Indigenous Oaxacan Political Prisoners Caught in the Drug War Prison Boom

My Word Is My Weapon Blog 
by Kristin Bricker and Santiago Navarro

After spending nearly 17 years in the same prison cell just outside of Oaxaca City, seven indigenous Loxicha political prisoners were transferred this month—twice. The transfers, which enraged and frightened their families and supporters, were part of a nationwide shuffle of existing prisoners to fill beds at newly opened facilities that were financed by Mexican and United States drug war money.

The prisoners, Agustín Luna Valencia, Eleuterio Hernández Garcia, Fortino Enriquez Hernández, Justino Hernández José, Abraham Garcia Ramirez, Zacarias Pascual Garcia López, and Alvaro Sebastián Ramirez, are Zapotec indigenous men from Oaxaca’s Loxicha region, one of Oaxaca’s poorest and most marginalized regions.

The seven Loxichas are accused of participating in the August 29, 1996, Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) uprising in la Crucecita, Oaxaca, in which 11 government agents were killed. The indigenous men say they were tortured into signing hundreds of pages of blank paper that were later filled in with confessions. The Loxichas were convicted of murder (of the federal agents), terrorism, and conspiracy, and they were sentenced to up to 31 years in prison. Read more. 

Mexico detains 16 guards in border prison break

AP: PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico (AP) — A judge ordered the detention Wednesday of 16 officials and guards at a prison near the U.S. border where the brutal Zetas drug cartel orchestrated a mass escape of 131 inmates.

The judge ruled that the prison director, two top aides and 13 other prison employees be held for 40 days under a form of house arrest pending possible charges. The judge said there was credible evidence prison employees aided the escape.

Jorge Luis Moran, public safety secretary for the northern border state of Coahuila, told the Milenio television news channel that authorities had determined that not all the escapees got away through the tunnel. Some left through the main door, he said.

Authorities on Wednesday captured one of the inmates who fled, identified as Pablo Sanchez Campos, who was in prison on an auto-theft charge. Investigators were questioning him about how one-fifth of the prison population was able to escape.

Two escapees were detained Tuesday following a shootout with police.
The federal police, army and navy were mounting a wide search in the northern Mexico region for the missing inmates.

The Associated Press

Whack-a-mole drug war: California Prison Overcrowding: How’s That ‘War on Drugs’ Working Out?

The logic - or illogic - behind imprisoning drug sellers and buyers and how it led to California's - and the nation's - prison overcrowding and contributes to budget crises.

California Prison Overcrowding: How’s That ‘War on Drugs’ Working Out? - International Business Times: "Gangs exist for one reason: to make money.

In the beginning, they were largely limited to theft. If prostitution was illegal, they were involved in that. When alcohol became illegal in the US, they hit pay-dirt. In fact, alcohol prohibition is by far the biggest factor that gave rise to large-scale organized crime in the US.

When the US started its ‘war on drugs,’ gangs – in the US, Mexico, Colombia, and many other countries – hit the jackpot.

The logic is simple. Because drugs are illegal, they’re a highly desired and 'scarce' -- that is, not easily obtainable through legal means -- and monopolized by criminals. Any business executive will tell you that monopolizing such a product will guarantee the supplier riches and secure funding for expanding operations. "

Whack-a-mole: Jailers Accused in Escape

Mexico - Jailers Accused in Escape - NYTimes.com: "The director and 11 officials at a prison in northern Mexico were charged Friday with helping 17 inmates escape through a tunnel in the prison’s laundry room. The federal prosecutor’s office said the prison officials, in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, across from Texas, helped inmates escape through a hatch hidden underneath a washing machine. The tunnel emerged outside the prison grounds."