Marchan más de 2 mil manifestantes en la capital para exigir la libertad de presos de la Policía Comunitaria
Participan familiares de detenidos, integrantes de la CRAC, de la CETEG y del SUSPEG, padres y familiares de los 43 normalistas, estudiantes de Ayotzinapa y activistas. Reiteran su rechazo a las reformas estructurales
by Su Docekal and José Luis Avila,
co-founders of the Libertad para Nestora/Freedom for Nestora Committee
After Nestora Salgado’s hard-won release, the Freedom for Nestora Committee met in Seattle, Washington in June 2016 to wind up our campaign. We reviewed and approved a financial summary of our work, and finalized the delivery of donations to the nine remaining community police political prisoners in Guerrero, for whom we held a benefit after Nestora’s release. At the June meeting, the committee voted to change its name to the Freedom for Political Prisoners Committee—In Defense of Human and Labor Rights in Mexico. The committee also decided to suspend meetings over the summer and come together again in the fall to decide future plans. We retained $209 in our treasury for possible future projects.
Unfortunately, we neglected at the time to change the name of our committee on this website and to take down the donate button we used during the campaign. This oversight has led to serious charges of wrongdoing by Da Nie Luna, a Nestora supporter who created the Facebook page Comité de Mujeres #NestoraLibre. Last week we were contacted by a number of people alerting us to the fact that Da Nie Luna was using Facebook to launch an international campaign accusing us of “fraud” and alleging that “the money they (the committee) collect never gets to Nestora Salgado nor her family.”
The committee wants to assure the many people who supported and endorsed the campaign to free Nestora Salgado that these charges are unfounded and completely false. The committee’s website has not received any donations through PayPal since March 2016 with the exception of one person whose donation was refunded.
For those who would like to review the final committee finance report, covering our activities from November 2013-June 2016, we invite you to do so here.
It is extremely destructive to any movement when unfounded charges are circulated and we wonder about Da Nie Luna’s motives for this attack. She failed to let the committee know there was a problem before slandering us far and wide and has since gone on to malign the Freedom Socialist Party, Partido Obrero Socialista and other groups that worked to free Nestora from the very beginning of the struggle.
Despite this latest bump in the road, we remain proud of the committee’s accomplishments in initiating the international campaign to free Nestora Salgado and all political prisoners, and in our meticulous and transparent handling of all funds that were donated towards that cause. We consider it a duty to treat workers’ money with the utmost respect because we know how hard it is to come by.
por Su Docekal y José Luis Avila,
cofundadores del Comité Libertad para Nestora/Freedom for Nestora Committee
Después de la merecida liberación de Nestora Salgado, el Comité Libertad para Nestora/Freedom for Nestora Committee se reunió en Seattle, Washington en junio de 2016 para concluir su campaña. Se revisó y aprobó un resumen financiero de nuestro trabajo, y finalizamos la entrega de donaciones a los nueve presos políticos de la Policía Comunitaria quienes en junio siguieron encarcelados en Guerrero, y para quienes el Comité había llevado a cabo una colecta después de la liberación de Nestora. En la reunión de junio, el Comité votó para cambiar su nombre al Comité por la Libertad de los Presos Políticos – en Defensa a los Derechos Humanos y Laborales en México. El Comité también decidió suspender las reuniones durante el verano y volver a reunirse en el otoño para decidir sus planes para el futuro. Hemos retenido $209 en nuestra tesorería para posibles proyectos futuros.
Por desgracia, en ese momento se nos olvidó cambiar el nombre de nuestro Comité en este sitio web y eliminar el botón para donar que se utilizó durante la campaña. Este descuido ha dado lugar a graves acusaciones de irregularidades financieras por parte de Da Nie Luna, partidaria de Nestora, quien creó la página de Facebook Comité de Mujeres #NestoraLibre. La semana pasada fuimos contactados por un número de personas que nos alertó sobre el hecho de que Da Nie Luna estaba usando Facebook para lanzar una campaña internacional acusándonos de “fraude” y alegando que “el dinero que (el Comité) recauda nunca llega a Nestora Salgado ni a su familia”.
El Comité quiere asegurarles a las muchas personas que apoyaron y respaldaron la campaña para liberar a Nestora Salgado que estos cargos son infundados y completamente falsos. La página web del Comité no ha recibido ninguna donación a través de PayPal desde marzo de 2016 con la excepción de una persona cuya donación fue devuelta.
Para aquellos que deseen revisar el informe final del Comité de finanzas, el cual cubre nuestras actividades desde noviembre de 2013 hasta junio de 2016, los invitamos a hacerlo aquí.
