To the Comisión Sexta of the EZLN
To the adherents of the Other Campaign in Mexico
To the adherents of the Zezta International
To alternative national and international media
To the peoples of Mexico and the World
Central Penitentiary Santa María Ixcotel, Oaxaca, June 2009
Political prisoners and prisoners of conscience from the Loxicha Region en coordination with the Zapatista Collective of Oaxaca want to make known the following:
1. On February 9th, 2006, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos visited us in the Santa Maria Ixcotel Penitentiary, in Oaxaca to tell us that we’re not alone and that we have a space in the Othre Campaign.
2. The night of February 11th, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos invited all organizations adherent to the Other Campaign in Oaxaca to launch a proposal on a national level to demand the freedom of political prisoners, the cancellation of arrest warrants against social activists the return of people in exile, the presentation with life of the disappeared and justice for those who have been murdered.
3. We know the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle and we see ourselves in it, we agree with the idea that alone as indigenous people we can’t move forward in the struggle, that we need all simple and humble people and that we should struggle from below and from the left.
4. Three years after this invitation was made and seeing that no organization has begun a serious and consequential struggle for the freedom of political prisoners in Oaxaca, we have analyzed and decided that the struggle for our freedom must come from ourselves, it has to start from inside this prison.
5. Last Thursday, May 21, 2009 we held a press conference inside the Penitentiary to make public our decision to start a new period of struggle for our freedom. We have designated the Presbyterian Wilfrido Mayran Peláez as the person in whom we place our trust to make our voice heard in the media and the public.
6. We invite all organizations, collectives, families and individuals to join us in solidarity and respect in this new period of struggle.
7. We announce that this June 8th, we will begin a Caravan-March from the Municipality of San Agustín Loxicha towards the nation’s capital to demand our immediate and unconditional freedom. This is the itinerary:
