Interviewed by telephone, Cortes deduces that the four years he and Erika Zamora spent incarcerated in three separate prisons, subjected to torture and isolation at various times, were the result of a decision by the Mexican military to keep them quiet. " We are the ones who can give the most accurate and complete testimony about what happened on the seventh of June in El Charco and days before that at Ocote Amarillo" , on the Costa Chica, he said.
He adds: " Analyzing the situation very carefully, and believe me I've had more than enough time to think about these things calmly, I've come to the conclusion that it was the military that made the judges rule against us. Military pressure forced the tribunal to ratify the sentence. They were also behind the decision to move us to the prison at Puente Grande. They were hoping that a thing called time would work in
their favor because if the truth came out then our case was going to end the way that it did with the repeal of our sentence because of lack of evidence. "
Efran Cortes, 34 years old, is the son of a well-known farmer in Cruz Grande. After majoring in history at the Autonomous University of Guerrero he became involved as an organizer in indigenous movements. He was president of the municipal PRD (Democratic Revolutionary Party) committee and was a delegate at the party's national congress. After the electoral fraud that occurred in various regions of his state during the presidency of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, he became heavily involved in the 1990's in organizing the autonomous municipalities of the Mixtec, Amuzga and Tlapaneca zones. And military leaders in the region already had their eyes on him.
He was the target of threats and surveillance. "They sent word" to his parents and family members from the military base at Cruz Grande that: "We already have trouble with ' Indian savers'in Chiapas. We don't want that around here. " These were words of warning.
As an organizer and representative he was invited to a popular assembly in El Charco on that seventh of June in 1998.
Unpaid Debt
Four years of his life spent behind bars, two in solitary confinement, for crimes that, in the end, " they never proved" he committed, allow Efran Cortes to judge that : " The current government has an outstanding debt to the nation - to clarify what happened at El Charco. That was a massacre, they committed extra- judicial executions and the people responsible have never been touched, never been investigated, they haven't even been questioned."
He recalls that the fourth anniversary of the military assault on the little rural school in the Mixtec community of El Charco, municipality of Ayutla de los Libres, is drawing near. " What should be demanded is that they investigate and punish the people who planned the massacre and the repression that was inflicted before and after. Many children in this region have been orphaned. The State should repair this damage and make sure that children of those who were murdered will have a future".
He won't be able to attend the commemoration ceremony in Guerrero planned for that date " for security reasons, because I don't trust Vicente Fox and I'm afraid for my personal safety. But I'm also unable to go because of my health. ", he says.
He is still unable to travel to his home, which is Cruz Grande. The night that he left prison he stayed with relatives in Guadalajara;. He could only be moved to Mexico City once his serious condition had stabilized.
Doctor Cuauhtemoc Andrade, who looked after Cortes at the prison infirmary, warned him that the bacterial infection that he suffered from could lead to intestinal cancer if not treated immediately. In prison, medical treatment was scarce.
By Decision of the Board
After arriving at the prison's medical ward, Cortes was given blood serum for 20 days. . He remained hospitalized for several weeks after that. For fifteen days he was kept in total isolation in the same area. "No communication with other people, not a minute of sunlight, no radio or books, not to mention television or newspapers. The psychopath in charge of the prison banned all of that. "
He says that there was no reason for the punishment. "It was revenge for having fought to get treatment, for having gotten the International Red Cross interested in my case. That organization went to the secretary of public safety, Alejandro Gertz Manero, and to President Vicente Fox. That was when the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH) intervened. But if it hadn't been for them, I wouldn't be talking with you today."
When a medical examination was finally authorized, Cortes asked the doctor why , instead of receiving the indicated treatment, he had been locked up in a tiny room for the past three weeks in total isolation, prohibited from speaking and with a guard a meter away, twenty four hours a day. " This was by decision of the medical board", responded the physician.
On April 25 a visitor and a doctor from CNDH went to see Cortes after a number of exhortations by the International Red Cross. They knew of his charge that the prison was withholding adequate food and the necessary medication; that he was held in total isolation unable to talk with other prisoners. They knew that in the last three months his family had only been allowed to visit on two occasions.
The CNDH representatives saw him, told him that this was the treatment indicated and that " if the prison directors say that this is where you should be then this is where you should be." They did nothing on his behalf. These were the same commission delegates who, four years ago, had heard testimony directly from Efran Cortes and Erika Zamora regarding torture at military installations. Cortes and Zamora were tortured so that they would sign self-incriminating statements but the commission delegates denied that there was any evidence of torture.
The Puente Grande infirmary is the best example, says Cortes, of the ' penitentiary terrorism' practiced by the director of Federal Center for Social Rehabilitation (Cefereso) at Puente Grande, Alfredo Lara Guerrero, appointed after the escape of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
"Many people who have ended up there are just being left to die. There are people who are handcuffed, beaten; there are prisoners who are losing their minds and shout all the time, traumatized. You have to be very strong psychologically to survive being incarcerated there. "
He specifically cites the case of two young men accused of kidnapping children in Colima. " It's true that there are people there who have inflicted very serious damage on society, but nothing justifies such inhuman treatment."
He is especially concerned about the fate of Angel Guillermo Martinez, the latest political prisoner at Puente Grande. Martinez was convicted of murdering a dog catcher in Acapulco.
"In the Ceferesos they treat political prisoners with special brutality. They try to silence them, to reduce them. There words are meaningless. Only control and repression count. Angel Guillermo was punished on several occasions for protesting my treatment, because of my illness. There is a lot of pressure. It is very important that human rights organizations be very alert" he concludes.
Translated from Spanish by Shannon Stice on July 1, 2002