Chiapas Political Prisoner Dámaso Villanueva Released

The following email arrived the night of March 2 from a friend of the Other Campaign in San Cristóbal, Chiapas. Dámaso Villanueva, political prisoner for a week due to his support for the Zapatista Other Campaign, has been released due to lack of evidence against him… Today they released Dámaso!

At 2:15 pm he walked out of prison because of the lack of evidence against him.

At 6 pm he was in the central cathedral plaza, free, hugging and kissing everyone, like he was seeing them for the first time.

Later he took the microphone to thank everyone. “It is thanks to everyone’s mobilization that I am free!”

“They want to shut me up, but they can’t make us be quiet; for that they’ll have to kill us… and if they kill me I’ll leave my two children – no, three! – [everyone was laughing at this point]… and my brave wife in charge!”

Later he talked of prison, of “my friends” there, he said, “because in jail there are only poor people, maybe they just stole a chicken or something… On the other hand the rich pay and walk out.”

He thanked all those that had visited him in prison, like the woman from his neighborhood that brought him nothing more than a little bag of popcorn but made him cry with joy…

“They put me in jail to shut me up, but now I have a deep rage, because they don’t worry about the water, about the damage that the antennas can cause, about our children’s’ health…”

“They have accused me of destroying an antenna all by myself, as if I were Superman… and they want 2,300,000 pesos ($220,000 dollars) from me, more money than I have ever seen in my life. But even if I had it I wouldn’t pay them, because I am only guilty of not keeping my mouth shut…

“So I will continue and tomorrow I will open the Zapatista information booth I am responsible for, like I do every day, next to the Cathedral. Thank you for all of your efforts, and thank you for the energy you have all sent me. I was not afraid, I was not beaten, and tomorrow I will continue…

“A special thanks to my friends from the neighborhood, for their call to continue our struggle. They arrested me during the same afternoon when we were going to have a meeting about the neighborhood’s water supply. They want to charge us 70 pesos a month to have water one day, and not the next, and the next day for a few hours and the next day not at all. No! It’s not going to happen!

“We’ll keep paying the 360 pesos per year but no more, because that would just be stealing from us!

“I am living proof that by struggling together, united, we can win, and so we can change this planet. We have the strength: the rich are few, and we are many. Look around: the rich are like a puddle, and we are the ocean.

“They command, but it’s the other way around. Those in there [pointing to City Hall] have to obey us…

“Thank you all, thank you to the media that talked about me as a political prisoner and not as a criminal.

“Now I have a commitment to you, to keep resisting and working for the people here.

“Someone just said to me, ‘Now that you’re out, take it easy, OK? You don’t want to be arrested again, do you?’ But that’s not the way it is, and tomorrow you will see me next to the cathedral in the Zapatista information booth promoting the Other Campaign, and in the evening I will be at the water meeting…”

This is Dámaso, one of the compañeros of the Other Campaign: