See footnote at the end of this story for previous BB coverage of Nestora
El Daily Post, reported today that the UN group said;
“In the first place, there is no doubt that the arrest and detention without charges is illegal and thus arbitrary." Not only did the panel call the arrest arbitrary it said Mexico "should not only free her but also compensate her for the violation of her human rights.Furthermore, the military arresting civilians for presumed crimes when national security is not at risk is worrying.”
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| with her husband in Washiington state |
After making several trips back home to visit family in Olinala she became increasingly concerned about the lawlessness and cartel domination that her hometown was experiencing. That concern and anguish reached a boiling point a taxi driver was killed for not paying a "piso" (protection money) to a cartel.
She organized and led a community police force, (completely legal for indigenous communities under state and federal law) with mounted patrols to protect residents from organized crime and corruption. She was viewed as a local hero much the same as Dr. Mireles was in Michoacan.
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But she was to meet much the same fate as Dr. Mireles when she was arrested in August 2013 by federal and state authorities for "kidnapping". A federal judge cleared her of those charges but she has continued to be held in prison on related state charges even though Guerrero’s governor called for her release last year.
Salgado was accused of kidnapping in connection with the arrest of several teenage girls on suspicion of drug dealing, and of a town official who was allegedly trying to steal a cow at the scene of a double killing.
Even though state law allows Olinalá and Guerrero’s other indigenous communities to organize their own police forces and make arrests, the families of the detained girls complained to state and federal officials who then said the arrests were illegal and constituted kidnapping.
In her first interview in June of 2015 (nearly 2 years after her arrest) with the international press since her imprisonment Nestora told the Guardian she was guilty of nothing more than helping her community stand up to the narcos and their corrupt political allies, and called on the Mexican government to release her and drop all the charges.
“I have no regrets about what I did, and I never will have any regrets,” she told the Guardian. “I am not a person who likes to confront the authorities, but in a place where dialogue is not possible, what else can you do?”
In the Guardian interview, sitting on her prison hospital bed in white and blue flannel pyjamas, Salgado, 43, said she had never underestimated the risks involved in taking a stand.
“The government is against people who want to do the right thing and protect their communities,” she said. “I know I have made my family suffer, but it is a sacrifice that had to be made.”
“I knew that when I started to expose the municipal government that there was a risk I would be arrested or killed,” she said. “I didn’t care. It was necessary.”
Government officials ignored her US passport. She was denied contact with her lawyers and family for almost year. Since imprisonment she has been denied adequate medical care and access to clean water, although recently she was moved to another prison ostensibly so she could get better medial care.
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| Salgado's daughter |
As reported in El Daily Post, The International Human Rights Clinic at Seattle University Law School has been pursuing her case at the U.N.’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Geneva, Switzerland, for about two years.
Thomas Antkowiak, the law clinic’s director. said of the report;
“This is a very important channel for political pressure: We have an impartial, international panel that says she’s detained illegally. I think it’s kind of a breakthrough,” he said. “We’ve been in ongoing negotiations with the government in Mexico, the federal government mainly, and those have gone nowhere. We’re hoping this is going to inject new life into those negotiations.”
“She’s endured over two years of illegal detention, without evidence or a trial against her,” Antkowiak said. “She’s a political prisoner.”
As reported in the Guardian story,
“We are facing a monster in Mexico and we know how dirty politics are,” said her husband, José Louis Villa. “The government gives three choices to activists. You can be bought, you can be killed or you can be put in prison.”
Meanwhile, La Comandata remains defiant. In an 30-minute interview, she only appeared to drop her guard for a brief moment as she described seeing herself in the mirror last month for the first time since her arrest.
“They try to destroy you in that place,” she said. Then she straightened her back and continued:
“But I am strong.”
As reported in the Guardian story,
“We are facing a monster in Mexico and we know how dirty politics are,” said her husband, José Louis Villa. “The government gives three choices to activists. You can be bought, you can be killed or you can be put in prison.”
Meanwhile, La Comandata remains defiant. In an 30-minute interview, she only appeared to drop her guard for a brief moment as she described seeing herself in the mirror last month for the first time since her arrest.
“They try to destroy you in that place,” she said. Then she straightened her back and continued:
“But I am strong.”
**DD; The government of Mexico at all levels is afraid of a "hero of the people" . BB has has reported extensively on Nestora and her case. The following links are some of those stories, but for a full list simply type "Nestora Salgado" into the search box located at the bottom right of this page. For stories that were posted on Forum and not on front page, just go to Forum and do the same in the search engine there.
http://borderland-beat-forum.924382.n3.nabble.com/After-return-to-Mexico-she-fights-crime-runs-afoul-of-law-tp4058518.html
http://borderland-beat-forum.924382.n3.nabble.com/Mexican-vigilantes-take-on-drug-cartels-and-worry-authorities-tp4059667.html
http://borderland-beat-forum.924382.n3.nabble.com/Mexico-Arrests-Female-For-Combating-Cartels-Corrupt-Politicians-tp4085058.html
http://borderland-beat-forum.924382.n3.nabble.com/Jailed-US-vigilante-becomes-political-football-in-Mexico-tp4080268.html