Source: Animal Político
Author: Alejandro Juarez Zepeda
Translation: RZ for CART / ACDV
Original version in Spanish
January 19th, 2015
To write the same article over and over again, tell the same story and draw the same conclusion is complicated. In Mexico, a defender of human rights has to approach the same subject matter differently and present the same case over and over again because no one seems to be paying attention. That is why the media is such an important ally to us. They help us raise public awareness on various issues, attract attention and encourage participation.
We have written often about the case of Alfonso Martin del Campo Dodd appearing here and in other media sources. Since the last article published in August 2014, for Alfonso, only days and
days have passed in prison, each day the same as the next, nothing more. Back in 2014, we were reporting the impending review of his case by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), which represented the last opportunity for him to be set free. However, the Court has inexplicably postponed the review for months.
It is no mystery to anyone that the SCJN manages its internal structure and assigns priority to cases with a complete and absolute lack of transparency and at its complete and utter discretion. Although Article 17 of the Constitution states that court resolutions must be issued in a “prompt, effective and impartial” manner, we have not heard anything more about the case and Alfonso has been unjustly imprisoned for the past 23 years.
At the age of 23, Alfonso Martin del Campo Dodd was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Through a forced confession that was obtained under means of torture, he admitted to having killed his sister and brother-in-law. The details can be read here of this outrageous case, which was the first one in Mexico to go to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CIDH). The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Human Rights Commission of the Federal District and recently, Amnesty International, were also involved in the case.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, we recently received information that the SCJN could issue a draft resolution within four weeks under Minister Jorge Mario Pardo Rebolledo. Let’s recall that last year, the First Division of the SCJN, dismissed the resolution presented by Minister Jose Ramon Cossio Diaz which proposed to protect and free Alfonso immediately. The resolution was objected by Ministers Arturo Zaldivar, Alfredo Gutierrez Ortiz Mena and (take note), Jorge Mario Pardo Rebolledo. The arguments that the ministers raised at that time were that “the reports provided by the CIDH and by the Human Rights Commission of the Federal District in 2002 which arrived at the same conclusion as before on the same case, could not be the only elements used by the Supreme Court to prove innocence because the reports were not legally binding for the highest court in the nation. There is a need to take a more in-depth study of the file to examine each and every piece of evidence along with the referred reports in order to determine if indeed acts of torture were committed and the scope of such a decision if it is reached.”
Impunity is a cancer growing in our country. The rule of law no longer governs Mexico. The events of last year (Ayotzinapa, Tlatlaya, the “White House”, the bidding process for the Mexico-Queretaro train project, the contamination of the Sonora River, etc.) show that our institutions are corrupt and that we need a moral renewal of the political class and a rebirth of the nation. Corruption cannot continue to divide this country. The justice system should be able to demonstrate that it is efficient and principled, but above all, capable of rectifying the historical injustices that we bear. Today, we are seeing criminal proceedings in the case of Nestora Salgado being suspended, but at the same time we are seeing that there are obscure forces that are stopping the local institutions from operating and issuing a resolution. Why?
We hope that these same obscure forces that have acted on previous occasions, in the case of Cassez, for example, and in this case as well, stop practicing these “terrorist” acts of human rights violations which has become so normal and to settle the lack of justice which prevails today more than ever in Mexico.
During the last four months of the campaign to free Alfonso Martin del Campo, we managed to obtain around 25,000 signatures demanding his release through a petition that we filed on Change.org. Alejandro Solalinde, a priest and human rights activist also joined the campaign. In the hope that we can put an end to Alfonso Martin del Campo Dodd’s ordeal, we invite all persons interested in ensuring the rule of law and stopping acts of torture to sign the petition and join us in solidarity.
*Alejandro Juarez Zepeda is a human rights defender and the screenwriter of Bajo Tortura, a documentary which deals with the case of Alfonso Martin del Campo Dodd.
