In a bulletin published on 18 December, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) reported on the arbitrary kidnapping and lack of due process during the arrest of José Alfonso Cruz Espinosa, a support-base for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (BAEZLN). Since December 2012, the Good-Government Council “The Path of the Future” at La Garrucha (Caracol III, “Resistance for a New Dawn”), which administers the region to which Cruz Espinosa belongs, denounced the fabrication of charges against his person.
According to the CDHFBC, the BAEZLN was arrested on 10 November 2015 in Ocosingo by “police dressed in civilian clothes who did not identify themselves, specify the reason for arrest, or even show an arrest-order. They simply put him on a truck and transferred him to the command center of the specialized police in the center of the municipality.” After being incarcerated in the State Center for the Social Reinsertion of the Sentenced no. 16 El Encino (CERSS no. 16), he was transferred via helicopter the next day to the State Center for the Social Reinsertion of the Sentenced no. 14, El Amate.
The CDHFBC reported moreover that “at all times we were denied access to the detainee and our credentials as his counsel were also rejected. The State argued that he had already been transferred, which was untrue.” The CDHFBC added that “the charges placed against him are ecocide and looting due to the events that took place on 16 November 2012 […]. However, José Alfonso was not at the place of the incidents that took place that day.” The Center stressed as well that Cruz Espinoza was placed at the disposition of those judged for serious crimes, this despite the fact that none of the charges against him are serious. Bail was set for him at 136,122.96 pesos for both charges, being “an excessive amount that prevents bail from being posted,” as the CDHFBC noted. On 20 November, he was released with caution after bail was posted, such that the process in his case will continue.
For more information (in Spanish):
Boletín: Privación Arbitraria de la Libertad y violación a garantías judiciales a Base de Apoyo del EZLN. (CDHFBC, 18 de diciembre de 2015)
Denuncia el Frayba la arbitraria detención de Alfonso Cruz Espinosa (La Jornada, 19 de diciembre de 2015)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: Update regarding forced displacement of EZLN support bases belonging to the La Garrucha caracol (2 September 2014)
Chiapas: Forced displacement of EZLN support-bases belonging to La Garrucha caracol (29 August 2014)
sipazen.wordpress.com 