Chiapas: 2 prisoners who carried out hunger strike in Chiapas are released

On 15 November, at approximately 5:00pm were released 2 of the 8 indigenous individuals who for 39 days had engaged in a hunger strike in the State Center for the Reinsertion of the Sentenced (CERSS) no. 5 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.

José Díaz López, from San Andrés Larráinzar, and Andrés Núñez Hernández, from San Juan Chamula, were freed after their cases were revised, their sentences suspended. The two members of the prisoners group “Those in Solidairty with La Voz del Amate,” adherents to the Other Campaign, had been accused of homicide and were held in prison for more than 9 years. Díaz López, 36 years of age, and Núñez Hernández, 39 years of age, participated together with eight other prisoners in a hunger strike that began on 29 September and ended on 6 November.

With the liberty of these 2 prisoners now there have been freed 4 prisoners from this movement after 2 prisoners from the community of Mitzitón were released in October. Regardless, there still remain 8 other hunger strikers in prison, among them Alberto Patishtán Gómez, who was transferred to a federal prison in Sinaloa.

For more information (in Spanish):

Liberan a 2 indígenas tzotziles que realizaron huelga de hambre (La Jornada, 16 November 2011)

Liberan a dos indígenas del CERSS número 5 (Cuarto Poder, 16 November 2011)

Liberan a 2 de 8 reos en huelga de hambre en penal de Chiapas (La Jornada, 16 November 2011)

Salen libres Joé Díaz López y Andrés Núñez Hernández, presos de Chiapas, (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, 16 November 2011)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: End of hunger strike (14 November 2011)

Chiapas: Two more prisoners join the hunger strike; concentration of family-members at sit-in (4 November 2011)

Chiapas: National and international support for Patishtán and the prisoners fasting and on hunger strike (26 October 2011)

Chiapas: New denunciation by Las Abejas (28 October 2011)

Chiapas: 20 days into hunger strike and 11 days into sit-in of relatives, 2 prisoners are released (27 October 2011)

Chiapas: 15 days of hunger strike and days of sit-in (17 October 2011)