http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k2fxIz-XF8&feature=related
I am glowing! absolutely ecstatic. Yesterday, as I typed Centro Las Libres into the news which I do every few days now, a new article appeared "Guanajuato Reduces Sentences against Women." After years of work, a flood of international pressure, and the published story of Alma, the Guanajuato congress responded. This past week they reduced the sentence for infanticide from 25-35 years to 3-8 years if the infanticide occurred within 24 hours of birth. This solution is far from ideal because it hardly addresses the problem of falsely accusing poor women and the six women I worked with will be set free as criminals who served their time. My guess it that the politicians hope that if they get these women out of jail the UN will stop breathing down their necks and feminist groups from around the world will stop calling them monsters. It is a cowardly band aid, but it represents a victory and a huge step. A process we thought would take years and tens of thousands of dollars has been partially completed, and with their freedom the unjustly incarcerated women will work with Las Libres for complete justice. By this Sunday, all six women I worked for in Guanajuato will take their first steps out of prison in half a decade. I am so proud of Las Libres, and happy to have been able to work for them for such an extended period of time. Their story demonstrates the power of a group of small, passionate, dedicated individuals.
I'll end this e-mail and my Mexico e-mails with this prayer (a professor read it at the faculty address this year and I thought it was relevant and wonderful):
May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships,
So that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.
May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Article on Current Situation in Guanajuato
Desfiladero (quarterly publication)
(Article published: August 7, 2010, La Jornada, http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/08/07/index.php?section=opinion&article=008o1pol)
Jaime Avilés
Jailed for Abortion? Let’s free them!
“Women who are beaten by their men are advised to resign, laugh and pray,” is how Verónica Cruz, president of the Centro Las Libres, an association interested in defending civil and reproductive rights for the women of the Mexican state of Guanajuato, characterizes the posture of Luz María Ramírez Villalpando, director of the Institute of the Guanjajuato Woman. Ramírez Villalpando also declared days ago that “women with tattoos are the first to blame for the loss of values in our society.” She is the sister-in-law of the secretary of Guanajuato state Gerardo Mosqueda. He is also second in charge in the local chapter of El Yunque, [a supposed ultra-Catholic secret society with apparently strong ties with the local government.]
In 2001, when Vicente Fox became president, the heir to his state government seat [Fox was governor of his native state of Guanajuato from 1995-99,] Carlos Romero Hicks, was backed by the PAN (National Action Party) and the ONY (National Organization of the El Yunque.) During his six-year tenure, Romero Hicks modified laws and public policies related to sexual education and reproductive rights in order to “harmonize” them with the religious ideas of the new administration, according to Verónica Cruz.
Sexual education for pre-pubescent children and adolescents was practically suppressed in private and public schools. Drawings of male and female reproductive rights were eliminated from science books, as the Taliban of El Bajío (in Guanajuato state,) believe that they “incite lust.” They launched a permanent campaign against condoms and birth control based in another dogma: that the only way to prevent sexually-transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies is abstinence.
When, in response to protests by several groups around the country, the federal “government” prohibited El Yunque’s science book and demanded that they use the one edited by the department of education, the Guanajuato Taliban burned it in a public plaza in Leon, according to Cruz. And Carlos García, a La Jornada correspondent, states that Mrs. Ramírez Villalpando (who is not a doctor but an interior designer) said that “women secrete a spermicidal fluid as they are being raped, which protects them from getting pregnant.” Undoubtedly, this is why Guanajuato’s walls have the following statement painted on them, framed by the state government’s seals and emblems: “Whether for love or for violence, abortion is a crime.”
Murderous uteri
In the summer of 2004, an investigator from the Institute for Social Studies of The Hague documented cases of women in Chiapas who had spontaneous abortions due to the conditions of extreme poverty in which they live. I obtained data about perfectly healthy women in urban areas whose pregnancies were involuntarily interrupted between the fifth and sixth month because they had “infantile uterus,” that is, their wombs were incapable to contain a developing fetus.
Since 2001, spontaneous abortions due to malnutrition or any other physical limitation as well as voluntary interruptions of pregnancy, are punished with up to 35 years in jail in Guanajuato. For the El Bajío Taliban, these are “homicides of kinship by reason of aggravation of a product in gestation,” according to the state’s penal code. Or, as simplified by Governor Juan Manuel Oliva Ramírez in an interview published yesterday by La Jornada, they are “infanticide.”
