Mumia Abu-Jamal
In two broadcasts on Prison Radio, which is carried by over one hundred radio stations, Mumia explains the case of indigenous leader Nestora Salgado who is a political prisoner in Mexico. Mumia also reads excerpts from her October message to students protesting the disappearance of 43 of their classmates in Ayotzinapa in the state of Guerrero.
Click here to read and listen to KPLU’s coverage of the protests surrounding Ayotzinapa, Nestora Salgado, and the 43 missing students. The link includes a brief interview with Grisel Rodriguez, Nestora’s daughter.
Fred Hyde stands with the many pages of signatures provided in support of Nestora.
Members and supporters of the Libertad para Nestora/Freedom for Nestora – U.S. Committee gathered over 1200 signatures on a petition to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto that states:
”We demand the immediate release of Nestora Salgado, Dr. José Luis Mireles, Marco Antonio Suástegui, Gonzalo Molina and Arturo Compos and all the political prisoners from indigenous community self defense forces in Guerrero and the autodefensas in Michoacán as well as other social activists imprisoned and denied their right to due process under your administration.”
Shown with the petitions is Fred Hyde, who wrote the cover letter shown below on behalf of the campaign.
A pesar del gran apoyo el 21 de agosto del año presente, ganar la libertad para Nestora y sus compañeros aún queda por delante de nosotros.
El 21 de agosto marcó el primer aniversario de la encarcelación de Nestora Salgado en una prisión federal en Tepic, Nayarit. Con su apoyo, el movimiento para liberar a Nestora y a otros presos políticos en México ha crecido internacionalmente, pero la victoria sigue siendo difícil de alcanzar.
La masacre el 26 de septiembre en Guerrero de cerca de 50 estudiantes, en un ataque coordinado por la policía y los criminales, es una prueba más de que tenemos nuestro trabajo por nosotros. Estos asesinatos han llamado la atención internacional sobre la corrupción de las figuras que son responsables de tener a Nestora tras las rejas: el gobernador de Guerrero, Ángel Aguirre, quien se niega a liberar a Nestora a pesar de la orden de un juez federal, y el Presidente Peña Nieto quien ha presidido el encarcelamiento de cientos de hombres y mujeres que se han levantado en contra de la violencia y la corrupción en otros estados y ciudades.
Para mantener viva y creciendo esta campaña, necesitamos su apoyo financiero
continuado. Su contribución será utilizada para ampliar la difusión pública, ayudar a las
familias de clase obrera de otros presos en Guerrero y los enormes costos asociados con la representación legal de Nestora. Cuánto podemos lograr depende de viejos partidarios de Nestora como usted.
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An editorial was posted to Seattle Times after North Korea released a U.S. prisoner. The Seattle Times Editorial Board asked for the release of Kenneth Bae, who has been imprisoned in North Korea for over 2 years. Here, Fred Hyde writes a letter to the editors to also consider asking for Nestora’s release.
Dear Editor,
Regarding your Friday, September 24 editorial on Kenneth Bae, a U.S. citizen imprisoned in North Korea, there is another U.S. citizen who is suffering harsh prison conditions in another country and deserves to be released.
Nestora Salgado, a resident of Renton, is a political prisoner in Mexico. In 2013, residents of her home town of Olinalá, Guerrero, elected her coordinator of their legally authorized community police force. Local and state officials conspired to jail this brave indigenous leader for carrying out her duties in an honest, principled manner that exposed their corruption. They have kept her locked up for over a year despite a March federal court ruling declaring her innocent and ordering her release. The international campaign to free her has the support of eight members of the Washington congressional delegation and many groups and individuals.
Mass protests over the disappearance and probable murder of 43 activist college students by police and drug cartel thugs in Guerrero drove the state’s Governor out of office last weekthe same person responsible for Salgado’s arrest and ongoing detention.
The time is now for President Obama to call Mexican President Peña Nieto and insist he free Salgado immediately–before she too is disappeared.
Fred Hyde
2940 36th Ave S.
Seattle, WA 98144
206-854-9057
Swelling outrage over a police massacre and the forced disappearance of scores of students swept Mexico and the world [last] week.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators demanded justice for six people killed September 26 and 27 by municipal police officers and paramilitary gunmen in Iguala, Guerrero, as well as the safe return of 43 Mexican students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers College of Ayotzinapa reported kidnapped and disappeared by the same aggressors.
From Latin American News Dispatch:
NEW YORK — Dozens of activists congregated outside the Mexican consulate to protest the Sept. 26 attack in Mexico’s Guerrero state that left six dead, 25 injured and at least 43 students missing. Authorities have detained at least 22 police officers suspected of involvement in the attack.
Activists in Mexico held similar protests in at least 63 cities. Cities as far away as Buenos Aires and Berlin also saw demonstrations in solidarity with the students. In New York, a handful of leftist and student organizations voiced their anger towards the Mexican government’s handling of the situation. The demonstrators also criticized recent cuts to education funding in Mexico, echoing the original protests by the students attacked in Iguala.
Despite an outpouring of support on August 21, 2014, winning freedom for Nestora and her fellow political prisoners still lies ahead of us
August 21 marked the one-year anniversary of Nestora Salgado’s incarceration in federal prison at Tepic, Nayarit. With your support, the movement to free Nestora and other political prisoners in Mexico has grown internationally over this time, but victory is still elusive.
