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Ten years later the Mexican Supreme Court has revoked the sentence against Indigenous Mazateco & political prisoner Miguel Peralta!
We now demand the courts of Oaxaca to grant Miguel full freedom!
We won’t stop taking the streets in solidarity. We want Miguel in the streets
AVISPA COMMUNITY
Mexico.. Demands for complete freedom for Indigenous Mazatec Community Organizer Miguel Peralta.
The case of Miguel Peralta, community organizer and ex-political prisoner from the community of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, Oaxaca.
The Supreme Court decided to put a definite end to the nearly ten years of political imprisonment and persecution if Miguel Peralt but he awaits confirmation by local Oaxaca Court controlled by ruling oligarchy.
Miguel is one of 35 members of the community assembly of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón criminalized in case number 02/2015, following a socio-political conflict in December 2014.
The conflict was a consequence of mounting tension between the community assembly and the interests of a far right ruling cacique group, backed by political party power, who’ve sought to maintain historic and racist control of the municipal government, municipal funds, and the exploitation of natural resources in the community.
On December 14, 2014, the assembly was violently attacked by the cacique group led by Manuel Zepeda Cortés as they gathered in the town plaza to elect a community authority.
The ensuing violence left two dead, including the son of Manuel Zepeda.
Zepeda’s daughter, Elisa Zepeda Lagunas, would lead the criminalization efforts, fabricating crimes and using positions of political power in the municipality and then state government to influence the legal processes.
Miguel Peralta was arrested in April 2015 on charges related to the events on December 14.
Over two years later, on October 26, 2018, he was sentenced to fifty years in prison for homicide and attempted homicide.
Following an appeal from his legal team, his fifty-year sentence was absolved and his case returned to the final hearing, for the fact that he was denied his right to be at his first final hearing.
Prison authorities had used the excuse that they didn’t have gas money to transport him from prison in Cuicatlán to the court in Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca.
In October 2019, he was acquitted of the charges and released after spending almost 4.5 years in prison.
Following an appeal from the accusing party, on March 4, 2022, the fifty-year sentence was reaffirmed and a warrant put out for his arrest after less than two years of freedom.
Following an appeal to that decision, the collegiate court in Oaxaca returned his legal process back eight years, to the testimony stage, seeking again for Miguel to face this process from inside prison.
In the face of this decision, his legal team filed a request to the Supreme Court of the Nation for a review.
Miguel Peralta is currently free, but with a warrant out for his arrest.
All Eyes on the Supreme Court
“The court had a historic opportunity” explained Miguel Peralta’s lawyer, Araceli Olivos, in a press conference in Mexico City.
The court had the opportunity to set a different precedent in the relation between Indigenous peoples and the Mexican state; a relation that has historically been stained by oppression, exploitation, discrimination, and marginalization against Indigenous peoples.
With the decision to revoke Miguel’s sentence the court begins undoing the historical atrocitiess perpetrated against Indigenous peoples.
Continue reading “Total Freedom NOW for Indigenous Mazateco & political prisoner Miguel Peralta!”
The Free 