@ Tlachinollan
Yesterday, La Montaña Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, together with other organizations, published a bulletin condemning the criminalization actions against Marco Antonio Suastegui Muñoz, spokesperson for the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to La Parota Dam (CECOP) who was illegally held for 30 to 40 minutes in the Central Prosecutor’s Office in Acapulco, by members of the Ministerial Police.
According to Tlachinollan, one of the Center’s lawyers accompanied Marco Antonio to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office to learn about the progress in the investigation into the disappearance of his brother Vicente on August 5th of last year. It was at the moment of leaving the facilities that the campesino leader was arrested by around 20 police officers who took him to the offices of Commander Adalberto Arana Cruz. Although they tried to prevent the lawyer from entering, he was finally able to enter.
They informed him that the reason for his arrest was for an arrest warrant for homicide, but when reviewing it, Marco Antonio explained that it was a criminal case for which the defender was criminalized, prosecuted and later released by a trial court, proving his innocence in 2019. Despite this, the commander told him “you don’t move from here, bastard”, as long as he didn’t show that the case was solved. At that moment, two ministerial police officers approached and tried to put handcuffs on the CECOP leader, who refused, stating that he had not committed any crime. “The same thing will happen to you as your brother Vicente”, the two policemen threatened.
After 40 minutes of being deprived of liberty, he was allowed to leave amid insults from the commander and the ministerial police. Due to these facts, Suastegui filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission of the State of Guerrero (CODEHUM).
For their part, the signatory organizations stated that “we condemn the criminalization actions against the campesino leader (…) we demand an end to the criminalization and repression against human rights defenders and social leaders, an end to the persecution and repression against Marco Antonio Suastegui and his family whose only crime is to fight for water and land and demand the presentation of his brother alive.”
For more information in Spanish:
Denuncian detención y amenazas contra Marco Antonio Suástegui Muñoz, vocero del CECOP (Educa Oaxaca, 5 de agosto de 2022)
Pretenden silenciar a las víctimas: detención del líder del CECOP (Tlachinollan, 5 de agosto de 2022)
Denuncian detención de Suástegui Muñoz, vocero del CECOP (Contralínea, 4 de agosto de 2022)
Vocero del Cecop denuncia a ministeriales en la CDHEG (El Sol de Acapulco, 4 de agosto de 2022)
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