Community Advocate Nestora Salgado Marks Two Years of False Imprisonment Jose Antonio Roman - La Jornada
go to original August 21, 2015

Nestora with Olinalá community police. (Organization Free Nestora Salgado)

In a process plagued with irregularities, Nestora Salgado García marks two years in prison this Friday with no end to her legal proceedings in sight and, with it, her possible release.

Exonerated by a federal judge in March of last year, the community advocate and leader of the Regional Coordinating Body of Community Authorities [CRAC-PC] in the indigenous village of Olinalá, in the Mountain region of Guerrero state, is still facing three criminal cases in civil court for aggravated kidnapping.

In two years of proceedings, not one of the 53 accusers have been brought before the courts to corroborate their complaints. This ensures new violations to the law and Salgado’s human rights: to be judged in two different courts for the same crime.

According to César Sandino Rivero, one of Salgado’s attorneys, her prolonged and continued incarceration, despite insufficient evidence and conflicting statements, is sanctioned pigheadedness. "There is no legal explanation for such action," he said.

Neither is there apparent light at the end of the tunnel of justice that would allow her liberation, despite pressure from national and international human rights groups and from civil society; even the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights [CIDH] has requested precautionary measures that Mexico’s government has shown strong reluctance to comply with.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Related: Nestora Salgado Marks Two Years Detention By Calling On Civil Society to Fight for Release of All "Political Prisoners" (La Jornada)

Translated by Danielle M. Antonetti

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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