Letter from Antonio Cerezo after 5 years of unjust imprisonment

It’s good to know that, in spite of everything, there’s a space for us, the prisoners, on the agendas of organizations, in the hearts of people who care about a circumstance that has meant abandonment for many.

We’re grateful for all your efforts to free us, but also for your constancy in standing with us for these five years because it must be said that all people have not been capable of sticking with us all this time. Life itself, their circumstances, and their decisions have sometimes driven us apart even more than prison has done.

We understand, though, that distance doesn’t necessarily mean loneliness; we carry inside us the immense, undying affection of those who in one way or another watch out for us, as we do the fighting spirit built up by the Mexican people throughout history.

It will be several years before we’re free and we’re storing up all the gestures of affection, devotion, trust, and strength that you’ve shared with us for the long haul. So we’ll continue to resist, making every effort to maintain the lucidity necessary for not allowing our psychological integrity to be broken down, in spite of the fact that prison conditions are getting worse instead of better.

The future holds new challenges for us, not only as prisoners, but as a country; the future doesn’t looks anything but calm. Our society is more polarized than ever as a result of a socioeconomic system that separates and destroys human beings as a requisite for continuing to exist.

We hope we’ll have the strength to surpass these new challenges and also that the independent social movement realizes that the struggle on behalf of the prisoners is not only a political necessity, but also a moral commitment, determined by ethics that aren’t constructed according to the needs of Capital.

We trust that prisoner defense will not become a point of dispute, but a factor of unity, which is increasingly necessary in the face of the probable onslaught against the social movement, which may generate, against our will, even more political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in prisons throughout our country.

We send our solidarity and combative greetings

Four years and ten months after the assassination of Digna Ochoa

After five years of illegal, unjust imprisonment

Prisoners today, forever free!

From the CEFERESO #1 Almoloya de Juárez. state of México

Prisoner of conscience:

Antonio Cerezo Contreras

August 2006