Nestora Salgado, of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities (CRAC) of Olinalá, Guerrero, yesterday began a visit to several U.S. cities to promote a campaign for political prisoners in Mexico including her fellow community police who are prisoners. Interviewed at the Mexico City International Airport, she expressed confidence that her release last Friday after 31 months in prison will contribute to the release of her companions, because they are being prosecuted for the same crimes.
MV Note: Nestora Salgado was the elected 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.Accompanied by her daughters, Ruby and Grisel, the leader of the Community Police of Olinalá traveled to Seattle. There she will visit the International Human Rights Clinic of the Faculty of Law of the University of Seattle, where she will begin her campaign. That clinic played a key role in the international defense of Nestora Salgado, as it represented her at various global organizations such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) and the United Nations, who at the time made statements in favor of the community leader.
The CIDH asked the Mexican government to implement several precautionary measures, while the UN, through its Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, considered Nestora Salgado a human rights defender persecuted for her work in favor of the security of the indigenous population. It issued a resolution which stated that her arrest was arbitrary and illegal and that her human rights were violated.
Among the U.S. cities she will visit in the coming days are Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Washington.
"I will return soon to Guerrero because I continue to be the representative of the Community Police, holding office in the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities and also because I'm still commander of my police," she said.Nine community police officers who were arrested along with Salgado remain in prison, including Bernardino Garcia, Gonzalo Molina and Arturo Campos. All are in high security federal prisons. They are accused of "fabricated crimes" and their trials have been plagued by irregularities.
Nestora Salgado insisted that she will not relent in the struggle for the freedom of her comrades, because they acted under the Law 701 of the state of Guerrero, which recognizes the existence, tasks and powers of community police. However, she said, this requires that the movement of various groups and civil society organizations continue to press the authorities.
She also noted that community police continue to operate in towns and municipalities of Guerrero, such as Pochutla, Huamuxtitlán, Tlapa and Tlatlauquitepec, as well as some more are in the process of formation.
She acknowledged that she is afraid, but said it will not stop her in her struggle for the freedom of her peers.
"I will not sit still. It has been shown that if fear paralyzes you, it is easier for them to attack you and run over you," she stressed.Spanish original
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)