Five prisoners are released in Chiapas benefiting from the opinion of the UN

2022-06-10 19:08:10 By : Ms. vicky liao

Like every Saturday, on May 7, Karla Guadalupe Meza Méndez went to the Comitán prison, Chiapas, to visit her husband Marcelino Ruíz Gómez.When she entered her cell she found him fidgeting, arranging her things.He was pale."I'm leaving," Marcelino said."Where?" she asked with a bit of sarcasm."They just told me that I can leave today," she replied.For 20 years, 3 months and 2 days, Marcelino Ruíz made a pilgrimage between the prisons of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Cintalapa, Yajalón and Comitán.From the beginning he fought for his freedom.Not having access to a translator into his language, Tsotsil, he decided to learn Spanish.He studied history, read biographies: "In prison I discovered that I love to read, it's a habit that I now have," he says.He dedicated himself to making drawings and writing communiqués to denounce the human rights violations suffered by prisoners in Chiapas prisons, and which he spread thanks to the support of We Are Not All, an anti-prison work group that accompanies several prisoners in Chiapas who are fighting. .In March 2019, Marcelino Ruíz founded the organization Viniketic en Resistencia, which is an adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle, and began to articulate with other groups of prisoners in struggle: La Voz de Indígenas en Resistencia and La Voz Verdadera del Amate. .They organized two hunger strikes: the first stage, lasting 60 days, began in March 2019 and ended when they were promised to review their files.Among the strikers, the first to leave prison was Juan de la Cruz Ruíz, who was still in detention three years after the Reconciliation Table — a body that reviews inmate files and is made up of the three branches of government State and the State Human Rights Commission—had determined his release.He was released in December 2019 and still cannot bear the smell of ground chili, which was what was introduced into his nose during torture.“One of the judicial agents asked me for 80,000 pesos in exchange for them releasing me at that moment and, since I did not have that amount, he already ordered that they no longer torture me, that because I am not going to die in their hands but, on the contrary… they put electric cables in my private parts”, Juan de la Cruz Ruíz.The second stage of the hunger strike began in the first months of the pandemic, in May 2020. “I drank pure water with honey for 75 days.It made me cloying, it disgusted me, I didn't even want to drink it anymore, ”recalls Marcelino Ruíz.Adrián Gómez Jiménez was released from prison shortly after, in September 2021, despite the fact that his acquittal had been pronounced 26 months earlier.He was unjustly imprisoned for 15 years, and suffered torture that he relives every time he sees a police officer on the street, or hears the sound of metal.“My dignity, my innocence, and morally was at rock bottom.I had no other choice but to incriminate myself so that they would stop torturing me.They prefabricated the crimes of illegal deprivation of liberty, attempted murder and carjacking”, Adrián Gómez Jiménez.It was just after his release that the United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention approved opinion 43/2021.It acknowledges that Juan de la Cruz, Adrián Gómez, Marcelino Ruíz and the brothers Abraham and Germán López Montejo were arbitrarily detained, tortured and their right to due process was not guaranteed.The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention urges the Mexican State to immediately release Marcelino Ruíz and Abraham and Germán López Montejo, and requests compensation and other types of reparations for the five prisoners and former prisoners in struggle .Marcelino Ruíz was released from prison on May 7 along with 231 other people, detained in different prisons in Chiapas, after the Reconciliation Table reviewed their files.He had been accused of homicide on February 5, 2002, after being detained on his bicycle in the North Zone of San Cristóbal de Las Casas by men who were dressed as civilians, and who tortured him until he signed his sentence. .Three more crimes were committed against him a few years later, when the police again arrested and beat him, finding him at his mother's house after a massive jailbreak.His bizarre escape from the San Cristóbal de Las Casas prison, which led him to wander aimlessly in the mountains for three days, took place in 2004. Marcelino was weaving a bag when he heard some shots and saw the prisoners crowding in front of a door that was open: “The companions looked like sheep in a pasture, they went from one side to the other.I look up and realize they were shooting at us from the tower,” he says.The fear was so strong that his memories of that day are dark images, as if it were night, even though it was two in the afternoon.During the escape an inmate was killed by a shot and the responsibility was attributed to Marcelino.In addition, he was charged with escape and the murder of another man.“My advocate investigated and we learned that this person existed only on paper, not in reality.Neither the deceased nor his family existed.He was totally fabricated, so they couldn't convict me, ”says Marcelino Ruíz.If the Reconciliation Table had not reviewed his case, he would have stayed in jail until 2033.Freedom for Abraham and Germán López Montejo arrived this May 18.The brothers from Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán left CERSS no.5 of San Cristóbal de Las Casas after a captivity of 11 years, 3 months and 28 days.They had been arrested in January 2011, while they were sitting in the central park of their town;They were handcuffed and taken to the police station, where they were tortured.“My whole body and throat ached, I felt death.I heard that he took out his gun, he cut off the cartridge: 'speak, you son of a bitch, swallow that water, it's worth it to me to kill you, you're worth nothing.'The others laughed, guffawed when he was saying those words to me.I fainted several times and my family kept threatening me”, Germán López Montejo.“I told him no, that I was not going to sign anything.That is where they falsified my statement, they made me sign by force, as they found my voter card with this they copied my signature”, Abraham López Montejo.Now, the five struggling prisoners benefiting from opinion 43/2021 of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention are free.After so many years of captivity, his return home is not so easy."Going out is another challenge, it's about starting over again, going out into the street and seeing a different world out here," says Susana de la Cruz, sister of Juan de la Cruz and member of the Collective of Relatives of Prisoners in Chiapas fight.“After their release, the comrades are usually afraid to go out on the street, because when they run into policemen the memory of the arrest and torture returns.Also, they often have nightmares that they are still in prison.”When he returned to San Cristóbal de Las Casas after almost 20 years in prison, Marcelino Ruíz Gómez was amazed to see so many cars and so many tourists in the center of his city.He felt disoriented and could not believe that in the field of pear trees that he used to cross every day when he was a kid, now there is a neighborhood of houses made of boards and blocks where his family lives.“I demand reparation from the Mexican government for the damage to me and my four companions,” he says.“There are irreparable damages, such as psychological and emotional ones, in addition to the suffering of our families.But we do demand reparation for all that we have lost."The state-owned railway company in Ukraine claims that at least 30 people are dead and more than 100 injured after a Russian artillery attack on a train station used to evacuate civilians.Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region, was one of the easternmost stations in the country still in operation.The director of the railway said that two artillery rockets hit the station.Kramatorsk is known to have been used as one of the main evacuation routes from eastern Ukraine.Details of the departure times of the city's trains were being published by the authorities.Donetsk Regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote on Telegram that thousands of people were at the station at the time of the attack.The Kramatorsk city council warned the population to stay in the shelters.According to the AFP agency, Moscow denies having attacked the station.And Reuters reports that the Defense Ministry said the Russian military had no assigned targets in Kramatorsk on Friday.However, European Council President Charles Michel accused Russia of carrying out a "horrible" attack on the train station, saying Moscow was cutting off an escape route for civilians."It is horrible to see Russia attack one of the main stations used by civilians to evacuate the region where Russia is intensifying its attacks," Michel wrote on Twitter on Friday.The station is in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where Russia is believed to be stepping up its offensive as it withdraws from the north of the country.Several cities in Donbas have been the target of intense Russian attacks overnight, with residents taking refuge in their basements.Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo.Download the new version of our app and activate it so you don't miss out on our best content.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyrC55QhAPAWe are processing 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