From the San Cristóbal de las Casas prison, professor Alberto Patishtán has called for global action on 21 August “to demonstrate against unjust incarceration of political prisoners, but also the common prisoners who [are incarcerated] for being indigenous and poor. Justice in Mexico is bloodied by us.”
Alberto Patishtán, member of the Voz del Amate, an organization of prisoners who adhere to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle, has spent 13 years imprisoned on the charge of having participated in a massacre of police in 2000. Teachers from the first Collegiate Tribunal of the Twentieth Circuit in Tuxtla Gutiérrez are expected soon to review his case. The action for 21 August will call for his release, as for that of Alejandro Díaz Santíz, Antonio Estrada Estrada, and Miguel Demeza Jiménez, prisoners who similarly adhere to the Sixth Declaration.
The call to global action for 21 August has been supported by the Abejas of Acteal, the Movement of the People of El Bosque (the municipality of Patishtan’s origin), and collectives associated with the Sixth Declaration, all of which agree that he is being held “for having organized his people in El Bosque against the corruption of the mayor; for this reason and due to the vengeance of the authorities, they invent a federal crime and sentence him unjustly to 60 years’ imprisonment.”
The invitation calls for the realization of “peaceful actions everywhere, with the slogan ‘In Chiapas we are missing four.'” On this day, there will also be held a pilgrimage in Tuxtla Gutiérrez to the Palace for Federal Justice, in which will participate the Believing People of the Tsotsil zone (a process which pertains to the diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas).
For more information (in Spanish):
Patishtán convoca acción mundial para demandar justicia a presos políticos (La Jornada, 7 de agosto de 2013)
Convocatoria del profesor Patishtán (Alberto Patishtán, 4 de agosto de 2013)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: 9 prisoners in solidarity with the Voz del Amate released, but Patishtán will remain imprisoned (20 July 2013)
Chiapas: March in Cerss no. 5 of San Cristóbal de Las Casas for prisoner Rosario Méndez (5 March 2013)
Chiapas: New sentence of 25 years for Rosario Díaz Méndez (5 February 2013)
Chiapas: Pilgrimage by the Believing People for the release of professor Alberto Patishtan (23 April 2013)
Chiapas: Petition from the CDHFBC to release Alberto Patishtán (15 April 2013)
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