I arrive at the jail and the first thing they ask me at the entrance is to show my identification. I go down six steps, and four women at a table go through the articles I want to bring in. My bag stays there. After that, I am subjected to a physical search. I go through the second set of bars and then down 20 steps. After passing through four more sets of bars, I find myself in the Cerro Hueco jail. Some of the inmates approach me, asking for money. Others ask me who I’m looking for, and they offer to help. “I’m looking for the Voice of Cerro Hueco people,” I tell them, and someone leads me to their cell. The place is a large, 64-square-meter room, divided by a wooden wall. On a second floor, additional spaces have been created with wooden partitions. More than 55 persons sleep in this place, the majority of them on the floor.

There has been talk about the inadequacies of the Mexican penal system for many years. It is said that the CERESOs (Social Rehabilitation Centers, the formal name for Mexican jails) have not offered viable alternatives for the persons who, for a variety of reasons, find themselves incarcerated. In Chiapas, a large percentage of the prisoners are indigenous. These persons from different cultures, with different customs regarding the administration of justice, with a mother tongue that is not Spanish, are at a greater disadvantage when it comes to knowing about and defending their rights to a clean and just process in their cases.

While it is true that the government of Chiapas has been able to secure personnel who speak the languages and understand the culture of the indigenous, the reality is that this has not been sufficient. This partly explains the emergence, within the CERESO #1 of Tuxtla Gutierrez, of a group organized to defend the rights of indigenous prisoners. Known as the “Voice of Cerro Hueco,” the group is made up primarily of indigenous, from the Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Chol and Tojolabal ethnic groups.

How Was The Voice of Cerro Hueco Created?

Following the January 1994 armed uprising, there was an increase in the number of indigenous prisoners in Cerro Hueco and in other jails in the state. In the northern region (Chol area) during 1995 and 1996, the PRI-affiliated paramilitary group Development Peace and Justice carried out many attacks (killings, house burnings, cattle rustling, etc.) against PRD sympathizers or Zapatista supporters. In police actions characterized by many irregularities, members of these opposition groups were arrested. During this time period, the Chols came to represent 70% of those detained due to political conflicts.

In response to this situation, the indigenous prisoners began organizing themselves in order to find lawyers to take their cases. Gustavo Estrada Gomez, who has been a member of the Voice of Cerro Hueco since its inception, recalled: “We began talking, because there wasn’t any organization here, and there was no one to look at our files and resolve our cases; only the public defenders and the local and federal courts, and they are absolutely part of the government.” Since the conflict began, there have been a total of 250 political prisoners. Today about 80 still remain in Cerro Hueco and in other jails in the state.

The Hunger Strikes

The internal talks began in July and August of 1996, as did the first organizing work and the raising of awareness as to their rights. It was through these activities that they decided to begin a hunger strike on September 1 of that year. The organization, with around 80 members, was formally created with that event. By coincidence, on that same date the EZLN decided to leave the negotiating table at San Andres and not return until the government had agreed to its five conditions, including the release of the political prisoners. This and other conditions still have not been met, and the imprisoned indigenous continue to struggle from their cells through a variety of means, including hunger strikes.

The state government, in order to counter the pressure generated by the hunger strikes, released several leaders at the end of 1996. It was they who would begin the movement’s external representation. From that time forward, they would maintain communication with NGOs, the media and a variety of officials.

The Wejlel March

In May of 1997, in order to break the blockade imposed by Development Peace and Justice and in order to seek the release of the prisoners, hundreds of Chol EZLN and PRD sympathizers, accompanied by some foreigners, set off from the northern region. They headed for the state capital in order to ask for a hearing with the governor. The marchers overcame a variety of obstacles in order to reach Tuxtla. When they finally arrived, they organized a sit-in in front of the Government Palace. They waited for 100 days, but the meeting with the governor never took place. They did manage to negotiate with other officials and to achieve the release of some leaders. The majority of the prisoners from the northern region were freed after this period. However, persecution against Zapatista supporters continued, and the number of prisoners began to increase again. One of the methods that the government used was the dismantling of the autonomous counties.

The Detention of Zapatista Autonomy Authorities

In 1998, the state government, arguing the need to enforce respect for the rule of law, began the task of dismantling the so-called “autonomous counties” through combined police-military operations. These “autonomous counties” had been announced by EZLN supporters in a number of communities in the conflict area (see SIPAZ Report, Vol. III, No. 3). The dismantling of the autonomous counties took place during a three-month period in the following manner:

• Taniperlas (Ricardo Flores Magon County) – April 11, 1998.
• Amparo Aguatinta (Tierra y Libertad County) – May 1, 1998.
• Nicolas Ruiz (county with a PRD administration) – June 3, 1998.
• El Bosque (San Juan de la Libertad County) – June 10, 1998.

As many as 200 persons were arrested during these operations. Several dozen remain in custody today.

The dismantlings were carried out violently and included a series of human rights violations and irregularities in the legal processes. Don Juan, a peasant in his sixties who has been imprisoned since October 6, 1997, demonstrates the impact these operations have on individuals: “It makes me angry, because I’m not from that class that they say, a criminal. [The police] took us out in the park so that everybody could see us…I thought they were going to humiliate us there. Right now my concern is my wife who is sick from an accident she had. She doesn’t have anyone to take care of her, and if I’m here much longer, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

In its investigation of the Taniperlas case, the CNDH (government National Human Rights Commission) verified the incidents that occurred and the inappropriate measures and actions taken by various officials. This led to their release of Recommendation No. 49/98, directed to the governor of Chiapas, inviting him to:

” …review and reevaluate the legal situation of the current complainants and those affected by…the existence of various irregularities, as well as the absence of basic procedural formalities…[and] give orders to begin the administrative proceedings against the public servants who participated in the arbitrary detention of…

Similar irregularities also were present to some degree in the other operations that were carried out.