Just today, because of this vile accusation, five young peasant women woke up in jail at the Social Rehabilitation Center in Puentecillas, in the outskirts of Guanajuato’s capital, and another one in Valle de Santiago, near Michoacan. They are all sentenced to more than 25 years of imprisonment. The oldest one in the group (who is just 26 and has already served 9 of her 26-year sentence,) has never received medical attention, reproductive health education or assistance to prevent or interrupt her pregnancies. One of them became pregnant the fourth time she was raped, and was arrested after she had an abortion, while she received no protection against the men who abused her for years.
Aside from being victims of such an atrocious and unacceptable injustice, all these women received the same surprise when they arrived to public hospitals, dripping blood and psychologically devastated: before they were treated in the emergency room, the hospital personnel called agents of the appropriate public agency in order to catch them “in the act.”
The six of them –plus Alma Yareli Salazar Saldaña, who was freed– went from the hospital straight to jail. After being sentenced, some of them appealed to the Superior Court of Justice, but they lost the case due to the lack of good lawyers. Now, in order to bring it to the Supreme Court (Mexico’s moral dump,) each of them needs to gather at least 500 thousand Mexican pesos [almost $40,000 USD] to get a lawyer to represent them. An impossible dream, since their families live in extreme poverty and rarely have the means to gather the 400 pesos ($32 USD) to travel from their villages to the Puentecillas Rehabilitation Center to visit.
United Nations v. El Yunque
Speaking of distances, a few days ago –in the eve of the Mexican visit of the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, South Korean Kuyng-wha Kang–, Guanajuato’s Public Safety Agency made the Puentecillas interns sign a document in which they ask not to be interviewed by the press. Why did they accept to sign, as if they were celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Rachel Weisz or Natalie Portman, fed-up with the paparazzi? Because they were threatened to be transferred to Valle de Santiago. To their families, who live near the towns of Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende, Valle de Santiago is as far away as New York is from Iztapalapa to us.
Now that we know about their existence and their torment (they are all under 30 and have their lives ahead of them,) we will not tolerate that they rot in jail. First, we need to let them know, by every possible means, they are not alone, that they must not “resign, laugh and pray,” but that they must continue fighting for their rights, certain that they will be free sooner than they think.
The quarterly paperback Desfiladero, invites its readers –wherever they may be– to think, imagine, organize, give shape and content, and activate a national and international solidarity campaign for the liberation of María Araceli Camargo Juárez, Yolanda Martínez Montoya, Ana Rosa Padrón Alarcón, Susana Dueñas, Ofelia Frías and Liliana Moreno. The campaign must undoubtedly have the Centro Las Libres as a focus, whose brave members live and fight in Guanajuato and need to become surrounded and protected by the arms of all of us.
At this moment, there are 166 women in Guanajuato who were also turned in by their “doctors” to the police. Forty-three of them are at the mercy of the court to be submitted to a penal process. It is not only a matter of the six peasant women who are imprisoned or about the ones who are sitting in the waiting room of terror, but about all women in Mexico and throughout the world. Shall we set up this campaign? Critics, suggestions and involvement of any kind are welcome. In jail for abortion? No way!
jamastu@gmail.com
(Article published: August 7, 2010, La Jornada, http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/08/07/index.php?section=opinion&article=008o1pol)
Jaime Avilés
Jailed for Abortion? Let’s free them!
“Women who are beaten by their men are advised to resign, laugh and pray,” is how Verónica Cruz, president of the Centro Las Libres, an association interested in defending civil and reproductive rights for the women of the Mexican state of Guanajuato, characterizes the posture of Luz María Ramírez Villalpando, director of the Institute of the Guanjajuato Woman. Ramírez Villalpando also declared days ago that “women with tattoos are the first to blame for the loss of values in our society.” She is the sister-in-law of the secretary of Guanajuato state Gerardo Mosqueda. He is also second in charge in the local chapter of El Yunque, [a supposed ultra-Catholic secret society with apparently strong ties with the local government.]
