by the Movement for Justice in the Barrio of New York in collaboration with the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center in Chiapas.
In order to add your solidarity and signature, just send an email before June 15 to cezmat asking to have your name added to our letter. ¡Muchas Gracias/Thank you!
En español (The letter in English follows after the Spanish)
15 de Junio del año 2012
Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa
Presidente de la República
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos, Casa Miguel Alemán
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850, México DF
Estimado Sr Presidente
Desde el Área de la Bahía de San Francisco, California, y otras partes de los Estados Unidos, los abajo firmantes, vemos con preocupación y rabia cómo en México, a las personas que se organizan para luchar y defender sus derechos son castigadas con la cárcel.
En la cárcel se les quiere condenar al olvido, al silencio, a la sumisión. Y desde ahí su voz y su ejemplo nos llegan fuerte y claramente. Es la voz de nuestros hermanos Alberto Patishtán y Francisco Sántiz López.
Sabemos de su inocencia no sólo porque son luchadores sociales comprometidos, sino también porque ha sido documentada por centros y defensores de derechos humanos.
Alberto Patishtan ha estado encarcelado desde el año 2000. Ha hecho de la cárcel su trinchera de lucha y con dignidad no sólo ha sobrellevado su castigo, sino que ha organizado a muchos otros presos políticos para alcanzar su libertad. Por esto se le ha mandado muchas veces a distintas prisiones. Su morada actual, en Guasave Sinaloa, le fue dada precisamente como castigo por participar en la última huelga de hambre emprendida en Chiapas en el 2011. Sabemos que Alberto Patishtan se ha convertido en una figura emblemática para los movimientos sociales en Chiapas, en México y en el mundo. También sabemos que es por su digna rebeldía que el Estado mexicano le tiene particular saña.
Francisco Sántiz López ha cometido el delito de ser Base de Apoyo del EZLN. Es por esto que está en la cárcel y no por el supuesto delito que cometió en Diciembre de 2011 en Banavil, Tenejapa. Prueba de ello, es que Francisco ni siquiera estaba en el lugar del crimen, como ha sido ampliamente demostrado.
Es por esto que exigimos la libertad inmediata e incondicional de Alberto Patishtan, Francisco Sántiz y de todos los presos políticos de Chiapas y de México. La cárcel, la represión y la impunidad no pueden, no deben continuar reinando en México.
Atentamente,
___________________
IN ENGLISH
Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa
Presidente de la República
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos, Casa Miguel Alemán
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850, México DF
Dear President Calderón,
We the undersigned, from the Bay Area of California and other parts of the United States, view with deep concern and anger how people in Mexico who are organizing to struggle for and defend their rights are punished with imprisonment.
Governments lock them away trying to condemn them to oblivion, silence and submission. But their voices and example reach us loudly and clearly from the prisons – through the voices of our brothers Alberto Patishtán and Francisco Sántiz Lopez.
We know that they are not guilty because they are committed social activists whose innocence has been documented by human rights centers and defenders.
Alberto Patishtán has been imprisoned since 2000. Prison has become his base of struggle, where he has not only borne his punishment with dignity, but also organized many other political prisoners to attain their freedom. As a result, he has been sent to different prisons. He was transferred to his current location, in Guasave, Sinaloa, as punishment for his participation in the latest hunger strike, which was undertaken in Chiapas in 2011. We know that Alberto Patishtán has become a symbolic figure for social movements in Chiapas, Mexico and the world. We also know that because of his dignified rebellion the Mexican state affords him an especial brutality.
Francisco Lopez Sántiz has committed the crime of being a Base of Support of the EZLN. This is the reason that he is in prison, not for the crime he is alleged to have committed in December 2011 in Banavil, Tenejapa. This is proven by the fact that Francisco was not even at the scene of the crime, as has been amply demonstrated.
For these reasons we demand immediate and unconditional liberty for Alberto Patishtán, Francisco Sántiz and all political prisoners in Chiapas and Mexico. Prison, repression and impunity cannot and must not continue to rule in Mexico.
Sincerely,
________________________