The September massacre in Guerrero of nearly 50 students, in a coordinated attack by police and criminals, is further evidence that we have our work cut out for us. These murders have drawn international attention to the corruption of the political figures most responsible for keeping Nestora behind bars: Guerrero governor Ángel Aguirre, who refuses to release her despite the order of a federal judge, and President Peña Nieto who has presided over the incarceration of hundreds of men and women who have stood up against similar violence and corruption in other Mexican towns and states.
To keep this campaign alive and growing, we need your continued financialsupport. Your contribution will be used to expand public outreach, aid the working class families of other Guerrero prisoners and the enormous costs associated with Nestora’s legal representation. How much we can accomplish depends on you—Nestora’s longtime supporters.
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October 8, 2014
To the students of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero:
The Libertad para Nestora campaign in the U.S. stands in solidarity with you and your families today against the brutal repression and violence you have suffered at the hands of corrupt Guerrero political leaders and their criminal accomplices. We are incredibly saddened by the massacre of almost 50 students whose only “crime” was to struggle for a just society. What a callous waste of the precious lives of dedicated young people!
We raise our voices to join the chorus demanding that Sr. Ángel Aguirre, governor of Guerrero, resign immediately and that all those with blood on their hands be brought to justice. We have worked in the U.S. for a year to free Comandanta Nestora Salgado. There is only one reason she is still in prison: Governor Águirre refuses to release her despite an order by a federal judge. We have also fought for the freedom of other community police incarcerated under Águirre’s rule. Now he and the PRD have presided over the worst act of political violence in Mexico in decades. We join you in demanding an end to this reign of terror and lawlessness in Guerrero!
FREE NESTORA SALGADO AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
PROSECUTE THE ASSASSINS OF THE STUDENTS OF GUERRERO!
END THE REIGN OF TERROR AND CORRUPTION IN GUERRERO, MICHOACÁN AND PUEBLA!In solidarity,
Libertad para Nestora /Freedom for Nestora –U.S. Campaign
freenestora.org
Thursday, October 2, 2014
From the maximum security prison en Tepic, Nayarit
What’s up, compañeros. Here I am in this prison. This is Nestora Salgado García
I send warm greetings, although for now only with my heart and in my thoughts I join you compañeros de Ayotzinapa in all that has taken place. I want to ask you not to be discouraged but instead ask you to join together stronger because we must always be united in difficult times. Oftentimes we become united only in difficult times but we must please always be united. This is why, compañeros, we must always be in constant communication because on some days we come together for some and other days we join together for others.
We know well that the government of Guerrero is very abusive and repressive. In power, they abuse authority. The governor and the whole government is abusive. Clear proof of this is my case. They have been abusing me as much as possible, even mistreating me in this prison. I have declared that the governor of Guerrero has determined to keep me here, knowing full well that I am innocent and that he is violating the constitution of Mexico.
We did not make the laws, like the 701 law which the Guerrero government does not respect. We ask only that this law be upheld along with Article 2 of the Mexican Constitution. But I ask only that you, young people of Guerrero, please know that now is the time that we must raise our voices and we must be heard now because if not now, then never.
Do your best, muchachos, continue studying and preparing yourselves because we all know that the government wants us to remain ignorant and backward. That is why they promote and protect the criminals. That is why they harbor the drug dealers. Why? They want to keep los muchachos drugged and powerless. No muchachos recharge your batteries and let’s show them that we are intelligent and that we can overcome.
Please, muchachos, keep studying and let’s struggle together and defend our state and show that we will not remain in the hands of vultures like those in power now who have done as they desired with us, including carrying out assassinations.
Look what they have done to me in fabricating charges that they know perfectly well are false. They have someone who says that I am a kidnapper, but they do not listen to my witnesses which number in the thousands—witnesses who testify that I am not a kidnapper and no criminal. Why don’t they listen to my witnesses? An entire town is witness that I am not a criminal and have fought for me, and yet the governor of Guerrero is not interested in this. He is not interested in what the people say. He just continues to lie that I am a criminal in a clear abuse of power. This is the abuse of corrupt officials. Court judges haven’t even responded to the legal filings of my lawyers, not even responded, nothing. No response–just complete silence. Why? Because all these people are mixed up in the same outfit; because they are equally corrupt; because I should not be here in prison. I should be free, but those in power keep me here.
But, compañeros, you I embrace and I am with you in prayer. To all of you I plead: stand in unity with the muchachos de Ayotzinapa. Do not leave them alone at this time and don’t let them do as they wish with them. They have always been peaceful. They never took up arms. There is no justification for them to be killed and missing. No reason at all!
I stand with you compañeros. I am with you and will always be in spirit. I would love to be there with you in this fight, to join you on the front lines, all of you together. For now, though, I join you with my prayers from this prison.
The day they arrested me I was on my way to help the compañeros in Tlatauquitepec, This unfortunately was my luck, given what the government had prepared from me. So, I am here. I stand in solidarity with you. Please don’t lose faith or be afraid. This is the struggle and we will go forward.
Compañeros of the Politécnico, I, Nestora Salgado, send you greetings. You have my deep appreciation for the support you have given the Ayotzinapa compañeros. I send you greeting, hoping you know about me. Here I am and someday we will be in the same struggle together.
Thanks so much for your continued support for the Ayotzinapa compañeros. Don’t leave them alone. To gather strength, please continue preparing yourselves and studying.
So compañeros, thanks a lot and may God bless you.
From here I send you a warm embrace.
Nestora Salgado García, political prisoner
Member of Coordinadora Regional de Autoridades Comunitarias-Policía Comunitaria.
Freedom for Political Prisoners Committee 