“Quisieron acabar con mi lucha pero la multiplicaron” | Internacional | EL PAÍS
“Quisieron acabar con mi lucha pero la multiplicaron” | Internacional | EL PAÍS
"They wanted to end my struggle but multiplied"
Patishtán is pardoned by Peña Nieto become an icon of the struggle for the poor Mexican prison crowding
The Mexican government on Thursday ordered the immediate release of the native Alberto Patishtán , imprisoned for 13 years after a criminal trial plagued with irregularities. The Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, was in charge of announcing, by order of the President, pardon the teacher, 42 years. "They wanted to end my struggle but multiplied," said the professor once free, which has become an icon of the rights of the poor and illiterate Mexican prison crowding.
"There are strong indications of serious violations of human rights," Osorio said in reference to the legal analysis Enrique Peña Nieto order to assess Patishtán out of prison. The news was known since Tuesday via the Twitter account of the President , but the government summoned the press to make the official announcement. Shortly later, three officials broke the news to the teacher in the religious house of the Federal District in which it resides while completing medical treatment for the brain tumor he developed in jail.
Patishtán later appeared publicly to tell his epic: "I found in prison humiliations. Indians who have no money to pay a lawyer remain inside. Tears found. Priest but I'm not. Had to make to comfort psychologist stressed out. De doctor and lawyer. " The teacher taught to read and write to a number of prisoners and personally took charge of their cases. In total he participated in the liberation of 22 offenders who legally advised.
Although the fight was hers harder . He entered prison accused of killing seven policemen who protected a mayor of his village in the forests of Chiapas, he was trying to overthrow. Tests were made against him and the witnesses that placed him in another place on the murder were not taken into account. "They wanted to finish me in jail but I am alive and not dead," he said in an accent that betrays that Castilian is not their mother tongue.
Sentenced to 60 years behind bars, he dealt with the situation of his cellmates. Most were poor, illiterate, sometimes not even speak Spanish. The authorities, aware of their influence on the rest of convicts, it moved from one prison to another, and even was incarcerated in a maximum security, Icesave, in Sinaloa, thousands of miles from home. They failed to silence him.
With the pardon in hand made by the Penal Code , in a religious house in which he gathered the press expected a crowd of family and supporters who rushed to hug him on sight appear. An escort of women and men with machetes and their faces covered with bandanas was received with full honors. It was only to hear: "Who is Alberto Patishtán's me, I barely see through the eyes because of my illness, but I see clear through my heart." Every so often was interrupted with cries of "political prisoners freedom" and "no one pardoned, organized people achieved their freedom."
Before the word had taken their children, some children when his father was arrested. Hector Patishtán, the youngest, is the most expressive: "In these 13 years, though he was in jail, I learned with him to keep quiet and not be at the side of the poor, mine". Gabriela, as he said: "When I stopped I was 9 years old and now I have it with me. Now see the fruit of our struggle." The case evidence Patishtán problems of law enforcement in the country, an open secret.
Supporter of the Zapatista Army l states that rebelled against the mayor of his village, also a cousin, ("Manuel Gómez Ruiz", for the record in writing) tired of the humiliation and abuse that was taking people. In prison holds that found more of the same and had no choice but to continue her activism, which will continue to do now released. "The fight continues, Zapata lives!" Voice shouted over
