Mexican PRT comrade kidnapped 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 Cuernavaca, many federal deputies, and thousands of workers and young people have already signed this appeal.
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 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 inter-
To Amnesty International, human rights organizations, political organizations and unions in Mexico and in the world: c OMRADE José Ramon Garcia
Gomez, former mayoral candidate 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 Moappeared 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,
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. * relos state, was kidnapped on Friday, December 16, 1988, at 5pm.
The kidnapping took place when he left his house at number 56, calle Privada de las Palmas, in Colonia San José on his way to a meeting of the Cardenas Front of Morelos, scheduled to take place downtown.
He was traveling alone in a black 1976 Volkswagon, license plate UPW 272, registered in the state of Quintana Roo, which is also missing.
On the day of his disappearance, his house was under surveillance all morning by six undercover agents, stationed in two automobiles, a Ford Fairmont and a Volkswagon, both white and neither having a license plate. The police had spent the morning questioning neighbors about the personal and family life of the kidnapped comrade.
We also know, through statements by the local police, that other illegal detentions of this kind have taken place by order of the secretariat of the interior in the government. No judicial procedures are underway involving this comrade. He has committed no crime, unless his political activity in working against electoral fraud can be considered as such.
For our part, we have met with the coun try's minister of the interior and with the governor of the state of Morelos, who both deny any knowledge of these facts, and deny having him held. To the contrary, 36 oddly, they assert that they know for a fact that at the time of his kidnapping, the dis-
HE REACTION to the disappearance of José Ramon Garcia Gomez was immediate and massive, a reflection of the strength of the popular movement in the state of Morelos. Simultaneous demonstrations were held on December 16 in both Cuautla and Cuernavaca, the capital of the state.
From December 19 to 23, other leaders of the popular movement went on hunger strike. Members of the Church Base Committees sent a petition to the Bishop of Cuernavaca asking for his intervention.
A mass rally with his wife, Ana Santander de Garcia and presidential candidates Cuauhtémoc Cardénas and Rosario Ibarra, brought together 4,000 people on December 24 to demand his immediate freedom. In the days that followed, members of the PRT in Cuernavaca were harassed by the police who wanted to force them to abandon their activities, and the PRT headquarters in Cuernavaca was ransacked, all of the campaign material on Ramon Garcia being destroyed.
in Mexico City, the PRT called on the deputies. Four parliamentary factions presented a motion to the Chamber to ask that the Parliamentary Commission on Human Rights take charge of the affair. This commission sent letters to the Ministry of the Interior and to the governor of Morelos state demanding an inquiry. Faced with popular pressure, on December 29 the secretary of the interior requested the presence of the governor of Morelos and the Federal Procurer General. The next day, the governor named a special inspector to look into the matter.
Hundreds of union activists, activists in mass organizations, left political parties or Indian organizations "disappear" every year in Mexico and other Latin American countries. Today, the estimates of the disappeared in Mexico are near 800
To demand the safe return of José Ramon, telegrams should be sent immediately to: • Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Presidente Constitucional, Estados Unidos Mexicanos, Palacio Nacional, Mexico D.F., Mexico; • Fernando Gutierrez Barrios, Secretario de Gobernacion, Bucarell 99, Mexico D.F., Mexico; • Antonio Riva Palacio Lopez, Gobernador Constitucional, Estado de Morelos Palacio de Gobierno, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. *
International Viewpoint #155 • January 23, 1989