Translated by: Amanda Coe
Commander Nestora,
Today is a good day for community police in Guerrero. Your freedom is a steady step in the difficult fight against impunity. You resigned gracefully from your CRAC uniform [Regional Coordinator of Communal Authorities, community-elected police in indigenous regions of Guerrero]. With the elegance that you exude, you pledged your loyalty and commitment to the 70 members of community police in Olinalá and Huamuxtitlán.
Commander Nestora, how much did it cost to fight for justice in a state divided by el poder caciquil [power of traditional political chiefs]? What price did you pay state justice figureheads to defend the rights of the people? According to the caciquil government, how many crimes did you commit in order to be faithful to the CRAC assembly mandate and to fight criminal groups?
As a woman defending her pueblo [indigenous village people], why were you locked in a cell next to highly dangerous criminals [in federal maximum security prison in Tepic, Nayarit, hundreds of miles from Guerrero]? Which authorities gave orders to the Army and Navy to take you to Acapulco and put you aboard the plane to be imprisoned in Tepic prison?
Commander Nestora, why did you have to pay so expensively for your audacity to fight the authorities who commit crimes, the police who collude with criminals, civil authorities working in cahoots with the heads of La maña [the "Mafia", criminal groups] and the Army acting in collusion to protect the interests of organized crime? For those of us who were born there, we suffer a terrible fate for paving the way for justice, including persecution, incarceration, and murder of those who rebuke power.
Why were you incarcerated for two years and seven months, while all of the highest ranking civilian authorities and military personnel involved in the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa normal school students have been free for more than a year and six months? Why was a defender of the people held in a maximum security prison, while criminals, who kill and kidnap defenseless people, are in the streets and avenues? Why do they criminalize and stigmatize you as commander of community police while halcones [hawks, lookouts] and hitmen who flood the main cities of Guerrero are covered-up and protected?
In our state, where organized crime has taken over the seven regions and undermined the battered rule of law, community police officers are charged with the great responsibility of facing a power that tortures, disappears and kills its people. How can citizens of these towns control criminal violence that is incubated and encouraged by caciquil groups? How can they deal with state police that convert their headquarters into centers of operation for organized crime gangs? What do they do with an Army that, since the "Dirty War", has perpetrated multiple cases of disappearances, execution, and torture, with impunity acting as a state within a state? [MV Note: In October, 2014, A Guerrero State Truth Commission documented these "dirty war" actions by the Army against leftist guerrilla groups in the 1960s and 70s]
Amid the collapse of institutions, the meanness of authorities who shamelessly exploit the poor and ally with criminal organizations, the people of Guerrero have risen to break the walls of injustice and impunity. From the massif of the Sierra Madre del Sur, campesinos [traditional peasant farmers] have traveled to demand that the government attend to their basic needs, but the responses have been bullets and the persecution of their leaders.
In the Mountain Region indigenous peoples had to overcome centuries-old adversity and stigmatization of their indianness, to rise above the gaps in the State justice system, and build their own justice and community security system. A historic project rooted at the heart of an irrepressible people, vigorously defending their systems of government and their sacred territories.
Your tenacious fight against the terrible blows of Guerrero cacique leaders began in Olinalá. By demonstrating determination and ability to dismantle the organized crime gangs linked to ancient political chiefdoms, you clearly earned your strength. With all the members of the community police going into the streets, you were able to accomplish what the Army, Navy and Police have failed to do in Acapulco, Chilpancingo, and Iguala. In the Mountain Region, you ran into police and military who were experts in destroying community organizing processes, waging war on the poor and persecuting social fighters. You confirmed that part of the problem is these security forces operating in the dark and under the shelter of impunity.
You kept in your memory the sad and painful moments of many families who have never encountered an authority willing to hear their cry and take up their cause for justice. They remained scarred by the deaths of the young people killed in Olinalá, the kidnapped, the families that are displaced and suppressed by crime. Joined in the outrage of the people who campaigned to arrest the municipal police, many men and youth named you their commander, coordinator of all community actions.
In this struggle, you learned that only by adhering to the assembly can authority be acquired. No one has strength or legitimacy working alone. The secret of your ability to convene people is your stance of including women and victims and your open cry in defense of those who suffer.
Commander Nestora, today Agustina, daughter of the Tu'un Savi [indigeonus people] in Ayutla and wife of Arturo Campos, proudly wears the hat and shirt of the CRAC, because for indigenous peoples, it is a respected uniform. By your side, she raised her fist and voice on behalf of colleagues, who today are also stationed in the courts in Chilpancingo [state capital] demanding the release of their husbands and launching the campaign that you have announced to give “a face and a name to our CRAC political prisoners.” I salute your peers in community police and reaffirm your role as community authority: “at your orders, commander.” Spanish Original
Abel Barrera is director of the Tlachinollan Mountains Human Rights Center in Guerrero. He has been recognized nationally and internationally for his defense of human rights.
