El Bosque, Chiapas - About four hundred people marched in this town to demand the release of the indigenous teacher Alberto Patishtán Gómez, who has been "unjustly" imprisoned in the penitentiary of San Cristóbal de Las Casas for nearly thirteen years, accused of participating in an ambush that killed six policemen and one municipal government official. With Patishtán's imprisonment,
"All the indigenous people feel imprisoned, rejected and discriminated against," wrote the protesters in a letter to Freddy Gabriel Celis Fuentes and Manuel de Jesús Rosales Suarez, judges with the Twenty-first Circuit Appeals Court, which will soon decide whether to release the teacher sentenced to sixty years in prison.
"We know that he is innocent. In your hands is justice or injustice, freedom or punishment, life or death, heaven or hell," they related to the judges. The protesters belong to the People's Movement of the Pueblo of El Bosque for the Liberation of Alberto Patishtán.
The march, joined by "committees" from the municipalities of Mitontic, Pueblo Nuevo, Ixtapa and Huitiupán, began at 11:00 AM on the outskirts of the church of San Juan Bautista and after touring the streets of the town and the State Highway for more than an hour, they arrived at the Central Park, where a rally was held.
"Alberto, hold on, the people are rising up!", "Political prisoners, freedom!", "Alberto, friend, the people are with you!" and "Freedom for Alberto Patishtán!", chanted the indigenous who participated in the demonstration in this town in the north of Chiapas, where the teacher is from.During the rally held before the mayor, Martín Ramírez, one of the main leaders of the movement read the letter that this Thursday will be delivered to the judges in Tuxtla Gutierrez, accompanied by 4,736 signatures. In the letter, the complainants wrote:
"More than twelve years ago, we began our movement and to date we continue seeking justice. We have already knocked on hundreds of doors and raised our demand to hundreds of people who occupy positions at various levels of government, but no one has heard our voice, the voice of the indigenous people of Mexico."They conclude:
"Alberto Patishtán now means all the indigenous groups in Mexico and the world," but "we have realized that the indigenous people of our country do not fit within the Mexican laws, so we wonder when our rights and culture will be recognized? Will it be someday, or never?"Representatives of the demonstrators reported that a committee of thirty people will arrive tomorrow to deliver the letter to the judges, and their next action will be a pilgrimage that will take place on April 19 in the capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Spanish original