In 2001, when Vicente Fox became president, the heir to his state government seat [Fox was governor of his native state of Guanajuato from 1995-99,] Carlos Romero Hicks, was backed by the PAN (National Action Party) and the ONY (National Organization of the El Yunque.) During his six-year tenure, Romero Hicks modified laws and public policies related to sexual education and reproductive rights in order to “harmonize” them with the religious ideas of the new administration, according to Verónica Cruz.
Sexual education for pre-pubescent children and adolescents was practically suppressed in private and public schools. Drawings of male and female reproductive rights were eliminated from science books, as the Taliban of El Bajío (in Guanajuato state,) believe that they “incite lust.” They launched a permanent campaign against condoms and birth control based in another dogma: that the only way to prevent sexually-transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies is abstinence.
When, in response to protests by several groups around the country, the federal “government” prohibited El Yunque’s science book and demanded that they use the one edited by the department of education, the Guanajuato Taliban burned it in a public plaza in Leon, according to Cruz. And Carlos García, a La Jornada correspondent, states that Mrs. Ramírez Villalpando (who is not a doctor but an interior designer) said that “women secrete a spermicidal fluid as they are being raped, which protects them from getting pregnant.” Undoubtedly, this is why Guanajuato’s walls have the following statement painted on them, framed by the state government’s seals and emblems: “Whether for love or for violence, abortion is a crime.”
Murderous uteri
In the summer of 2004, an investigator from the Institute for Social Studies of The Hague documented cases of women in Chiapas who had spontaneous abortions due to the conditions of extreme poverty in which they live. I obtained data about perfectly healthy women in urban areas whose pregnancies were involuntarily interrupted between the fifth and sixth month because they had “infantile uterus,” that is, their wombs were incapable to contain a developing fetus.
Since 2001, spontaneous abortions due to malnutrition or any other physical limitation as well as voluntary interruptions of pregnancy, are punished with up to 35 years in jail in Guanajuato. For the El Bajío Taliban, these are “homicides of kinship by reason of aggravation of a product in gestation,” according to the state’s penal code. Or, as simplified by Governor Juan Manuel Oliva Ramírez in an interview published yesterday by La Jornada, they are “infanticide.”
Just today, because of this vile accusation, five young peasant women woke up in jail at the Social Rehabilitation Center in Puentecillas, in the outskirts of Guanajuato’s capital, and another one in Valle de Santiago, near Michoacan. They are all sentenced to more than 25 years of imprisonment. The oldest one in the group (who is just 26 and has already served 9 of her 26-year sentence,) has never received medical attention, reproductive health education or assistance to prevent or interrupt her pregnancies. One of them became pregnant the fourth time she was raped, and was arrested after she had an abortion, while she received no protection against the men who abused her for years.
Aside from being victims of such an atrocious and unacceptable injustice, all these women received the same surprise when they arrived to public hospitals, dripping blood and psychologically devastated: before they were treated in the emergency room, the hospital personnel called agents of the appropriate public agency in order to catch them “in the act.”
The six of them –plus Alma Yareli Salazar Saldaña, who was freed– went from the hospital straight to jail. After being sentenced, some of them appealed to the Superior Court of Justice, but they lost the case due to the lack of good lawyers. Now, in order to bring it to the Supreme Court (Mexico’s moral dump,) each of them needs to gather at least 500 thousand Mexican pesos [almost $40,000 USD] to get a lawyer to represent them. An impossible dream, since their families live in extreme poverty and rarely have the means to gather the 400 pesos ($32 USD) to travel from their villages to the Puentecillas Rehabilitation Center to visit.
United Nations v. El Yunque
Speaking of distances, a few days ago –in the eve of the Mexican visit of the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, South Korean Kuyng-wha Kang–, Guanajuato’s Public Safety Agency made the Puentecillas interns sign a document in which they ask not to be interviewed by the press. Why did they accept to sign, as if they were celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Rachel Weisz or Natalie Portman, fed-up with the paparazzi? Because they were threatened to be transferred to Valle de Santiago. To their families, who live near the towns of Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende, Valle de Santiago is as far away as New York is from Iztapalapa to us.
Now that we know about their existence and their torment (they are all under 30 and have their lives ahead of them,) we will not tolerate that they rot in jail. First, we need to let them know, by every possible means, they are not alone, that they must not “resign, laugh and pray,” but that they must continue fighting for their rights, certain that they will be free sooner than they think.
