KOMO News: “Pressure mounting to release Renton woman from Mexican prison”

According to the International Human Rights Clinic at Seattle University School of Law, Guerrero law and the Mexican Constitution guarantee the rights of indigenous communities to form their own security institutions. Salgado’s group was officially part of state law enforcement and had the express approval of Guerrero’s governor, the clinic states.

“Today’s her birthday,” said Salgado’s husband Sunday night from his apartment in Renton.

Jose Abila’s never given up hope that his wife will come home.

“I know what I have to do, you know. Every single day keep fighting for her to come home,” he said. “The only thing we need is for the U.S. government to do the final push for her to get released.”

Full story.

TeleSUR: “Mexican Activist Nestora Salgado Celebrates Birthday in Prison”

Jailed Mexican activist Nestora Salgado has yet to see freedom two and a half years since she was arrested amid organizing a community police force in the violence-ridden state of Guerrero, but she was far from alone Sunday as family members and supporters gathered outside the prison to celebrate the community leader’s birthday and continue demanding her release.

Read the full story here.

King 5 News: “Seattle resolution calls for Nestora Salgado’s release”

Seattle city council is joining in the debate of whether to join the growing chorus of calls for the immediate release of Nestora Salgado, a former Renton resident, who is now in a Mexican prison.

Salgado was arrested in August, 2013 in her home state of Guerrero, where she led a legal community police force to fend off organized crime.

A resolution brought forward by council member Kshama Sawant would urge authorities in Mexico and the United States to “increase its efforts to secure her release.”

Read the full story here.

Seattle Globalist: “UN rules Nestora Salgado illegally detained in Mexico”

Fueled by a recent United Nations human rights panel decision, supporters of Nestora Salgado, the Renton woman jailed in Mexico after organizing a community police force, are pressing members of Congress and other U.S. officials to take action on Salgado’s case.

Last week, Salgado’s lawyers at Seattle University’s Human Rights Clinic learned that the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that her imprisonment is illegal.

While the ruling isn’t binding, according to a story in the Associated Press, hersupporters said in a press conference on Monday night that they hoped it would build support for Salgado from United States officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, to pressure Mexico to release the naturalized U.S. citizen.

Read the full story here.

El Diario: ONU exige a México liberar a Nestora Salgado; detención fue ilegal

Fue detenida por el Ejército y posteriormente incomunicada sin haber sido presentada en ningún momento ante un juez que determinara la legalidad de su detención, destaca el informe

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The Guardian: UN panel finds Mexico’s arrest of organizer Nestora Salgado illegal

A United Nations panel has ruled that Mexico’s 2013 arrest and continuing detention of a community police leader was illegal, raising hopes among her supporters she could be freed.

Nestora Salgado is a Seattle-area resident who returned to her native Mexico and led a vigilante-style – but legal – community police force, which mounted patrols to protect residents from cartel operatives.

A dual US-Mexico citizen, Salgado was arrested in August 2013 after people detained by her group alleged they had been kidnapped. A federal judge cleared her of those charges, but a related state case has kept her imprisoned.

Read the full story here.

CNN: “Nestora Salgado: Estoy detenida porque no acepté dinero del gobierno”

Nestora Salgado, excoordinadora de la Policía Comunitaria en Olinalá, estado de Guerrero, México, dijo enAristegui que hoy en día está detenida porque no aceptó dinero del gobierno.

Salgado está recluida en el Centro Femenil de Readaptación Social de Tepepan, en donde habló con Aristegui. Fue detenida el 21 de agosto de 2013 por la Marina y el Ejército y acusada de secuestro. Además enfrenta cargos por un homicidio.

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