PROTEST LATIN-AMERICAN POLITICAL JAILINGS
Hundreds of participants at the Socialist Scholars Conference held in New York City September 9-10, signed petitions in behalf of political prisoners in Bolivia and Mexico.
The petition addressed to the president of Mexico, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, expressed shock at "the accelerating repression of political dissenters in Mexico today," since the student strike at +96 University of Mexico in the spring of 1966.
At that time the Argentine journalist Adolfo Gilly and others were arrested, followed in August by the jailing of Victor Rico Gal&n, writer for Siempre, and thirteen others.
This summer another fourteen per-
sons were jailed, denied bail, and like
those arrested earlier, are as yet to be
brought to trial.
The petition addressed to President
René Barrientos Ortufio of Bolivia asked
for justice for Régis Debray, and also
protested against the incarceration of
dozens of political prisoners in primitive
jungle camps where living conditions have
caused many to become critically ill.
Among the many prominent signers of
the petitions were authors José Iglesias
and Truman Nelson, and Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee leader Ivanhoe
Donaldson.
The petitions were delivered Septen-
ber 12 to the Mexican consulate and the
Bolivian consulate general.