A Judge in Jalisco Will Have To Determine in 48 Hours If Dr. Mireles Goes Free

Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Ignacio Mendoza Jiménez, lawyer of the leader of the autodefensas in Michoacán, said that within 48 hours, a judge in the 7^th Circuit Court must decide on his request so that Mireles Valverde can continue his release process.  He ensures that, so far, charges against Mireles have been unable to stick, not even that of bearing arms, because of the fact that the autodefensas had the permission from the government to be armed.   He noted that the proof is that in different operations, they were accompanied by members of the Mexican Army and the federal police.

Mexico City, June 27, 2016 (SinEmbargo)— In 48 hours, the 7^th Circuit Court in Guadalajara will make a ruling on the legal status of the leader of the autodefensas of Michoacán, José Manuel Mireles Valverde, who on Monday, completed being imprisoned for two years.

His lawyer, Ignacio Mendoza Jiménez, said that on Wednesday, the Judge of the 7^th Court, Isidro Avelar Gutiérrez, will have to issue a ruling on the appeal made by the defense which asks for the liberation of Mireles Valverde, since they have been unable to fully prove the crimes for which he is being imprisoned for in the Federal Social Readaptation Center #11 in Hermosillo, Sonora.

“In 48 hours, there will be a hearing to modify the precautionary measure and achieve the physical liberation of the doctor but not the conclusion of the process,” he said.

“Since 2013, the Government of the Republic knew autodefensas were forming and there was no interposition or action to stop them, knowing that not only did they do activism in the villages to warn of the presence of criminals, but they also fought them with arms, moreover, they institutionalized them,” the lawyer stressed.

He added that for Mireles and the other autodefensa members, there are three grounds for the exclusion of the crime, so they are not responsible for these acts and should be free.

He noted that the record in the process has already proven conclusively that the Mexican Government gave consent to Mireles Valverde and to all of the autodefensas of Michoacán, the authorization to keep and bear arms, and even made joint operations with the Mexican Army and the federal police.

“The Mexican Government granted him and all of the autodefensas in Michoacán authorization to bear arms.  Prior to the arrival of the Commission [for Security and Integral Development of Michoacán] a movement emerged in La Ruana, in which, civilians armed themselves and confronted organized crime, during that time, the Mexican Army accompanied the autodefensas in operations, and this is documented, they never stopped them and never told them not to do so,” Mendoza Jiménez said during a news conference.

“The failure of the Federal Government was not using Article 29 of the Constitution which we call “exceptional state”, which would have provided them with special laws and the Court would’ve analyzed what was to be done, since they didn’t, they did everything outside of the legal framework,” he said.

At The Gates Of The Decision

Ignacio Mendoza Jiménez

He said that even the appointment of the commissioner by the federal government, Alfredo Castillo Cervantes, institutionalized the autodefensas, and allowed them to bear and register arms, “all of this makes it so that the autodefensas had authorization by the state to bear arms.”

In addition to the actions that follow in the Judicial Branch of Jalisco, he added, in Uruapan, Michoacán, they are requesting that under the new Penal Miscellany, the detention of Mireles and be changed for another.

“We are confident that after this talk with the Judge of the 7^th Court, Isidro Avelar Gutiérrez, he’ll understand the significance of the appeal that he’ll have to decide on whether or not Mireles is granted freedom, and that this reaches a good decision,” he said.

On June 27, 2014, José Manuel Mireles was arrested in the community of Acalpican de Morelos in the tenure of La Mira, in the municipality of Lázaro Cárdenas, accused of violating the Federal Law on Firearms and Explosives.

On Tuesday, the defense of Mireles, composed of lawyers Ignacio Mendoza Jiménez and Carlos Iván Martínez Rosas, asked the 5^th District Judge, through a document, the revision of the precautionary measure consisting of preventive detention for the crime of the violation of the Federal Firearms Law, as with the principles of the New Criminal Justice System, it would seek his release.

Over the weekend, activist groups in Mexico and the United States carried out a series of actions to demand the release of the autodefensa leader, which ended on Monday.

The local representative for Jalisco, belonging to the Citizens’ Movement (MC), Augusto Valencia, said that the federal government has not allowed the process to be speeded up for the release of the autodefensas leader and that the reasons for his imprisonment are more political, he also reported that in the congress of his state, a formal request has been presented to demand an early release.

On the subject, the representative in Michoacán, Daniel Moncada Sánchez, said that Mireles Valverde has been one of the most important social fighters of the country and that two years after his imprisonment, and the imprisonment of more than 380 autodefensas, the citizen representatives demand their release.  “Today, defending Dr. Mireles is an act of freedom, of courage, of consistency and of respect to the citizens who decide to break with the traditional way, but above all, with this authoritarianism and these perversions that exist in all of the Mexican State,” he claimed.

Moncada Sánchez called on the Judicial Power of the Federation to assume its role of impartiality, to be up to the circumstances and not only be solved with the law in hand but with all of the social context that Michoacán went through and in which the country goes through in general of a profound degradation of public life.  “It’s been two years of having a political prisoner in a concentration camp in the prison #11 of Hermosillo, Sonora, there are not enough valid arguments for the doctor to be kept prisoner, as we have already proved legally that there are no factors to keep him held captive,” he concluded.

Source: Sin Embargo

Categories: #LiberenAMireles, Autodefensas, Dr. Mireles, Drug War, Michoacán