Yesterday, August 2nd, 2017, a hearing was scheduled for five of the seven remaining political prisoners of the community assembly of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, Oaxaca. As has become the norm in this legal process—that is to say irregularities becoming the norm—the prisoners were not brought to the court and the supposed witnesses didn’t arrive to give their testimonies. With the state citing lack of resources—including the lack of gas money for the patrol cars to transport the prisoners to the hearing—the legal process again has been delayed until another hearing is scheduled. The supposed lack of resources to transport the prisoners works hand in hand with the ongoing inaction of the supposed witnesses to fulfill their duty to give their supposed testimonies. The justification goes something like this: if the witnesses aren’t to arrive to give their testimonies, sparse resources shouldn’t be used to transport the prisoners to the hearing. These justifications work as a circle of falsities that maintain our comrades imprisoned on fabricated crimes.
The current municipal president of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, and one of the remaining six individuals who have failed to give their testimony in the case, Elisa Zepeda Lagunas, has cited threats of violence and intimidation as a pretext to not attend her scheduled appearance to give her testimony. She claims an opposition group has threatened to arrive with sticks and machetes in front of the court in the case she arrives. This pretext flies in the face of reality, as those present yesterday in front of the court, as is always the case, were family members and friends, sharing coffee and food, hoping to see their loved ones and comrades. It is important to mention that highly armed police forces were also present yesterday both in front of the court as well as throughout the community of Huautla de Jimenez where the hearing was to take place. This heightened police presence is an insidious order from the judge, serving to intimidate family members and comrades present at the court rather than protect the supposed witnesses and the fictional threats against them.
As the legal process has been filled with these types of irregularities, and the judge is clearly working in the interests of, and in direct collaboration with, Elisa Zepeda Lagunas and her father Manuel Zepeda, the judicial route to freedom for the political prisoners seems bleak at best. With that, as comrades of the political prisoners, we ask that you show your solidarity by spreading the word far and wide, and remaining attentive to the case of the political prisoners and the ongoing resistance and repression in Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, Oaxaca.