For more on this story, see Nestora Salgado.
Related MV Translations:
Commander Nestora,
Today is a good day for community police in Guerrero. Your freedom is a steady step in the difficult fight against impunity. You resigned gracefully from your CRAC uniform [Regional Coordinator of Communal Authorities, community-elected police in indigenous regions of Guerrero]. With the elegance that you exude, you pledged your loyalty and commitment to the 70 members of community police in Olinalá and Huamuxtitlán.
MV Note: Nestora Salgado was the chosen leader of the indigenous community police created in the municipality of Olinalá, Guerrero, in the northeastern Mountain Region in early 2013, as one of a number of self-defense groups that arose to combate organized crime and complicit municipal and state police. Olinalá and some other commuities joined CRAC, which has existed in the Mountain Region since 1995. She was seized by Army soldiers and state police in August 2013, in the midst of conflicts between new self-defense groups, the original CRAC and state government efforts to coopt them into a state "rural force".
She was imprisoned on trumped up charges of "kidnapping" some teenage girls she had, in fact, rescued from criminals using them as sex slaves. She was first held in solitary confinement in a federal prison in Tepic, Nayarit, in northern Mexico and then, in the face of much public pressure, in May 2015, transferred to a federal women's prison in Mexico City, where she was kept in the hospital unit because of various physical problems. On Friday, March 18, she was finally cleared of all charges and released. She is also a US citizen, having migrated there many years ago undocumented but gaining legal status under the amnesty process established by President Reagan. She returned to Olinalá frequently to provide aid and, in 2013, decided to volunteer for the self-defense forces.You strongly and caringly embraced the committee of parents of the 43 disappeared students [of Ayotzinapa]. Your commitment to join them in their cry for truth, justice and the punishment of those responsible was obvious. You paved the way for Gonzalo, Arturo, Bernardino, Ángel, Eleuterio Abad, Florentino, Benito and Samuel [other members of CRAC arrested with Nestora Salgado in August 2013], prisoners in Chilpancingo and Ayutla prisons, to regain their freedom. You overcame the infamous power and you showed the same judges that, for them, you were their commander.
Commander Nestora, how much did it cost to fight for justice in a state divided by el poder caciquil [power of traditional political chiefs]? What price did you pay state justice figureheads to defend the rights of the people? According to the caciquil government, how many crimes did you commit in order to be faithful to the CRAC assembly mandate and to fight criminal groups?
As a woman defending her pueblo [indigenous village people], why were you locked in a cell next to highly dangerous criminals [in federal maximum security prison in Tepic, Nayarit, hundreds of miles from Guerrero]? Which authorities gave orders to the Army and Navy to take you to Acapulco and put you aboard the plane to be imprisoned in Tepic prison?
Commander Nestora, why did you have to pay so expensively for your audacity to fight the authorities who commit crimes, the police who collude with criminals, civil authorities working in cahoots with the heads of La maña [the "Mafia", criminal groups] and the Army acting in collusion to protect the interests of organized crime? For those of us who were born there, we suffer a terrible fate for paving the way for justice, including persecution, incarceration, and murder of those who rebuke power.
Why were you incarcerated for two years and seven months, while all of the highest ranking civilian authorities and military personnel involved in the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa normal school students have been free for more than a year and six months? Why was a defender of the people held in a maximum security prison, while criminals, who kill and kidnap defenseless people, are in the streets and avenues? Why do they criminalize and stigmatize you as commander of community police while halcones [hawks, lookouts] and hitmen who flood the main cities of Guerrero are covered-up and protected?
In our state, where organized crime has taken over the seven regions and undermined the battered rule of law, community police officers are charged with the great responsibility of facing a power that tortures, disappears and kills its people. How can citizens of these towns control criminal violence that is incubated and encouraged by caciquil groups? How can they deal with state police that convert their headquarters into centers of operation for organized crime gangs? What do they do with an Army that, since the "Dirty War", has perpetrated multiple cases of disappearances, execution, and torture, with impunity acting as a state within a state? [MV Note: In October, 2014, A Guerrero State Truth Commission documented these "dirty war" actions by the Army against leftist guerrilla groups in the 1960s and 70s]
Amid the collapse of institutions, the meanness of authorities who shamelessly exploit the poor and ally with criminal organizations, the people of Guerrero have risen to break the walls of injustice and impunity. From the massif of the Sierra Madre del Sur, campesinos [traditional peasant farmers] have traveled to demand that the government attend to their basic needs, but the responses have been bullets and the persecution of their leaders.
