Mexican PRT comrade
JOSE RAMON GARCIA GOMEZ, a leader of the
Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT, Mexican section of the Fourth International) in the state of Morelos, was kidnapped from his home on December 16, 1988. His wife and his comrades have launched an international appeal for his safe return. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and Rosario
Ibarra, both candidates in the July 1988 presidential elections, as well as Monsignor Mendes Arceo, Bishop of
Mexicanos, Palacio Nacional, Mexico D.F., Mexico;
• Fernando Gutierrez Barrios, Secretario de Gobernacion, Bucarell 99,
• Antonio Riva Palacio Lopez, Gobernador Constitucional, Estado de
Morelos Palacio de Gobierno, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. *
International Viewpoint #155 • January 23, 1989 given the seriousness of the facts that we are announcing, we are in the process of demanding that the national Chamber of Deputies constitute a commission of inquiry on
Cuernavaca, many federal deputies, and thousands of workers and young people have already signed this appeal.
To Amnesty International, human rights organizations, political organizations and unions in Mexico and in the world:
OMRADE José Ramon Garcia
C
Gomez, former mayoral candi-
- date for the town of Cuautla in
Morelos state, organizer of the
People's Defense Committees created after
July 6, 1988, and leader of the PRT in Morelos state, was kidnapped on Friday, December 16, 1988, at 5pm.
appeared comrade was on his way to a meeting in an entirely different state of the republic — Guerrero state, to Atoyac, known as a center of guerilla activity.
We refute this police statement which has as its only goal the cover-up and justification of a brutal repression of our leading comrade.
We wish to state that at this very moment, these serious events.
We demand of the Salinas de Gortari government the immediate liberation and safe return of our comrade.
This is why we are addressing the international community to ask for its immediate solidarity with our cause — purely and simply the defense of human rights in Mexico — and we ask that there be organized demonstrations and rallies by solidarity groups in front of all embassies of the Mexican government, plus telegrams sent to Salinas de Gortari (see box), so that our comrade reappears alive and well and is immediately released. *
HE REACTION to the disappearance of José Ramon Garcia Go-
The kidnapping took place when he left mez was immediate and massive, a reflection of the strength of his house at number 56, calle Privada de las Palmas, in Colonia San José on his way to a onstrations were held on December 16 in both Cuautla and Cuermeeting of the Cardenas Front of Morelos, scheduled to take place downtown. From December 19 to 23, other leaders of the popular movement went
He was traveling alone in a black 1976 on hunger strike. Members of the Church Base Committees sent a petiVolkswagon, license plate UPW 272, reg- tion to the Bishop of Cuernavaca asking for his intervention. istered in the state of Quintana Roo, which A mass rally with his wife, Ana Santander de Garcia and presidential is also missing. candidates Cuauhtémoc Cardénas and Rosario Ibarra, brought together
On the day of his disappearance, his 4,000 people on Becember 24 to demand his immediate freedom. In the house was under surveillance all morning days that followed, members of the PRT in Cuernavaca were harassed by by six undercover agents, stationed in two the police who wanted to force them to abandon their activities, and the automobiles, a Ford Fairmont and a Volks- PRT headquarters in Cuernavaca was ransacked, all of the campaign mawagon, both white and neither having a li- terial on Ramon Garcia being destroyed. cense plate. The police had spent the In Mexico City, the PRT called on the deputies. Four parliamentary facmorning questioning neighbors about the tions presented a motion to the Chamber to ask that the Parliamentary personal and family life of the kidnapped Commission on Human Rights take charge of the affair. This commission comrade. sent letters to the Ministry of the Interior and to the governor of Morelos
We also know, through statements by the state demanding an inquiry. Faced with popular pressure, on December local police, that other illegal detentions of 29 the secretary of the interior requested the presence of the governor of this kind have taken place by order of the Morelos and the Federal Procurer General. The next day, the governor secretariat of the interior in the govern- named a special inspector to look into the matter. ment. No judicial procedures are underway Hundreds of union activists, activists in mass organizations, left politiinvolving this comrade. He has committed cal parties or Indian organizations "disappear" every year in Mexico and no crime, unless his political activity in other Latin American countries. Today, the estimates of the disappeared working against electoral fraud can be considered as such. To demand the safe return of José Ramon, telegrams should be sent im-
For our part, we have met with the contry's minister of the interior and with the • Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Presidente Constitucional, Estados Unidos governor of the state of Morelos, who both deny any knowledge of these facts, and deny having him held. To the contrary, 36 that at the tame of his kidnapping, the dis- oddly, they assert that they know for a fact navaca, the capital of the state.
In Mexico are near 800 mediately to:
Mexico D.F., Mexico;
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MEXICO kidnapped