Es extremadamente destructivo para cualquier movimiento que se circulen acusaciones infundadas. Por eso, nos preguntamos acerca de los motivos por los cuales Da Nie Luna lanzó este ataque. Ella no informó al Comité de que había un problema antes de calumniarnos lo más que pudo y desde entonces ha pasado a difamar el Freedom Socialist Party (Partido de Libertad Socialista), al Partido Obrero Socialista de México y a otros grupos que trabajaron para liberar a Nestora desde el comienzo de la lucha.
A pesar de esta última piedra en el camino, seguimos orgullosos tanto del hecho de que el Comité haya iniciado la campaña internacional por la libertad de Nestora Salgado y de todos los presos políticos, como de nuestro manejo meticuloso y transparente de todos los fondos que fueron donados para esa causa. Consideramos que es nuestro deber el tratar el dinero de los trabajadores con el mayor respeto, porque sabemos lo difícil que es para conseguirlo.
Two months since Mexican political prisoner Nestora Salgado was freed after more than two and a half years in high-security jail, three of her colleagues from the community police force she organized in the violence-ridden state of Guerrero are still in prison on trumped up charges, the Mexican daily La Jornada reported Sunday.
Gonzalo Molino Gonzalez, Arturo Campos, and Samuel Ramirez, fellow members of Salgado’s regional community police force in Guerrero, were similarly jailed on charges of “fabricated crimes” and remain behind bars as their freed leader continues to fight for political prisoners in Mexico to be released.
“Our people were suffering kidnappings, extortion, rape of young girls, and I could not sit with my arms crossed,” Gonzales said in an interview with La Jornada of his decision to take up the struggle with the community police force organizing against rampant violence and the reign of drug cartels, fueled by widespread impunity.
“They can lock me up physically, but my freedom is inside of me,” he added. “My thinking, my ideas, and my heart are free.”
“Free Nestora.”
It’s not a rallying cry now, but a description of the grandmother and community police force leader who is back in Seattle after nearly 30 months in jail in Mexico.
Since her return Nestora Salgado has had moments of celebration, but the woman known as “La Comandante” is under no illusion that her fight is over.
“I need to go back because my people need me,” she said in Spanish, at an interview at her Renton home. “I know that community policing is necessary for the people, the organizing of the people. And if I can do it I’m going to do it, even I have to pay the highest cost.”
Two and a half years after she was thrown into a Mexican federal penal facility, arrested without a warrant and charged with kidnapping, indigenous community police leader Nestora Salgado was freed from Tepepan Women’s Social Rehabilitation Center in Mexico City mid-March.
A judge threw out the charges against Salgado on March 17 after stating they had no basis. While in custody, the activist originally from Olinala, Guerrero endured a stint in a maximum-security prison, solitary confinement, and the denial of medication and physical therapy she needed to fully heal from injuries she sustained in a car accident in 2002.
A day after her liberation order, Salgado participated in a news conference where she detailed the injustice and frustration surrounding her detainment. “I felt that I was buried alive in a drawer. I was out of touch for 20 months, in isolation for a crime that I did not commit. They didn’t even let me coexist with the other prisoners. I only saw them when I went to court. They treated me in the most brutal way that they could. It’s difficult to struggle against the government when they are out to get you, but it’s even worse that they did this when all I wanted was to defend my community,” stated Salgado.
Please enjoy our welcome home video for Nestora Salgado! And don’t forget that the fight is ongoing: there are many political prisoners still in Mexico who desperately need our support!
La activista social y líder de la Policía Comunitaria de Olinalá, Guerrero, salió libre esta mañana después de que fuera encarcelada por secuestros que nunca se comprobaron. Distintos organismos internacionales, e incluso la ONU, habían señalado irregularidades durante su proceso. Esta tarde ofreció una conferencia de prensa donde exigió al Presidente Enrique Peña Nieto respeto a los pueblos y que no siga permitiendo la violación a la Constitución.
Nestora landed safely in Seattle yesterday! Here she is with her husband José and daughter Grisel, flanked by supporters. ¡Nestora libre!
Una mujer que estuvo encarcelada durante dos años y medio en México por encabezar una policía comunitaria regresó a Seattle el martes.
Nestora Salgado fue recibida con abrazos de su esposo y de simpatizantes que corearon su nombre a su arribo en el Aeropuerto Internacional Seattle-Tacoma.
“Me siento feliz. Me siento emocionada. Sentía que no lo iba a lograr nunca. Pero Dios hizo justicia. Estoy aquí”, dijo frente a los medios que la esperaban.
Freedom for Political Prisoners Committee 