THEY SHOULD NOT CONTAIN:

1. any kind of photocopies
2. drawings
3. photographs
4. scribbling
5. written slogans
6. effusive greetings
7. return internet addresses
8. colored paper (only white permitted)
9. blank pages
10. printed, instead of handwritten, letters

ONLY HANDWRITTEN LETTERS ON WHITE PAPER ARE PERMITTED.
If these instructions aren’t followed the prisoners will be punished when they receive the mail. This is the way it works. If a prisoner agrees to receive letters that arrive, he or she obviously doesn’t know what’s in the letter, but if these new illegal, absurd provisions are violated, the prisoner is punished for 15 to 30 days, without having the right to a visit or phone call.

It’s obvious that these illegal, absurd provisions, which are violations of human rights and of the right to information guaranteed in the Mexican Constitution, are a reality. Without any official authority, they are arbitrarily used against political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in the federal prisons to prevent contact with people outside insofar as possible. The uncertainty of the prisoners about the content of the letters forces them to accept them or not, facing the possibility of being punished for a situation beyond control.

WE EARNESTLY REQUEST that from now on you send letters that comply with these absurd measures, at the same time that you write a letter to the news media protesting these fascist measures against political prisoners and prisoners of conscience inside federal penitentiaries.

Once again we thank all of you who, in spite of these terrible conditions, make every effort to keep our prisoners in communication with the outside world, supporting them so that they know they aren’t alone and that here outside we are working and doing everything possible to win their freedom.

Respectfully yours,

Comité Cerezo México