Patishtán Gómez’ to Return to Chiapas Prison
** A federal tribunal confirms the protective order for the indigenous professor
** In October they took him to the Sinaloa prison; he has been in prison for 12 years
By: Hermann Bellinghausen
A federal tribunal confirmed the protective order (amparo) [1] in favor of the Tzotzil Alberto Patishtán Gómez, a prisoner of conscience, to be returned to a prison in Chiapas, from which he was transferred in October to Guasave, Sinaloa, with no other motive than to punish him for his defense of human rights from prison for 12 years. The sentence was released one month ago, on June 14, and the first collegiate tribunal of the twentieth circuit in Tuxtla Gutiérrez just announced it today.
The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) revealed that the decision, emitted by the federal collegiate tribunal, with headquarters in Cancún, Quintana Roo, “resolves the amparo promoted by this center in favor of Professor Patishtán Gómez against his unjustified and forced move, which occurred October 20, 2011, to the Federal Center for Social Re-adaptation (Cefereso 8) in Guasave, Sinaloa,” when the indigenous professor was on a hunger strike “demanding his freedom together with a group of prisoners (also) unjustly (imprisoned).”
The tribunal of second appeal thus confirmed the protective order that orders Patishtán’s return to the State Center for the Social Reinsertion of those Sentenced (Cerss) Number 5 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, where he was previously. The Frayba emphasized that: “nine months of delaying the process passed with the argument ‘complying with institutionally established procedures,’” rather, “due to the appeal for review filed by the Director of Protective Orders of the Unit for Legal Issues and Human Rights of the Secretary of Federal Public Security.”
During the process, the Frayba documented violations of human rights and health rights, “the right to a simple, rapid and effective judicial appeal,” as well as “obstruction of an adequate defense;” all rights “that the Mexican State has promised to comply with upon signing and ratifying international instruments.”
The Frayba demands compliance with the protective order: “Patishtán must be moved immediately to the San Cristóbal state prison; we urge the responsible authorities to comply with the ruling without any delay.” It demands the professor’s immediate freedom, “because the accusations against him turn out to be inconsistent and unjust, since he didn’t commit any crime of which he is accused.”
Patishtán himself wrote last June 19, upon completing 12 years behind bars, that “for living together at the side of the defenseless, the illiterate, the poor, etcetera, for the purpose of protecting the defense of their rights and demanding justice, and on the other hand opposing me the injustice such as that exercised by Mayor Manuel Gómez Ruiz of the town of El Bosque, known as ‘the executioner of the poor,’ who for the purpose of protecting and maintaining his interests, abused his power fabricating my crimes based on the acts that occurred in the ambush (against police) on the Simojovel-El Bosque Highway stretch in 2000.”
From his cell in Guasave, Patishtán demanded “once again” his immediate freedom from President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and “and the immediate freedom of those in solidarity with the Voice of El Amate imprisoned in Chiapas,” likewise prisoners without reason.
[1] An amparo is similar to an injunction.
