Urgent request for signatures in Atenco case

Dear friends, groups and individuals in solidarity,

We call upon you once more to send us your signature, this time in the Atenco case. We know you’ve done so several times, and this time we ask you to support the freedom of all the prisoners in the Atenco case, but especially JESÚS ADÁN ESPINOZA ROJAS and BERNARDINO CRUZ CARDONA. For almost three years these comrades have been separated from their families, their wives, their children, and their land, which they’ve defended so strongly and at such a high cost.

In January, it is possible that the magistrates in charge of the case will rule on the Remedy of Review. If the comrades lose this appeal, they will lose their last chance to return to their lives, their struggle, their land, and will have to live forever pursued by Mexican injustice.

Let’s don’t allow this to happen. Many actions are being taken. Your signature is also important. We ask that you sign this letter in support of the two comrades, and at the same time the newspaper add for all the prisoners in the Atenco case.

Thank you so much. We wish you a good start, filled with solidarity, for the year to come.
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Did you know that Bernardino Cruz Cardona is a prestigious scholar at the Autonomous University of Chapingo?

Did you know that in 1997, when Jesús Adán Espinoza Rojas was President of the Cooperative Land Commissioner of San Salvador Atenco, he certified 723 plots as ejidal lands and that this made it possible to defend these lands against the expropriation for building the airport?

Did you know that the majority of the prisoners now held in the Molino de Flores prison and sentenced to more than 31 years, were arrested on May 3, 2006, and absurdly enough, charged with actions that occurred on May 4 of that year?

Get to know them and help them.

COORDINATION FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE ATENCO PRISONERS
Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez (ProDh)
Centro Nacional de Comunicación Social (CENCOS)
Comité Cerezo México ; Proyecto Viento de Libertad
Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra (FPDT)
Jóvenes en Resistencia Alternativa
Servicios Legales y Estudios Jurídicos / Legal Services and Studies
Lawyers and law office charged with the legal defense of Ignacio Del Valle and Felipe Alvarez, held in La Palma, and responsible for the appeals in defense of those pursued.
Servicios y Asesoría para la paz (SERAPAZ)

Documents to sign:
To the magistrates, for an end to the judicial persecution of Bernardino and Adán (http://espora.org/comitecerezo/IMG/pdf/firma_X_Bernardino_y_Adan.pdf)

Newspaper add for the freedom of all Atenco prisoners (http://espora.org/comitecerezo/IMG/pdf/Desplegado_X_Atenco.pdf)

Specify:
• Name (person or organization)
• Profession, activity or organization profile
• Country
SEND YOUR SIGNATURES BEFORE JANUARY 4, 2009: comitecerezo [at] nodo50.org

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Letter for Bernardino and Adán:

TO THE MAGISTRATES ADALID AMBRÍZ LANDA, ANDRÉS PÉREZ LOZANO Y JOSÉ NIEVES LUNA CASTRO ASSIGNED TO THE SECOND ASSOCIATE CRIMINAL COURT OF THE SECOND CIRCUIT

We the undersigned are writing to express our deepest concern over the legal situation of Mr. JESÚS ADÁN ESPINOZA ROJAS and Mr. BERNARDINO CRUZ CARDONA, residents of the community of San Salvador Atenco, State of Mexico.
We have learned that the Organ of Constitutional Control of which you are members will soon consider the Remedy of Review filed by the legal defense of Mr. JESÚS ADÁN ESPINOSA ROJAS and Mr. BERNARDINO CRUZ CARDONA, in opposition to the sentence dictated by the Seventh District Judge of the Auxiliary Center of the Second Region, residing in the city of Cholula, Puebla.
In view of the fact that the Remedy of Review is the last appeal available to Mr. JESÚS ADÁN ESPINOSA ROJAS and Mr. BERNARDINO CRUZ CARDONA for the revocation of their arrest warrants, we respectfully request that you who preside over this sovereign body meticulously review the sentence under appeal and the grievances listed by the legal defense; we trust that an exhaustive analysis will result in the revocation of the sentence contested and, consequently, in the issuance of a protective writ and full judicial protection in favor of Mr. JESÚS ADÁN ESPINOSA ROJAS and BERNARDINO CRUZ CARDONA.

