Zapatista Prisoners Transferred from Tabasco to Chiapas Amid Rumors That They Might be Freed
Yesterday afternoon, without prior notice, the government transferred Zapatista political prisoners Angel Concepción Pérez Gutiérrez and Francisco Pérez Vázquez from the Tacotalpa, Tabasco, prison where they've been incarcerated for almost twelve years to a hospital in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas.
The Other Campaign in Veracruz immediately condemned the transfer as a disappearance because the government did not announce where or why it was transferring the two hunger striking prisoners.
However, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center ("Frayba") reports that it is with the prisoners in the Tuxtla hospital where they're being evaluated by medical professionals. The prisoners told Frayba representatives that they were not mistreated during the transfer. Frayba has not commented on the diabetic prisoners' health condition. Today is their fifth day of hunger strike.
Frayba reports that Chiapas Gov. Juan Sabines say he requested the prisoners' transfer so that he can grant them their freedom. Pérez Gutiérrez and Pérez Vázquez are Chiapan Zapatistas of Ch'ol ethnicity. They participated in the February-April hunger strike waged by Chiapan political prisoners, but were not among the thirty political prisoners released by the Chiapas government because their cases did not fall under Chiapan jurisdiction.
The plantón outside the Tabasco prison where the prisoners were being held has been lifted as family members and supporters moved to Tuxtla pending more information on the prisoners' situation.
Frayba and the Other Campaign in San Cristobal request that adherents and sympathizers keepup their protests until Pérez Gutiérrez and Pérez Vázquez are free. The Other Campaign in San Cristobal notes that the government is notorious for not following through on its promises.
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Junta's Declaration on the Kidnapping of Zapatista Prisoners
Submitted on April 25th, 2008 by Kristin BrickerGOOD GOVERNMENT COUNCIL NEW SEED THAT'S GOING TO PRODUCE
CARACOL V THAT SPEAKS FOR EVERYBODY
CHA'AN LAK PEJTELEL
TE PUY YA XC'UPOJ HABLA PARA TODOS
PUY MU'UBATI T' ' YU'UN TA JPISILTIC
TO THE ADHERENTS TO THE OTHER CAMPAIGN AND THE ZEZTA INTERNACIONAL
TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SOCIETY
TO THE DIGNIFIED PEOPLES OF MEXICO AND THE WORLD
Compañeras and compañeros,
Sisters and brothers,
We urgently contact you to bring to your attention that yesterday, April 24, at 4:30pm, our compañeros Bases of Support of the EZLN Ángel Concepción Pérez Gutiérrez and Francisco Pérez Vázquez were taken out of the prison where they were held in Tacotalpa without giving any explanation to their families, and they were taken to the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, and there they kept them in a hospital in the city. Now, Friday, at 3pm, we know that they transferred them to the Yajalón prison, Cereso number 12.
We, as autonomous authorities of the Good Government, say very clearly, the Bad Government kidnapped them and keeps them kidnapped and with this has provoked great pain and suffering in their hearts and bodies which suffer from illnesses. But not only them, also their families and those who have walked together with them. And all this because of the simple fact that they belong to our dignified struggle.
As the Good Government Council we demand the IMMEDIATE and UNCONDITIONAL liberation of our compañeros Bases of Support who are innocent of all of the accusations made against them. We do not accept that they remain kidnapped in other prisons. We said it before and we'll say it again louder and with more indignation, not one more day of their unjust and painful kidnapping under the Bad Justice of the Mexican State and its Bad Governments.
We make an urgent call to national and civil society that we demand together, in whatever we you see fit, the liberation of our compañeros Bases of Support who have been kidnapped for more than eleven years and eight months.
DEMOCRACY, LIBERTY, AND JUSTICE
SINCERELY
LEAD BY OBEYING
GOOD GOVERNMENT COUNCIL NEW SEED THAT'S GOING TO PRODUCE
CARACOL V, THAT SPEAKS FOR EVERYBODY
Nothern Zone, Chiapas, Mexico, April 25, 2008