Mexico: the brothers Antonio and Hector Cerezo are freed

Click on the photo to see more photos of the liberation

On August 13, 2001, Pablo Alvarado, Antonio, Héctor, and Alejandro Cerezo Contreras, and Sergio Galicia were detained and accused of belonging to the Armed Revolutionary Forces of the People (FARP) and being responsible for the explosion of homemade bombs in three banks in the Federal District in the that year. They were convicted of being involved in organized crime.

According to various human rights organizations, the detentions presented many irregularities: their arrest and illegal detention, torture, holding them incommunicado, incarceration in the maximum security prison “La Palma”, as well as being accused of being terrorists.

Out of their detention was born the Cerezo Committee, which is an organization dedicated to the defense of the human rights of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. Its work has included documentation, denunciation, diffusion, and accompaniment in a number of cases.

On February 16 at noon, the last two prisoners, the brothers Antonio and Héctor Cerezo Contreras were freed, ending their sentence of seven and a half years. They managed to reduce the original sentence of 75 years for all the detained. Two years ago, Alejandro Cerezo Contreras was freed and exonerated of all crimes.

The Cerezo Committee, in spite of having been the object of hostility, surveillance, and death threats since the first two years of its existence, stated that it would continue to work for the defense of human rights of other political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. “Our love has grown to involve not only Antonio and Héctor, but all people who are suffering”, said one of the members of the Committee minutes before the liberation of the brothers.

Interview with Francisco Cerezo (In Spanish)

For More Information:

Ordeal Ends for Sons of Alleged Guerrillas, Global Issues (2/17/09)

Information about the case and the Cerezo Committee (Peace Brigades International, PBI)

More Information in Spanish:

La pagina web del Comité Cerezo, con varias entrevistas, artículos e imágenes

Antonio y Héctor Cerezo, libres tras más de siete años de cárcel, La Jornada (17/02/2009)