The government never considered the political impact inside Cerro Hueco of the arrival of a number of autonomous county authorities. The Voice of Cerro Hueco’s structure itself changed from an Executive Committee to an Autonomous Representative Council. This process took two months to take shape, and it is still continuing to be consolidated today. The Council meets every Sunday, and there is a General Assembly every Monday where agreements are reached and initiatives undertaken.

Through this new format, which will soon have been in existence for one year, the Zapatista principle of “govern by obeying” is being made continuously more effective. As the current Coordinator of the Council, Amado Galvez Gomez, comments: “When someone comes to talk with the organization, they no longer go to just one person. Instead they meet with the Council, and the Council makes the decisions. There has been a very great change in the Voice of Cerro Hueco.”

The President of the “Tierra y Libertad” Autonomous County Council, arrested along with his compañeros on May 1, 1998, goes into more detail: “Every region named its representatives to the Council…and whether or not we are Zapatistas…here we remember that we should respect each other, and that our struggle is for autonomy and for the right to demand our liberty with justice and dignity.”

On April 14 this year, the academic Sergio Valdez Ruvalcaba (who had been arrested in Taniperlas) left the jail. He had to post bail of 5600 pesos (about $500). A week before leaving, Sr. Valdez commented to SIPAZ that, if he were to leave by posting bail, it would be due to a decision by the Council of the Voice of Cerro Hueco, based on the judgment that his collaboration could have greater impact outside the jail. Luis Menendez, another of those detained at Taniperlas, commented: “Remaining in the jail is a signal, inwardly, of human solidarity with my compañeros, and, outwardly, of a denunciation of the justice system that exists in Chiapas.”

Precarious Situation in the Jail

The Cerro Hueco jail has a capacity of 3-400 prisoners. However, it currently houses around 1200 inmates, with most of them stacked on top of each other. Medical services are sporadic and insufficient, and it is almost impossible to develop an income that would support a family. It is difficult to secure an adequate market to sell the handicraft products that they make.

This situation has obvious repercussions for the families who remain outside, unprotected now, since the prisoners had been the means of those families’ support. Maria Antonieta, the wife of a prisoner from one of the autonomous counties, commented while nursing her daughter, “We are suffering a lot, and we’re confronting several kinds of problems, such as health and feeding my children. I had to solve them myself, although I was dying from weeping and desperation. I even got sick, but now, so what? What else can I do if the bad government doesn’t listen?”

Flaws in the Legal System

The issue of Mexico’s legal system has been the subject of studies as a consequence of several cases that have been presented before national, as well as international, bodies. Among the latter are Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States, as well as some UN committees. From their reports, one may conclude that Mexico has a very good legal system, but that it fails at the moment of enforcing those laws. Due to diverse reasons – among them corruption and the manipulation by individual, partisan and state interests – true outrages have been committed against the fundamental rights of persons and groups by the legal system.

At a national level, the government body, the CNDH (National Human Rights Commission) has documented several cases throughout the country. One of the constants in these cases has been the number of irregularities by public officials in several parts of the legal process.

In the case of the prisoners of the Voice of Cerro Hueco, the following factors have been consistently cited: unjust detentions, accusations based on false testimony, and obvious irregularities in the procedures followed in their cases. One important aspect is the fact that their legal files include the information that they are members of the political opposition (independent social organizations, EZLN support groups, or members of the PRD), even though their political affiliation is supposedly irrelevant to their charges.

Another constant, according to Miguel Angel de los Santos, a lawyer for many of these prisoners, is that “…the public ministry agent acted with a speed that we all know is not characteristic of the Mexican legal system. Inquiries were carried out in record time, which is not seen in other cases…The judge is required by law to thoroughly and objectively review the preliminary inquiry. However this is not being done, and that has to do with the speed…to the point where public security police immediately orchestrate operations as if they were already waiting for the arrest warrant. That’s what happened in the cases of [the autonomous counties of] Taniperlas, Tierra y Libertad, Nicolas Ruiz and in other individual cases.”

The cases of homonyms deserves special mention (Manuel Fernandez Perez, Miguel Hernandez Perez, Antonio Lopez Vazquez), whose names are exactly the same as other detainees. Because of this, they have been charged with other crimes, and this has led to their sentences being extended. The authorities, however, have not investigated this in depth (with the Federal Electoral Commission or with the Civil Registry) in order to properly delineate responsibilities.

According to lawyer de los Santos, “This system of obtaining justice has reached such a point that persons accused of a crime are presumed guilty until they themselves demonstrate their innocence. On the contrary, the law says that a person should be considered innocent until those accusing him present evidence indicating his responsibility for those acts.”

In these circumstances, inasmuch as they are not isolated actions but rather a form of administering justice rooted in the structure of power itself, the legal resolution of political prisoners’ cases is much more complicated. The solution will also have to be political.

The existence of so many legal irregularities and the human suffering that this has caused underscore the importance of visits by the UN Special Rapporteur for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers and by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, as requested by a hundred Mexican NGOs during the recent session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.