Voices in Movement
Marcelino Ruíz, fighting for freedom for 19 years in Chiapas, Mexico. Orginally published by Pozol.org on April 7, 2021, translated by Shantal Montserrat Lopez Victoria.
Transferring prisoners is another way of repressing the struggle for those wrongfully imprisoned.
Marcelino Ruiz Gómez is wrongfully imprisoned in CERSS No. 10 in the city of Comitán de Domínguez, Chiapas, Mexico and has been fighting for his freedom for 19 years against his arbitrary detention, torture and serious violations of due process of law. The Tsotsil indigenous man is founder of the Vineketik Organization in Resistance and adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle of the EZLN.
Marcelino is originally from the municipality of San Juan Chamula; he and his family cultivated vegetables on their land and sold them in the San Cristóbal de Las Casas market. On February 5, 2002, he was arbitrarily arrested and tortured.
After several years in prison, Marcelino became aware of the discrimination and violence suffered by indigenous people inside the prisons: “by police, guards, administrative staff and all court personnel, from the judge to those who make copies of criminal files based on illicit evidence,” said the Sexta adherent.
For this reason, Marcelino decided in 2015 to assert his human rights and speak out; he demanded the director of the CERSS of San Cristobal de Las Casas to improve the deteriorating conditions under which the inmates were kept: poor food, unsanitary cells, lack of adequate medical, psychological and dental health services. Not only did the director not listen to his request but retaliated by transferring him to CERSS No. 12 in the municipality of Yajalón, Chiapas. It was there where he staged two hunger strikes to demand his immediate transfer and to be closer to his family. The first strike lasted three days and two months passed without response. The second strike lasted eight days: “with the support of Frayba (Fray Bartolome de las Casas Center for Human Rights) and other collectives, I achieved my transfer closer to home. I was transferred to CERSS No. 10, here in Comitán in April 7, 2015,” recalls the indigenous Chiapaneco.
Marcelino has been taken away from his family and children as a means of repression for protesting. His mother has found it difficult to make long trips to visit him, in addition she is a widow and lacks resources. “The effects on prison aren’t only on me but also on my family. Due to the lack of access to justice, they suffer with me every moment of repression. They feel scared and terrified. It is clear to us that the real criminals are in power and they make laws the way they want and the jails are full of indigenous people,” Ruíz Gómez denounces.
“Inside the prison I have learned many skills: I weave hammocks, bags and wooden crafts so i can support my family. Now I’m drawing, which is something that allows me to feel free and gives me strength to keep fighting,” says Marcelino, who on April 1 launched a virtual graphic exhibition called “For Life and Freedom”.
On March 15, 2019, the indigenous Tsotsil founded the Vineketik Organization in Resistance to fight for his freedom and to highlight the serious human rights violations within the criminal proceedings carried out with the use of torture. “We are innocent, we are paying for a crime we did not commit and we demand our freedom from the government,” he reported.
“They serve us very little and rotten food, which are strategies to intimidate me to stop resisting and fighting. You need everyone’s support to fight, otherwise the repression increases. Thanks to the support of collectives, Frayba and the media, my voice has been heard all over,” Marcelino said.
It’s remarkably difficult to dream beyond the borders of the ideologies and structures that we rage against while we still live under their hegemonic sway. Part of why we despise (or should!), say, patriarchy or capitalism is because to varying degrees, we are all socialized and misshaped by their violent logics.
Thus even with the clearest of “anarchist eyeglasses,” our vision of what’s possible becomes cloudy, unable to stretch toward horizons that let us glimpse, say, what a world without cops might look like, rather than continue to either have cops (even small ones) in our heads or call only for their abolition. This often is apparent, for instance, in rebellious urban redecoration efforts; it’s relatively easy on a walk to spot numerous #ACAB tags, but rare to see any #ArtOfResistance that articulates what we imagine instead of police.
If we don’t rigorously practice—even on the level of word choices…
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A few quick notes:
Tomorrow, Tuesday April 20th, Kate Wilson will be appearing in court in London as part of an ongoing case she’s bringing against the cops who spied on her:
“Kate Wilson was deceived into a long term intimate relationship by Mark Stone, who she now knows was undercover police officer Mark Kennedy.
A decade after Kate’s legal case against the police began, it concludes with a hearing at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal from 20th-28th April.