RESPECTFULLY YOURS,
México
Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez (ProDh)
Centro Nacional de Comunicación Social (CENCOS)
Comité Cerezo México ; Proyecto Viento de Libertad
Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra (FPDT)
Jóvenes en Resistencia Alternativa
Servicios Legales y Estudios Jurídicos: (Lawyers and law office charged with the legal defense of Ignacio Del Valle and Felipe Alvarez, held in La Palma, and responsible for the appeals in defense of those pursued.)
Servicios y Asesoría para la paz (SERAPAZ)
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Newspaper add for the freedom of all Atenco prisoners

On May 3 and 4, 2006, a police operation ordered by the federal government and the government of the State of Mexico, with more than 4,500 troops sent against members of the Peoples’ Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) supporting the defense of local flower vendor’s right to work in Texcoco, provoked one of the most violent repressive episodes in the history of Mexico.

Ever since those days, when the record shows 207 people arrested, two young boys killed, around fifty women raped and sexually abused, torture, and house searches that have been widely denounced by a number of national and international Human Rights organizations, outrageous legal irregularities have been gradually accumulated to justify the unjust sentences imposed on Ignacio del Valle of 112 years in prison, Felipe Álvarez and Héctor Galindo of 67 ½ years in prison, and 10 other people (Oscar Hdz. Pacheco, Alejandro Pilón, Julio Espinosa, Pedro Reyes, Juan Carlos Estrada, Jorge Ordóñez, Adán Ordóñez, Narciso Arellano, Inés Rodolfo Cuellar, and Eduardo Morales) sentenced to 31 years, 11 months, and 15 days in prison. It is important to note that América del Valle, Bernardino Cruz Cardona, and Adán Espinosa Rojas are now pursued by the law.

In all these cases, the legal defense of those arrested and pursued have shown that the criminal justice proceedings are plagued with errors that have occurred at the time basic legal issues were resolved, such as: the violation of the principle of the presumption of innocence; violation of the principle of due process; lack of evidence of corpus delicti (body of the crime) and of probable responsibility, as well as of the degree of instigation by Ignacio del Valle Medina; violation of the rules of the weighing of evidence; violation of the guarantees of legality and legal security; and illegal sentences requiring payment for moral damage. All of these rights were ignored by the judges, proving that we are faced with a political situation involving the repression of a people that has honorably defended its land, natural resources, and traditions against the unjustified plans to build the new international airport proposed by Vicente Fox on its territory in 2001. It is also of great concern that the repression against the FPDT is happening in the framework of generalized repression against organizations and movements exercising their right to criticism, demonstrations, and resistance against government policies.

For all of the above reasons, figures in the artistic, academic, intellectual, trade union, human rights, activist, political and legislative sphere, among others, have decided to participate in the “Campaign for Freedom and Justice for Atenco” to demand a review of the sentences, respect for human rights, an end to the criminalization of the social movements and FREEDOM FOR ALL THE SAN SALVADOR ATENCO PRISONERS.

It has come to our attention that within a short time the investigation carried out by the Supreme Court of Justice will center on determining whether or not there were violations of individual guarantees of the persons arrested on May 3 and 4, 2006, in the municipalities of San Salvador Atenco and Texcoco in the State of Mexico. In view of this, we ask ourselves and we ask the Magistrates:
a) Why did these human rights violations occur?
b) Who ordered them?
c) Was it due to a state strategy or to a situation that got out of hand and a lack of police training?

For the above reasons, we consider it necessary for all people to join forces who have supported the cause of freedom for the Atenco prisoners as well as those who wish to do so now.

We invite all of you to support the different activities of the campaign and to formulate your proposals, and also to form local committees in your centers of study, workplaces, and communities to stop the prolongation of the unjust imprisonment to which our comrades are being subjected.

Justice and freedom for Atenco!
Free all political prisoners!

Respectfully yours,

México
Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez (ProDh)
Centro Nacional de Comunicación Social (CENCOS)
Comité Cerezo México ; Proyecto Viento de Libertad
Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra (FPDT)
Jóvenes en Resistencia Alternativa
Servicios Legales y Estudios Jurídicos: (Lawyers and law office charged with the legal defense of Ignacio Del Valle and Felipe Alvarez, held in La Palma, and responsible for the appeals in defense of those pursued.)
Servicios y Asesoría para la paz (SERAPAZ)