The quarterly paperback Desfiladero, invites its readers –wherever they may be– to think, imagine, organize, give shape and content, and activate a national and international solidarity campaign for the liberation of María Araceli Camargo Juárez, Yolanda Martínez Montoya, Ana Rosa Padrón Alarcón, Susana Dueñas, Ofelia Frías and Liliana Moreno. The campaign must undoubtedly have the Centro Las Libres as a focus, whose brave members live and fight in Guanajuato and need to become surrounded and protected by the arms of all of us.
At this moment, there are 166 women in Guanajuato who were also turned in by their “doctors” to the police. Forty-three of them are at the mercy of the court to be submitted to a penal process. It is not only a matter of the six peasant women who are imprisoned or about the ones who are sitting in the waiting room of terror, but about all women in Mexico and throughout the world. Shall we set up this campaign? Critics, suggestions and involvement of any kind are welcome. In jail for abortion? No way!
jamastu@gmail.com
Saturday, August 7, 2010
One Correction to the article: the 6 omen imprisoned for infanticide were all victims of spontaneous abortions (still born births at unexpected points during their pregnancies)
These women were manipulated by the legal system and government in Guanajuto because they are poor, uneducated and have no access to health care.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=362113&CategoryId=14091
These women were manipulated by the legal system and government in Guanajuto because they are poor, uneducated and have no access to health care.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=362113&CategoryId=14091
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
I have never been more proud than working with this organization!
http://www.milenio.com/node/498259
Thursday, July 1, 2010
In their voicese
Below you will find the stories of each of these women in their voices compiled and translated from interviews (pseudonyms are used to protect the identities of the women.
∴Alesandra∴
When she was 18 years old Alesandra was accused of aborting her pregnancy of 9 months and sentenced to 25 years of prison.
“I hadn’t told anyone I was pregnant, because I had already been threatened that if I had another child, my family would be upset. I started to feel sick one day and my mother gave me a tea. When I went to the bathroom I noticed I was bleeding and that the umbilical cord had started to emerge.
My mom took me to the doctor and he refused to treat me because he thought I had aborted the child. He sent me to the hospital. The doctor there yelled at me “Do you know what you have done niña? How could you do this?” He put me to sleep and when I woke up he made me sign something, I couldn’t tell what. He told me they couldn’t save the baby and that I had to go to jail for what I had done.”
∴Gabriela∴
When She was 34 years old Gabriela was accused of aborting her pregnancy of 6 months and sentenced to 25 years of prison.
“I have no idea what day I was born. I never went to school, and from a young age helped my father around our farm. He never let us leave the house at night, but during the day I loved to walk around and talk to people in the community. One night a man offered to walk me home, but I told him no and asked him to leave.
My family’s house was poorly made. The doors were thin wood. The man came by at night and would sleep with me. He would leave before sunrise. I never told anyone I was pregnant. One day I felt sick…the neighbor found me and called the police…”
∴Fatima∴
Fatima’s case varies from the others. Her infant of a year and three months fell sick and died in the hospital and she was accused of murdering her child and sentenced to 26 years.
“I noticed my youngest was sick and that there was blood in her cough so I brought her to the hospital with my brother. My brother told me she died in the hospital and I became hysterical, screaming “not my daughter,” and my older daughter came and grabbed me, sobbing.
A few days later I was called into a judicial office. They accused me of beating my child and forced me to sign blank sheets of paper which they later used as my “confession.” They said I murdered my baby.”
∴Patricia∴
When she was 26, Patricia was accused of aborting her 7½ month pregnancy and sentenced to 29 years in prison.
“One morning I woke up feeling sick and like I had to go to the bathroom. I went to the latrine near our house and fainted. My parents found me there, unconscious with a dead fetus between my legs. My father removed the fetus and put it on our patio to bury later in a funeral service. They brought me to the hospital.
When we returned the fetus was gone; a neighbor had seen the bundle and called the police and the Public Prosecution Office. Public officials came to my house and forced me to sign several documents. Then they took me to their office and said they had to detain me. My assigned defense lawyer explained to me that I had abandoned and murdered my child, that I would have to go to prison for my crime.”
∴Ana∴
When she was 19, Ana was accused of murdering a 9 month-old baby and sentenced to 30 years of prison.
