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News > Latin America

Jailed Mexican Activist to Be Transferred from Federal Prison

Published 19 May 2015
Opinion

Salgado began her activism making trips from Renton, Washington, to deliver clothing and supplies to the desperately poor residents of her hometown of Olinala, Guerrero.

The jailed human rights activist Nestora Salgado Garcia, who ran a community police force in the violence-ravaged Guerrero state in Mexico, will be transferred out of a federal prison, the Human Rights Department of the Ministry of the Interior announced Tuesday. 

Salgado, who also holds U.S. citizenship, was arrested two years ago on trumped-up kidnapping charges and sent hundreds of miles away to a federal prison in Tepic, Nayarit. Her case now could develop another way, since she will be judged in a local jurisdiction. 

Salgado began her activism making trips from Renton, Washington, to deliver clothing and supplies to the desperately poor residents of her hometown of Olinala, Guerrero, which is controlled by violent drug traffickers and criminal gangs. 

During a protest against violence in 2012 in the central square of Olinala, Salgado gave a speech that called for unity. Later she was elected coordinator of her hometown’s security and led the movement to create the community police force — with even the governor of Guerrero at the time, Angel Aguirre Rivero, giving her money to equip the security group. 

Her defense argues she was detained after she arrested the trustee of Olinala, Armando Jimenez, who is accused of stealing cattle and for his alleged involvement in the murder of two farmers. 

Salgado's arrest has sparked mass protests in Guerrero and Washington and now the Mexican government has finally responded by sending her to a different jurisdiction. However, the trial continues and charges have not been dismissed. 

RELATED: teleSUR Reports – Adelitas: Women in Community Police Forces in Mexico

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