Freedom for Rita Emilia and for all those imprisoned for struggling!

This past December 1 brought together thousands of women, young people and groups of the poor in the streets, to reject the presidential inauguration of Enrique Peña Nieto and the PRI’s return to government.

A “sumptuous” swearing-in (inauguration); among those present: Princes, representatives of the US and European governments. On the following day, they signed the National Pact, where the politicians of the bourgeoisie agreed on an alliance to approve the plans against the workers, women, young people and groups of the poor. A soap opera where everything is “happiness”; even the victory of “national boxing hero” Márquez was dedicated to Peña Nieto.

With that, they want to conceal the massive popular indignation that has gone through the entire country against Peña Nieto during the months before the swearing-in, in which we saw mass mobilizations against Peña Nieto and the emergence of #YoSoy132, that united thousands in assemblies and in the streets throughout the country, where there was outstanding participation by women. We, who, in common with all the young people, repudiate what the PRI represents: the slaughters of students in 1968 and 1971, that of Acteal, repression and sexual torture in Atenco in 2006, and that of the murder of women in Ciudad Juárez and Mexico State.

This past December 1, the rage of young people was unleashed, and also the government’s response: in addition to shots of rubber bullets and tear gas, assaults with sticks, and beatings, there was torture and sexual harassment against the female comrades. The balance: More than 100 wounded, one comrade lost an eye, and one more is in a coma; more than 100 prisoners in the “democratic” DF and 30 more in Guadalajara.

During the past days, most of the young people were released, but the government took 14 comrades hostage, among them, one woman: Rita Emilia Neri Moctezuma, who comes from a humble family and is a nurse by profession. The government is accusing them of the crime of an “attack on the public peace,” which is especially political, compared nationally with the offence of “social dissolution,” against which the young people of 1968 rebelled. The government is improving its own appearance by saying that it has arrested those who committed acts of destruction. We ask: And those responsible for the more than 80,000 people murdered during Calderón’s six-year term, those who launder money from narcotrafficking, the pederast priests, those who traffic in women and those who murder women? For them in this country, there is total impunity.

In Mexico, the rights of women are considered worse than garbage. 75% of women have suffered violence, and it is increasing with impunity, under the cover of militarization. In just the last two years, 4,112 murders of women were committed, and 3,976 women disappeared. The state of Mexico, that was governed by Peña Nieto, is in the lead, with more than a thousand murders of women in the last five years; furthermore, it is the state with the highest youth unemployment and job insecurity, scenarios that can become widespread throughout the country under his governance.

While the government is criminalizing social protest, journalists and social militants are persecuted and assassinated, like the persecution of activists in Ciudad Juárez, the assassinations of Marisela Escobedo and Susana Chávez, our comrades in the struggle against the murder of women, and the assassinations of the journalists Marcela Yarce, Rocío González and Regina Martínez.

Impunity in the cases where women are murdered is becoming obvious, with examples like that of Marisela Escobedo, whom they finished off with the complicity of the government, because she was demanding justice for her daughter Rubí (also murdered). In Mexico, we women who struggle are imprisoned. raped, tortured and murdered, solely for raising one’s voice. The fact that our comrade Rita Emilia Neri continues to be a prisoner is also a sign of an admonitory punishment for women in struggle, as was the sexual torture in Atenco and in the brutal removal of the female student teachers of Michoacán.

That is why from Pan y Rosas we have been promoting the campaign for the release of the prisoners, and, especially, giving a lot of publicity to Rita Emilia’s case. We became part of the drive for the national mobilization for the release of the prisoners, with a contingent of women full of creativity and fighting spirit, that attracted the attention of the media, since it was picked up by the main national daily papers. It is vital for us to get organized, in order to be thousands in the streets and wrest our rights from the state; only in that way will we be able to fight against the plans of the new male-chauvinist government of the bosses. If we win the release of Rita Emilia and of the rest of the comrades imprisoned for being in the struggle, we will be in a better condition to confront the offensive that is coming.

Because we do not believe this hypocritical and clerical government, we women are going out to the streets to free Rita Now! If one women is a prisoner, all we women are! Immediate and unconditional release of the political prisoners of December 1! Abolish the offense of attacks on the public peace!

December 19, 2012