“I didn’t realize I was pregnant. So when I noticed I was bleeding I thought it was my cycle. After eight days of heavy bleeding, I started vomiting and my mother took me to the hospital.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know what you did.” The nurse scolded me, “We know you threw your baby in the trash.” A 9 month-old baby had recently been found in a trash near the hospital. A nurse told me they did a blood test (There is no medical or legal record of this blood test or proof that it ever existed).
They wouldn’t let me see my family or call them. I told a doctor my stomach hurt. “Your do not hurt. You are feeling the results of what you did.” He told me. They said police and fireman found evidence at my house, that I would be punished. I was interrogated and imprisoned. I never met my defense lawyer. They used false documents with forged signatures as my confession.”
∴Sofía∴
At the age of 19 Sofía was accused of murdering her baby of 6½ months and sentenced to 25 years.
I was in my house and my stomach began to hurt. I went to the bathroom and the baby came out in the bath tub. I felt her nose and chest, but she wasn’t breathing. I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. I wrapped the baby in a bag and sent it down the river.
I was sick for several days and finally I had to go to the hospital. The doctor said I almost died. They had found the baby and told me I would be punished. I was taken to a holding cell. They said I taped my baby’s mouth shut to suffocate her, but that was a lie. When I went to the bathroom they accused me of trying to escape. One of the officials from the Public Prosecution Office put a statue of Christ in my cell so that I could repent my sins.
*All of these stories were translated by Jessica Steinberg from parts of interviews conducted by Gabriela Ortiz.*
∴Alesandra∴
When she was 18 years old Alesandra was accused of aborting her pregnancy of 9 months and sentenced to 25 years of prison.
“I hadn’t told anyone I was pregnant, because I had already been threatened that if I had another child, my family would be upset. I started to feel sick one day and my mother gave me a tea. When I went to the bathroom I noticed I was bleeding and that the umbilical cord had started to emerge.
My mom took me to the doctor and he refused to treat me because he thought I had aborted the child. He sent me to the hospital. The doctor there yelled at me “Do you know what you have done niña? How could you do this?” He put me to sleep and when I woke up he made me sign something, I couldn’t tell what. He told me they couldn’t save the baby and that I had to go to jail for what I had done.”
∴Gabriela∴
When She was 34 years old Gabriela was accused of aborting her pregnancy of 6 months and sentenced to 25 years of prison.
“I have no idea what day I was born. I never went to school, and from a young age helped my father around our farm. He never let us leave the house at night, but during the day I loved to walk around and talk to people in the community. One night a man offered to walk me home, but I told him no and asked him to leave.
My family’s house was poorly made. The doors were thin wood. The man came by at night and would sleep with me. He would leave before sunrise. I never told anyone I was pregnant. One day I felt sick…the neighbor found me and called the police…”
∴Fatima∴
Fatima’s case varies from the others. Her infant of a year and three months fell sick and died in the hospital and she was accused of murdering her child and sentenced to 26 years.
“I noticed my youngest was sick and that there was blood in her cough so I brought her to the hospital with my brother. My brother told me she died in the hospital and I became hysterical, screaming “not my daughter,” and my older daughter came and grabbed me, sobbing.
A few days later I was called into a judicial office. They accused me of beating my child and forced me to sign blank sheets of paper which they later used as my “confession.” They said I murdered my baby.”
∴Patricia∴
When she was 26, Patricia was accused of aborting her 7½ month pregnancy and sentenced to 29 years in prison.
“One morning I woke up feeling sick and like I had to go to the bathroom. I went to the latrine near our house and fainted. My parents found me there, unconscious with a dead fetus between my legs. My father removed the fetus and put it on our patio to bury later in a funeral service. They brought me to the hospital.
When we returned the fetus was gone; a neighbor had seen the bundle and called the police and the Public Prosecution Office. Public officials came to my house and forced me to sign several documents. Then they took me to their office and said they had to detain me. My assigned defense lawyer explained to me that I had abandoned and murdered my child, that I would have to go to prison for my crime.”
∴Ana∴
When she was 19, Ana was accused of murdering a 9 month-old baby and sentenced to 30 years of prison.
