Detained Mexican Activist to Be Freed

The Guerrero state government has promised to terminate legal proceedings against community police leader and social activist, Nestora Salgado, before the year ends, according to legislators of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

The legislators say they are confident that Salgado, community elected commander of the Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities – Community Police or CRAC in the predominantly indigenous community of Olinala, Guerrero will be set free in the coming hours.

Last week, a committee of representatives met with Guerrero State authorities and cabinet members of the state’s interim governor, Rogelio Ortega, to negotiate the release of Salgado and another 14 members of the CRAC, detained on August 21, 2013.

In an interview with La Jornada Rep. Roberto Lopez Suarez (PRD), member of the human rights commission in Mexico's House of Representatives, said "The commitment of the governor is that Nestora will obtain her freedom without condition, and the rest of the 14 leaders of the community police that are in prison will also obtain their freedom in coming weeks." The federal government had already dropped charges against Salgado.

Salgado, a naturalized U.S. citizen and defender of indigenous rights, was detained without an arrest warrant, accused of kidnapping, after she and other members of the CRAC detained local politicians and municipal police suspected of having ties with organized crime.

The CRAC, formed in 1995, is a legally and constitutionally recognized innovative system of participatory justice and policing based on indigenous “uses and customs.” The more than 18-year-old project operates in more than 128 indigenous and mestizo communities of the Costa Chica and la Montaña regions of Guerrero, and counts with thousands of volunteer members elected through community assemblies.