Within the framework of the 40 years of the EZLN we celebrate the freedom of comrade Manuel Gómez
His freedom is thanks to the struggle and commitment of civil society that managed to move the balance with its actions of social demonstration.
Yesterday Manuel Gómez Vázquez, support base of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (BAEZLN), political prisoner of Mayan-Tseltal origin, regained his freedom after two years, 11 months and seven days of being held hostage by the government of Chiapas. arbitrarily deprived of his freedom at the State Center for the Social Reintegration of Sentenced Persons (Cerss) number 16 in Ocosingo.
We know that his case is not isolated, but is part of a pattern of repression against defenders and activists of indigenous peoples in Chiapas. This repression is not only directed against him personally, the intention of the State is to undermine or wear down the organizational processes and communities of which they are part, in this case towards the Zapatista autonomous project.
On this occasion, the solidarity of civil society managed to move the balance to obtain his freedom. It was only with the increase of his voices and different forms of demands that his oral trial hearing was finally held and his freedom was obtained.
Manuel was arrested on December 4, 2020, in complicity between the municipal authorities of Ocosingo and the Indigenous Justice Prosecutor's Office, he was tortured, disappeared for four days and unjustly accused of a crime that he did not commit.
From September 2022 to November 2023, the Indigenous Justice Prosecutor's Office (FJI) and the Judiciary of Chiapas complicitly rescheduled, on three occasions, the start of the oral trial hearing. The bottom line was that the FJI could not present the testimonies it had fabricated against him, preferring to postpone its simulation strategy at the expense of Manuel's freedom, exceeding the constitutional term of two years of informal preventive detention. The FJI's inability to present the fabricated testimonials was enough to make its simulation strategy visible.
From Frayba we thank you and remember that we still need to snatch from the clutches of repression the Ch'ol comrade José Díaz Gómez, BAEZLN and the five Tseltal defender comrades of San Juan Cancúc. Therefore, we invite you to stay up to date to also mobilize in his favor, until all political prisoners obtain their freedom.
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