“I didn’t realize I was pregnant. So when I noticed I was bleeding I thought it was my cycle. After eight days of heavy bleeding, I started vomiting and my mother took me to the hospital.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know what you did.” The nurse scolded me, “We know you threw your baby in the trash.” A 9 month-old baby had recently been found in a trash near the hospital. A nurse told me they did a blood test (There is no medical or legal record of this blood test or proof that it ever existed).
They wouldn’t let me see my family or call them. I told a doctor my stomach hurt. “Your do not hurt. You are feeling the results of what you did.” He told me. They said police and fireman found evidence at my house, that I would be punished. I was interrogated and imprisoned. I never met my defense lawyer. They used false documents with forged signatures as my confession.”
∴Sofía∴
At the age of 19 Sofía was accused of murdering her baby of 6½ months and sentenced to 25 years.
I was in my house and my stomach began to hurt. I went to the bathroom and the baby came out in the bath tub. I felt her nose and chest, but she wasn’t breathing. I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. I wrapped the baby in a bag and sent it down the river.
I was sick for several days and finally I had to go to the hospital. The doctor said I almost died. They had found the baby and told me I would be punished. I was taken to a holding cell. They said I taped my baby’s mouth shut to suffocate her, but that was a lie. When I went to the bathroom they accused me of trying to escape. One of the officials from the Public Prosecution Office put a statue of Christ in my cell so that I could repent my sins.
*All of these stories were translated by Jessica Steinberg from parts of interviews conducted by Gabriela Ortiz.*
Funds and Representation for unjustly incarcerated women
In the state of Guanajuato, all forms of abortion are illegal except in the case of rape. Despite this exception, no woman has ever received a legal abortion in the state. Women who seek abortions illegally are penalized with one to three years in prison (even rape victims) and since 2000, 150 women have been arrested and served time for this “crime.” Along with these women, 7 women who delivered stillborn fetuses have been accused by authorities and physicians of intentionally aborting their children, tried and imprisoned for alleged infanticide. Because these women are poor, with little education and no knowledge of the legal system in Mexico, they had no means of defending themselves against these accusations and are now imprisoned because of crimes they didn’t commit. Instead of being tried under abortion laws, these women were penalized for homicide and will spend between 25-40 years in prison instead of the normal abortion sentence of 1-3. On top if the injustice in their incarceration and excessive punishments, some of these women were rape victims. These women, in the eyes of the machista culture here and in the eyes of the politicians in Guanajuato, have no rights and no voices. The violation of the human rights is of no concern because their social status, gender and education level render them undeserving of the inherent freedoms guaranteed to all individuals by international law.
Centro Las Libres has visited these women biweekly for several years now, studying the facts of their cases, learning to their stories, and developing relationships with both the women and their families. After much work, we are finally ready to appeal their cases to a federal court. Working with an accomplished lawyer from Mexico City*, Centro las Libres appealed the case of one woman earlier this year. Upon receiving the fifty-page appeal, the federal court immediately mandated her release and her unjust 28-year sentence ended after only 3 years. The lawyer who collaborated with Las Libres to free this woman pro bono, but unfortunately the other cases will cost up to 500,000 pesos (around $39,000 US) for each case. In addition to the immeasurable amount of work Las Libres has done, researching, preparing information, providing moral and emotional support for the women and collaborating with the lawyer from Mexico city, this year Las Libres has taken on the raising of these funds on as its largest project. The women at Las Libres, the interns and the volunteers work day and night to ensure that these women have a voice and that their rights are realized.
Centro Las Libres has visited these women biweekly for several years now, studying the facts of their cases, learning to their stories, and developing relationships with both the women and their families. After much work, we are finally ready to appeal their cases to a federal court. Working with an accomplished lawyer from Mexico City*, Centro las Libres appealed the case of one woman earlier this year. Upon receiving the fifty-page appeal, the federal court immediately mandated her release and her unjust 28-year sentence ended after only 3 years. The lawyer who collaborated with Las Libres to free this woman pro bono, but unfortunately the other cases will cost up to 500,000 pesos (around $39,000 US) for each case. In addition to the immeasurable amount of work Las Libres has done, researching, preparing information, providing moral and emotional support for the women and collaborating with the lawyer from Mexico city, this year Las Libres has taken on the raising of these funds on as its largest project. The women at Las Libres, the interns and the volunteers work day and night to ensure that these women have a voice and that their rights are realized.
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