Comité Cerezo

In December 2001, brothers Hector, Antonio and Alejandro Cerezo Contreras were sentenced to 13 years and three months in La Palma High Security Prison.  They were convicted of setting off a series of three small explosions in Mexico City banks on 8 August 2001.  According to the Mexican League for the Defence of Human Rights (LIMEDDH), their guilt has never been proven.  This is supported by the fact that FARP (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias del Pueblo), the Revolutionary Armed Forces of the People, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mexican human rights organisations declared them prisoners of conscience and, in 2001, Emiliana and Francisco Cerezo, sister and brother of the imprisoned, began to campaign for their release, setting up the organisation Comité Cerezo.  As a result, they found themselves subject to harassment, surveillance and death threats.  They started to worry that Francisco would also end up in jail and in October 2001  when their lawyer, Digna Ochoa y Placido, was found dead in suspicious circumstances, they decided to seek help from NGOs.  In January 2002 they became the subject of an Amnesty International Urgent Action and later that year secured protective accompaniment from PBI.  International support has put an end to the death threats and direct intimidation but they remain under surveillance.  Since 2004 they have also been supported by the Prisoners of Conscience Appeal Fund.

Now a registered NGO, the ComitéCerezo has expanded its remit to campaigning for all prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Mexico, including Pablo Alvarado Flores who was convicted of collaborating with the brothers in the bank attack, despite never having met any of them before. Francisco believes there are approximately 400 such cases but says the government has refused to acknowledge any of them.

Alejandro was freed on 1 March 2005, following an appeal lodged the previous year.  In June 2006 he came over to the UK to tell his story, raise awareness about the human rights situation in Mexico and promote the ongoing campaign to free his brothers, who remain in prison.  PBI got together with the SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies in London) Latin American Society to organise a solidarity evening at SOAS .  Alejandro explained how Hector and Antonio were arrested at their home at 5 o’clock in the morning and tortured for several hours.  Alejandro himself was arrested later in the day when he arrived to do some laundry.  He also spoke about his own ordeal and the brutal regime that operates in La Palma.

Alejandro could not explain why he and his brothers had been targeted in this way.  He speculated that it was probably designed to discourage political activism among students.