In the Mountain Region indigenous peoples had to overcome centuries-old adversity and stigmatization of their indianness, to rise above the gaps in the State justice system, and build their own justice and community security system. A historic project rooted at the heart of an irrepressible people, vigorously defending their systems of government and their sacred territories.
MV Note: Article 2 of Mexico’s Constitution recognizes the right of indigenous communities to choose self-government, which includes a system of justice. In indigenous communities following customary law, known as "uses and customs", decision making is consensual, and the community assembly is the decision-making body.
Your tenacious fight against the terrible blows of Guerrero cacique leaders began in Olinalá. By demonstrating determination and ability to dismantle the organized crime gangs linked to ancient political chiefdoms, you clearly earned your strength. With all the members of the community police going into the streets, you were able to accomplish what the Army, Navy and Police have failed to do in Acapulco, Chilpancingo, and Iguala. In the Mountain Region, you ran into police and military who were experts in destroying community organizing processes, waging war on the poor and persecuting social fighters. You confirmed that part of the problem is these security forces operating in the dark and under the shelter of impunity.
You kept in your memory the sad and painful moments of many families who have never encountered an authority willing to hear their cry and take up their cause for justice. They remained scarred by the deaths of the young people killed in Olinalá, the kidnapped, the families that are displaced and suppressed by crime. Joined in the outrage of the people who campaigned to arrest the municipal police, many men and youth named you their commander, coordinator of all community actions.
In this struggle, you learned that only by adhering to the assembly can authority be acquired. No one has strength or legitimacy working alone. The secret of your ability to convene people is your stance of including women and victims and your open cry in defense of those who suffer.
Commander Nestora, today Agustina, daughter of the Tu'un Savi [indigeonus people] in Ayutla and wife of Arturo Campos, proudly wears the hat and shirt of the CRAC, because for indigenous peoples, it is a respected uniform. By your side, she raised her fist and voice on behalf of colleagues, who today are also stationed in the courts in Chilpancingo [state capital] demanding the release of their husbands and launching the campaign that you have announced to give “a face and a name to our CRAC political prisoners.” I salute your peers in community police and reaffirm your role as community authority: “at your orders, commander.” Spanish Original
Abel Barrera is director of the Tlachinollan Mountains Human Rights Center in Guerrero. He has been recognized nationally and internationally for his defense of human rights.
For more on this story, see Nestora Salgado.
Related MV Translations:
- Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Nestora Salgado Re-arrested - Legal Proceeding Advances (3/9/2016);
- Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Judges Order Nestora Salgado's Release, But She is Held on 3 New Charges (3/8/2016);
- Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Nestora Salgado Recipient of "Full Punitive Power of Mexican State" (3/2/2016);
- Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Judges Order Nestora Salgado's Judicial Process 'Restarted' (2/26/2016);
- Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Nestora Salgado, UN and State Attorney General Olea (2/22/2016);
- Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Nestora Salgado Stands Tall Supported by International Law (2/21/2016);
- Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Government Deliberately Manipulating Judicial Proceeding Against Nestora Salgado - Lawyer (2/16/2016);
- Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Nestora Salgado's Arrest "Illegal and Arbitrary" - UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (2/3/2016);
- Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Nestora Salgado's Letter from Tepepan Women's Prison (8/28/2015);
- Mexico: Guerrero State Superior Court to Streamline Nestora Salgado's Judicial Process (8/26/2015);
- Nestora Salgado, the Narco-State and Patriarchal Violence (8/24/2015);
- Nestora Salgado Should be Released Immediately" - Human Rights Groups (8/12/2015);
- Witnesses Against Nestora Salgado Fail to Appear to Testify; Process Delayed (8/11/2015);
- Nestora Salgado Presents Her Case (8/10/2015);
- Nestora Salgado Charges: "The Criminals Respected Community Police; The Government Wanted to Destroy Us" (6/23/2015);
- Nestora Salgado Is Illegally Imprisoned; Victim of Irregular Court Proceedings (5/11/2015);
- Mexico-Guerrero: Defending CRAC-PC In Its Time of Crisis (7/19/2014);
- Community Police and Self-Defense Groups: A Necessary Distinction (1/23/2014);
- Self-Defense Groups and Community Police Are Not the Same (1/20/2014);
- "Being a Community Police Officer Is Not a Choice, But An Assembly Decision" (9/27/2013);
- Community Police Justice Focuses On Re-Education, Study and Work for 'Criminals' in Guerrero, Mexico (6/9/2013)