The Presidential Pardon does not end the Struggle for the Liberty of Indigenous Prisoners - Alberto Patishtán

Proceso, 30^th November, 2013

From the Editorial Board

After spending thirteen years in prison, on Saturday the Tzotzil teacher Alberto Patishtán arrived in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas; there he said that the fight for the freedom of the indigenous, who are unjustly imprisoned, did not end with the presidential pardon.

On October 31st, President Enrique Peña Nieto confirmed his decision to pardon Patishtán Gómez and notified his immediate release.

Patishtán had spent thirteen years and four months in prison as part of a 60-year sentence after being accused of involvement in the deaths of seven policemen in an ambush in the municipality of El Bosque, Chiapas, in 2000.

He had been in Mexico City since October 7th undergoing radiation therapy at the “Manuel Velasco Suárez” National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery for treatment of the recurrence of a brain tumour, removed in 2012.

The teacher was received on Saturday at the Ángel Albino Corzo Airport by members of the El Bosque Movement for the Freedom of Alberto Patishtán Gómez.

Patishtán was taken to the Cathedral of San Cristóbal to visit the tomb of Bishop Samuel Ruiz.

He said he felt that his release is not a personal triumph, but results from the demand of his community and his defenders.

“What the people need is justice,” he declared.

According to the newspaper La Jornada, former governor Roberto Albores Guillén [1998-2000], whose government was responsible in 2000 for the imprisonment of the teacher, travelled on the same flight as Patishtán to the Chiapas capital.

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