Among other issues, this case will examine sexist discrimination within the Metropolitan Police Service, and the systemic disregard for women’s fundamental human rights between 1998 and 2010.
Her case refers to the actions of at least 6 different undercover officers serving in the secret political spycops units, the Special Demonstration Squad and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, during that time.
Kate has already received startling admissions that the police breached…
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Page, Arizona – Loren Reed, a 26-year-old Diné (Navajo) man, is set for trial on May 4, 2021 for a trumped-up federal charge of “Threats to Damage and Destroy a Building by Means of Fire” after he engaged in a heated debate over Black Lives Matter protest tactics[1] in a private Facebook chat group created to organize a local police brutality protest. Reed has been held in federal pretrial detention without bail for ten months after a prior high school acquaintance reported him to the police for a different satirical social media post about planning a protest or ‘riot’ at the courthouse that never actually happened. An undercover FBI agent then infiltrated the private chat group, and monitored numerous messages exchanged by Reed and his friends. After this intrusive monitoring of speech, and lacking any real evidence, Reed was quickly and violently arrested in his neighborhood on June, 2, 2020. Nothing incriminating was found during or after the arrest, despite officers thoroughly searching Reed’s home and even his housemates.
“This federal charge is unconstitutional because there was never a legally-justified ‘true threat’ contained in the posts that would remove the broad protections of the First Amendment that apply even to vitriolic or offensive speech,[2]” said CLDC Executive Director Lauren Regan, one of the attorneys assisting Loren Reed on the case. “The supposed “threat” was never communicated to any target or victim, there was no intent to act or any evidence of an intent to act, and there is no lawful basis to federally prosecute someone for speech only – much less an Indigenous organizer confronting racism in a very conservative region of Arizona.”
“Prosecuting someone in these circumstances takes us down the slippery slope of what is protected speech versus what is a ‘true threat’ justifying criminal prosecution. We must hold strong to the outer limits of the First Amendment or we all lose the right to freely speak our minds. Today the criminalized speech may pertain to Black Lives Matter protests, but tomorrow it could be religion, science, or other political beliefs.” Regan said.
Over the course of the next ten months, Reed was held without formal charge for a month in the Coconino County Jail, where he contracted COVID-19 and where his close friend had died the year before after being denied medical care.[3] He was later transferred to a private for-profit federal detention center in Florence, Arizona, a polluted copper mining town turned prison industrial complex hub. Reed was not indicted with a crime until late September. His trial has now been delayed three times and is currently set for May 4, 2021.
The U.S. Attorney’s office blames the pandemic for the following nine months of additional detention in which Reed was denied a speedy trial – or even bail – and in which it filed three separate motions to ‘extend’ his case. However, that has not stopped the government from attempting to bury this miscarriage of justice by informally suggesting an oppressive plea agreement that would result in a felony conviction, and likely probationary sentence.
“For an Indigenous person who faces the reality of institutional racism in his daily life, being threatened with a conviction for a crime he did not commit is a precarious, life-devastating burden,” stated Klee Benally, a longtime Diné (Navajo) sacred lands advocate and organizer from Flagstaff, Arizona. “It is courageous of Loren to refuse to accept this atrocious deal. While it could free him from custody immediately, it would endanger organizers and activists in the future by further criminalizing speech. Loren is taking a powerful stand, and we need to stand right there with him.”
Reed, a rapper who is known as a sensitive yet enthusiastic jokester, adamantly denies that there was any threat implied in his posts. Anyone reading them[4] with an open mind would agree. And yet, the State wants to saddle a young Indigenous man with a felony conviction that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
“This is yet another attempt to control the speech and tone of a person of color amidst a year of heartbreaking – and increasingly fatal – racially-motivated police violence. Appallingly, in this situation the State has chosen to exploit a snitch’s biased complaint to police[5] in order to further perpetuate this cycle of violence,” said Regan.
“We are calling on the federal prosecutor to immediately dismiss the charge in the interests of justice. Mr. Reed has already served over 10 months in pretrial detention for speech that did not actually threaten anyone,” she added.
“As Indigenous justice advocates, we stand with Loren Reed. The criminalization of Loren — and his right to free speech — is an ongoing violation of Indigenous rights and overall justice,” said Morning Star Gali of the Pit River Tribe, a lifelong Indigenous rights advocate with Restoring Justice for Indigenous Peoples who is currently based out of Sacramento, California.
