I am a member of The People's Front in Defence of the Earth and Water of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala (FPDTAMPT) which is dedicated to the defence of the rights of communities faced with threats from transnational companies and the government wanting to dispossess communities of their common heritage.
At the moment we are resisting the imposition of an electric plant known as Proyecto Integral Morelos (PIM) / Morales Integrated Project which is threatening more than 100 communities in the states of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala. The proposed gas pipeline would cut through the risk-zone of the Popocatépetl volcano, one of the most active and dangerous volcanoes in the world, not to mention the consumption of the communities' water supplies and the generation of acid rain which will be caused by the two thermoelectric centres included in the project. Additionally, there is a proposal to generate an industrialisation project which would result in the exhausting of the farm lands of the indigenous peoples.
In 2012, we as the FPDTAMPT began a public campaign to increase awareness on the known consequences of the project and to unite the affected communities. This process resulted in my persecution and defamation in the media and on social networks, the torture of our colleague Jaime Domínguez Pérez, and my imprisonment on 7 April 2014. For ten months I was crowded into a cell measuring 6m² alongside 19 other detainees, all accused of the crimes of rebellion, extortion, dispossession and attacking hydraulic works.
Despite winning my freedom through constitutional petitions, the judicial authorities delayed my release for five additional months using legal tools which are now utilised as common practice against human rights defenders imprisoned in Mexico. At the time of my imprisonment more than a dozen arrest warrants were issued. There were stand-offs between police and inhabitants from Amilcingo, Morelos, in which colleagues were shot by state police. Two of our community radio stations were closed by the federal police in Santa Maria Zacatepec and San Bernardino Tlaxcalaningo, Puebla. All of these actions, in addition to using the Mexican Army to impose the pipeline works on the Nahua indigenous communities in the region of the volcano.
Right now I am once again facing judicial harassment for having requested information from the National Defence Secretariat on why it is protecting a foreign company install a scientifically-proven risky project in zones where there is volcanic risk. The crimes for which I am accused of today are false imprisonment with aggravating factors including depriving a public official of liberty and membership of a gang. Additionally, the company which constructed the gas pipeline, Bonatti SPA, has accused me of violent robbery and obstruction of public works. The evidence for the nine crimes of which I stand accused is based on testimonies of the workers in the construction companies and officials from the federal and state governments, all of whom are interested in the completion of the PIM and all of whom have allowed themselves to be used to fabricate these accusations.
Despite winning my freedom through constitutional petitions, the judicial authorities delayed my release for five additional months using legal tools which are now utilised as common practice against human rights defenders imprisoned in Mexico.
