Mexico: 7th of June – 9 years after the repression, the struggle continues!

We hereby publish an unofficial translation of a statement by the Current of the People Red Sun:

This June 7 marks nine years since the arbitrary detention of 22 comrades from the Current of the People Red Sun who were prosecuted for the crimes of terrorism and carrying explosives reserved for use by the Mexican army. The events occurred after the conclusion of the popular teacher mega-march called by the Democratic Movement of Education Workers of Oaxaca (MDTEO).

As is evident, the crimes of which they were accused were a setup by the old State, whose true objective was to criminalize and repress the widespread protest of the peoples of Oaxaca who supported the democratic teachers of Section XXII and the National Coordinating of Educational Workers (CNTE) in its just struggle against the imposition of the misnamed “educational reform” and other structural counter-reforms of Enrique Peña Nieto, which AMLO has not repealed.

In those days, as now, the popular-teachers’ movement called for resistance, developing boycott actions against the electoral farce. In those days, like today, the old State carried out the counterinsurgency tasks of militarization and persecution against the people in struggle.

Our organization fully participated in those days of struggle just as it does today, struggling firmly alongside the democratic teachers under the slogan: It is right to rebel!

The arbitrary arrests of the SolRojistas and other comrades from the teachers’ movement marked those days.

The political prisoners of June 7, 2015, were transferred to the CEFERESO in Tepic, Nayarit, to Villa Aldama, Veracruz and to Mengolí, Oaxaca. They were later transferred to the Etla prison, Oaxaca. In total there were sixteen months of confinement and during all that time it was possible to document the existence of solitary confinement, torture and cruel treatment against our comrades to try to break their spirit of struggle.

Our comrades were released from prison and continued their judicial process until 2018, when Dr. Ernesto Sernas García managed to demonstrate the fabrication of crimes, making it clear that everything was a sham trial against our comrades and two other co-defendants. After this masterful defense, Dr. Sernas García disappeared on May 10, 2018, and to this day we are still looking for him.

Currently our organization demands compliance with recommendations 05/2018 and 01/2023 issued by the Oaxaca Human Rights Ombudsman (DDHPO) and other instruments such as Urgent Action 540/2018 of the UN Committee against Forced Disappearances.

Precisely on May 14, our democratic organization mobilized in the City of Oaxaca demanding the alive presentation of Doctor Ernesto Sernas García, and we remained mobilized marching alongside the MDTEO on May 15, the date since which we have been in a sit-in with the democratic teachers also carrying out actions that help the joint struggle and unity of the popular-teachers’ movement.

From the popular-teachers’ sit-in, on this ninth anniversary of the arbitrary detention of our comrades, we ratify our commitment to continue building the unity of the combative forces of the people based on Unity of Principles and Unity in Action.