“We also need to talk about the racism at play here,” said CLDC Attorney Sarah Alvarez. “Already, the feds are declining to prosecute, electing to charge petty misdemeanors, and/or negotiating lenient plea deals[6] for the white supremacists that assaulted the U.S. Capitol on January 6. They have also entirely turned a blind eye toward the hundreds of far-right individuals who threatened politicians and police via social media. Meanwhile, an Indigenous man has been sitting in jail without due process for 10 months – all over a tongue-in-cheek social media post where no violence or property damage ever occurred nor was ever intended to occur. It’s difficult to prove this in court, but Mr. Reed’s case is a textbook example of race-based disparate treatment, and it needs to end with an immediate dismissal of the charge against him.”
Reed is scheduled for a jury trial starting May 4 but there’s still time for the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice to do the right thing and immediately drop the charge to let him return to his life.
Notes
[1] Defendant Mot. to Dismiss Due to Likely Presentation of Inaccurate, Incomplete or Misleading Information to Grand Jury at 4, US v. Reed, No. CR-20-09098-PCT-SPL (ESW) (Dist. Ct. 9d Cir. Ct. Phoenix Div., Arizona. April 2, 2021).
[2] Defendant Mot. to Dismiss for Inadequate Indictment at 6, US v. Reed, No. CR-20-09098-PCT-SPL (ESW) (Dist. Ct. 9d Cir. Ct. Phoenix Div., Arizona. April 2, 2021)
[3] “Jail footage shows Kyle Martinson yell for help before death,” Arizona Daily Sun, June 17, 2019. https://azdailysun.com/news/jail-footage-shows-kyle-martinson-yell-for-help-before-death/article_ea48524d-8991-50cd-91a9-8f67ae8ec3c8.html
[4] “Indigenous man faces 10 years for Facebook comments,” Al Jazeera, January 19, 2021. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/19/holdindigenous-man-faces-10-years-for-facebook-comments-during-b
[5] Defendant Mot. to Dismiss for Selective Enforcement & Selective Prosecution; Mot. for Discovery at 5, US v. Reed, No. CR-20-09098-PCT-SPL (ESW) (Dist. Ct. 9d Cir. Ct. Phoenix Div., Arizona. April 2, 2021)
[6] “Many Capitol rioters unlikely to serve jail time,” Politico. March 30, 2021. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/30/jan-6-capitol-riot-jail-time-478440
A year ago today, people in the south Yorkshire village of Woodsetts waited to hear whether the government would approve Ineos plans to drill for shale gas near their homes.
90 miles away, this scene was repeated in Cheshire where IGas was seeking permission to test its shale gas well at Ellesmere Port.
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On Saturday 17 April we marched, with noise and energy, from Brimstone House to the Carpenters Estate. It is shocking and enraging to see the almost empty tower blocks on the Carpenters Estate – council flats left empty for over ten years, whilst we know that families with children in Brimstone House are crammed into unsuitable accommodation which is unfit and unhealthy for children.
At the same time as the residents from Brimstone House were on the march and demanding to be moved, the Mayor of Newham, in a parallel universe was patting herself on the back and sharing a tweet from Populo living, Newham council’s housing company:
11 families! How insulting, when tens of thousands are left to languish on the housing waiting list, and in Brimstone House alone, over 200 families are stuck in shoddy, cramped accommodation. Families living in hostels across the borough do not care…
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A few quick updates:
On Friday 16th, cleaners organised through the grassroots union CAIWU will be protesting against sackings at Broadgate Estates in Central London. You can read more about the background to the dispute here.
Over the weekend, there’ll be more protests against the policing bill, with 38 planned at the time of writing. Currently the list stands at:
Saturday 12th April:
11am:
Dorchester Town Pump, Dorchester
12pm:
Lowestoft town centre opposite WH Smiths, Lowestoft
1pm:
Bournemouth Square, Bournemouth
The Leas Bandstand, Folkestone
Hanley bus station, Stoke-on-Trent
Police station, High Street, Winchester
1.30pm:
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The definitions of fracking in the UK are limited, ambiguous and inconsistent, a new study has said.
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Wessex Solidarity 