Update: After three years, Atenco’s political prisoners are still in captivity and the police and government officials responsible for human rights violations go unpunished. Tell Calderón that Atenco is not forgotten.
Estimados Señores,
We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, are observing the third anniversary of the deplorable events on May third and fourth of 2006 in San Salvador Atenco. We call on you to immediately release all of those who remain unjustly detained:
Ignacio del Valle Medina
Felipe Álvarez Hernández
Héctor Galindo Gochicua
Jorge Alberto Ordóñez Romero
Juan Carlos Estrada Cruces
Julio César Espinosa Ramos
Inés Rodolfo Cuéllar Rivera
Edgar Eduardo Morales
Oscar Hernández Pacheco
Narciso Arellano Hernández
Román Adán Ordóñez Romero
Alejandro Pilón Zacate
The civil unrest in San Salvador Atenco of 2006 began on Wednesday, May 3, when police prevented a group of 60 flower vendors from selling their merchandise in front of the Belisario Domínguez market as they had for nearly 15 years in Texcoco, in the State of México. After municipal riot police attacked the vendors with clubs and tear gas, the flower vendors appealed for support to the residents of San Salvador Atenco, a small neighboring community about 15 miles northeast of Mexico City. In response, citizens from Atenco blocked the federal highway between Texcoco and Mexico City and hundreds of state police were summoned to remove the blockade. 3,000 federal, state, and municipal police were ultimately involved in the act of repression.
Violent confrontations followed during the next 24 hours during which state and federal police attacked demonstrators, invaded homes, and assaulted journalists. Police killed two people in the conflict: fourteen year-old Javier Cortés Santiago died of gunshot wounds and twenty year-old Alexis Benhumea of omplications from a head injury caused by a teargas cartridge. According to an investigation by Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission published in October 2006, police subjected 207 people (including ten minors) to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, arbitrarily arrested 145 people, sexually assaulted 26 women in detention, and expelled 5 foreigners from the country arbitrarily and illegally.
Amnesty International has condemned the excessive use of force, homicide, torture, arbitrary detentions, sexual abuse, and violation of the right to due process by the police and in February of 2009 the Mexican Supreme Court again certified the existence of severe violations of human rights by the police.
Despite the undeniable events that took place in Atenco, the silence of Mexican authorities allows these crimes, perpetrated by police and officials at all levels of government, to go unpunished.
It is urgent that Mexican officials move rapidly to rectify the injustices perpetuated by the ongoing imprisonment of the activists detained in Atenco, and bring those responsible for these crimes to justice.
At a moment when drug cartels and their shadow allies inside the structures of power combine with a blistering economic crisis that threaten the very fabric of Mexican society, the government should not be distracted with suppressing the progressive and democratic impulses of grassroots political movements that have served to push forward the democratic dialogue over the past decade and a half. The concerns that currently confront the Mexican government make it ever more critical to eliminate the impunity and tolerance of official misconduct. When criminal elements threaten to overwhelm existing institutions, the active promotion of decency, human dignity, and basic justice are ever more vital.
Please immediately free the Atenco 12.
0-25 of 63 signatures
Number
Date
Name
Location
Comments?
63
July 08, 2009
Mayra Barrera
, TX
62
July 07, 2009
Anonymous
Orem, UT
It's shameful the US media made such a fuss over the Iranian election, when 12 people are being imprisoned for unjust reasons in Mexico. I pledge to post this page everywhere until the US news media has to acknowledge this story.
61
July 03, 2009
Ben Cronan
,
60
June 26, 2009
John` Hurd
Clinton, WA
59
June 22, 2009
Margie Bernard
San Jose, CA
58
June 15, 2009
Margaret Petkiewicz
San Jose, CA
57
June 14, 2009
Anonymous
Clifton, VA
To preserve human rights and dignity is a responsibility we owe each other.
56
June 13, 2009
Anonymous
Berkeley, CA
55
June 13, 2009
Lillian Deslandes
Miami, FL
54
June 12, 2009
David Kennedy
phoenix, AZ
53
June 11, 2009
Pastor Ricardez
Mexico City
52
June 11, 2009
Anonymous
Loveland, OH
51
June 11, 2009
Vanesa Romo
México City
50
June 11, 2009
Terry O'Rourke
,
49
June 10, 2009
Heidi Bruce
Eastsound, WA
48
June 10, 2009
Reggie Melonson
Culver City, CA
47
June 10, 2009
nancy szymczak
Leesburg, VA
46
June 10, 2009
Bob and Carmen Riggs
Bethlehem, PA
45
June 10, 2009
Erik Schnabel
San Francisco, CA
44
June 10, 2009
Matt Newsome
Washington, DC
43
June 10, 2009
Anonymous
El Paso, TX
we shouldn't stop fighting to preserve human rights.
