Manuel, a 22-year-old Tseltal campesino, is a native of Ricardo Flores Magón autonomous Zapatista rebel municipality, Good Government Junta Rebel Thought, Caracol IX, Nuevo Jerusalén, located in the official municipality of Ocosingo.
The oral trial hearing was scheduled for this March 7. Consequently, they demanded that the Prosecutor’s Office dismiss the accusation against the Maya-Tseltal, because it was based on a set-up. However, that did not happen.
The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) demanded the immediate release of Manuel Gómez Vázquez, a support base of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN, Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional), who has been arbitrarily deprived of his freedom for 2 years and 3 months in the State Social Reinsertion Center for the Sentenced (CERSS) No. 16 in Ocosingo.
An armed civilian group and community authorities illegally arrested Manuel on December 4, 2020. He was tortured and suffered cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The next day, he was handed over to the Municipal Public Security Secretariat and investigative police from the Indigenous Justice Prosecutor’s Office, under the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE).
He was made available to the Control Court and the Court of Prosecution for the Ocosingo Judicial District on December 9, 2020, added the Frayba Center.
Between December 4 and 5 of that year, in the El Censo ejido 1, in Ocosingo, a series of violent acts took place that resulted in 4 people dead. As a result, the Human Rights Center affirmed that the Office of the Prosecutor of Indigenous Justice did not carry out a diligent and scientific investigation, charging Gómez Vázquez with homicide, despite the fact that at the time of the events he was at home with his family.
Manuel is being judicially criminalized along with his family, for being part of the EZLN support base, since the Prosecutor’s Office lacks evidence to accuse him, Frayba said.
On the contrary, they indicated, that the office had fabricated evidence to suit its own purposes, since they did not present the alleged witnesses to testify, which has resulted in the Oral Trial hearing being postponed on two occasions. In addition, there are no autopsies for the homicides and the State Judiciary has exceeded the preventive detention that in no case shall exceed two years.
Finally, they made a call to the individuals, collectives, as well as national and international organizations, to be in solidarity and demand that the FGE and the State Judicial Power immediately release the EZLN support base.
The ffollowing is a call for artwork so support Manuel:
Call for artwork in solidarity with Indigenous Zapatista political prisoner Manuel Gómez Vázquez
To all the compañerxs who are artists, painters, graphic designers, and others who express their hearts through the visual arts:
We want to extend this invitation to an art campaign demanding freedom for our compañero Manuel Gómez Vázquez. Manuel is a member of the Zapatista Support Bases (BAZ), and has been arbitrarily detained for two years and three months.
Manuel’s case is a clear example of how the current government of supposed transformation continues utilizing the State and its machinery of death to beat down those who struggle for life. In this case, the State uses prison as a tool to repress and generate exhaustion. However, we know that this will never stop us. We will struggle until our compañero Manuel is free. We will do everything in our imaginations to demand his freedom.
From our collective heart, we ask you all to show your solidarity with this cause, and from your creativity and talent, make art demanding the freedom of our compañero Manuel. For practical reasons, we ask that the artwork be scanned digitally so we can reproduce and share them in the streets, plazas, social centers, schools, social media, and other spaces. We will be accepting submissions from March 14 to March 28 at the email address: ajmaq_chiapas@riseup.net.
We also ask the compañerxs of the national and international sixth to reproduce and share the artwork being submitted.
An embrace from our collective heart from the Jobel Valley.
Free Manuel Gómez Vázquez!
Down with the prison walls!
Prisons will never stop us!