Guerrero: Marco Antonio Suastegui, opponent to the La Parota dam, is ordered to return to a Guerrero prison

Press conference, 29 January 2015 (@Tlachinollan)

In a press-conference on 29 January, the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights reported that on 26 January, the third judge of the Acapulco district concluded that the penal authorities had no justification for the reasons provided for the transfer of Antonio Suástegui Muñoz, spokesperson of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to La Parota Dam (CECOP), to a maximum-security prison in Tepic, Nayarit.  As such, the judge in question ordered Muñoz’s return to the Unión jail in the Isidoro de Montes de Oca municipality, Guerrero State.

It should be recalled that, on 17 June 2014, the CECOP spokesperson was arrested by ministerial police and transferred to Tepic, Nayarit, on the orders of the Guerrero State Secretary for Public Security.

Tlachinollan had solicited a motion in the case “considering that there is a systematic pattern in the employment of maximum-security prisons to punish and silence social activists and communal defenders who protect the exercise of their rights.”  The Center denounced that “the decision of the State Government implied an act that sought to repress and punish Marco Antonio Suástegui Muñoz due to his opposition to the construction of the La Parota hydroelectric dam and for defending his land.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Boletín informativo del Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan (Tlachinollan, 29 de enero de 2015)

Ordena una juez trasladar a Marco Antonio Suástegui al penal de La Unión (29 de enero de 2015, La Jornada de Guerrero)

Exigen inmediato regreso de opositor de La Parota (El Universal, 29 de enero de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: The Navy has tried to arrest him, denounces brother of CECOP spokesperson (30 December 2014)

Guerrero: Attack on CECOP members leaves 5 dead (6 December 2014)

Guerrero: Arrest of María de la Cruz Dorantes, CECOP member (25 October 2014)

Guerrero: demand for release of political prisoners in observance of the eleventh anniversary of CECOP (2 September 2014)

Guerrero: soldiers and policemen burst into the La Concepción Commmunity after a Cecop assembly in which the case of Marco Antonio Muñoz Suástegui was reported on (29 August 2014)

Guerrero: Arrest of a leader of the opposition to the La Parota Dam (23 June 2014)