On November 25, 2006 Oaxaca experienced one of the most brutal acts of repression in its history. That day more than 140 persons were arrested by the State Police and transferred to the state penitentiary El Rincón in Nayarit, other political prisoners were transferred to state prisons in Matamoros and the State of Mexico, as well as to prisons in Cosolapa, Miahuatlán and Tlacolula.
Today we can observe the same practice with the detainees of October 20 in the City of Mexico who were taken to state prisons without any previous trials as actually prescribed by Mexican law. Violating the legal process of the arbitrarily arrested individuals clearly confirms the state judicial institutions have not yet changed.
Torture, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and massive human rights violations were documented by local, national and international human rights organizations which flocked to Oaxaca in the face of the ongoing crimes in the city. At the request of the Chamber of Deputies an investigation was carried by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCNJ) on the crimes violating individual guarantees in 2006 and 2007.
The decision of the Court found persons like the governor at the time, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, guilty of action and negligence. Other authorities linked to these acts of repression were Héctor Pablo Ramírez Puga, José Manuel Vera Salinas, Manuel Moreno Rivas, Sergio Segreste Ríos, Lizbeth Caña Cadeza and many more. Several of them hold public office in the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which is a signal of the patronage and the corruption that corrode the political class in Mexico. a few of them have died as a result of the system of impunity, for example Lino Celaya Luria who recently passed away and others who were killed to ensure their silence like Alejandro Barrita, head of the Auxiliary, Banking, Industrial and Commercial Police (PABIC) in 2006 and Aristeo Martínez, head of the municipal police forces in Oaxaca.
Eight years have passed since 2006. Despite the existing documentation, the serious violations committed that year basically remain unpunished. The initiated criminal proceedings like the charges of murder or the torture of former prisoners of 2006 among others do not show progress in behalf of the State’s refusal to investigate but indicate clearly that the judicial institutions have failed to guarantee justice and still often work against those opposing to the State.
Today, almost in the final straight of this government, the Truth Commission which the victims, families and social and civil organizations in Oaxaca had been demanding for a long time from the State government is finally presented. We hope that the members of the Commission can accomplish the mission that their tasks are clear and transparent towards a society that is still waiting for justice.
Thus we say: We don’t forget. We continue fighting for Justice, Truth and Reparations for the victims of those incidences.