MEXICAN POLITICAL PRISONERS TO JOIN DEMETRIO VALLEJO IN HUNGER STRIKE
Mexico City
APRIL 2 -- On March 29, Demetrio Vallejo, the head of the railway workers union, who has served nine years of a fourteen-year sentence in Lecumberri prison imposed on him for leading a nationwide railway strike in 1959, went ona hunger strike.
According to Mexican law, having served this much time, he is entitled to "confinamiento" -- release from prison, but confinement to a limited area. The authorities have failed so far to even reply to an application made by Vallejo months ago. His hunger strike is aimed at eliciting a definite yes or no.
When the news of Vallejo's hunger strike reached university circles, the response was immediate.
Today eleven students were conduct-— ing a solidarity hunger strike in the gardens of the Facultad de Ciencias Politicas y Sociales. Those participating were Romeo Gonzalez, chairman of the Executive Committee of students of the above Facultad; Iuis G. De Alba, chairman of the Executive Committee of students of the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras; Oscar Rivera; José Gonzalez; Antonio Alonso; Vicente Lépez; Armando Rendén; Rafael "Padilla; Fernando Trejo; Gustavo Gordillo; and Jorge Madero.
An even more sensational development was the announcement by twelve other political prisoners in Lecumberri that unless the authorities responded to Vallejo's request, they would join him April 8 in his hunger strike.
The twelve political prisoners are Adan Nieto Castillo, Fabio Erazo Barbosa, Enrique Condes Lara, Francisco Luna Leal, Pablo Alvarado Barrera, Daniel Camejo Guanche, Iuis E. Del Toro, Gerardo Pelaez Ramos, Gilberto Balam Pereyra, César Catalan Sanchez, Justino Juarez Martinez, and Ysaias Rojas Delgado.
Daniel Camejo is the brother of Peter Camejo, a well-known leader of the Socialist Workers party in California.
The twelve belong to different political tendencies but decided to join in a common action in behalf of their fellow prisoner. They drew up a statement addressed to the workers, peasants, intellectuals, students, and people of Mexico:
"Demetrio Vallejo is a symbol. Honest and incorruptible, a synthesis of the best qualities of his class, while also expressing its limitations and present level of consciousness: refusal to go beyond the bourgeois legal order, concern about restricting his demands to the bourgeois 'constitutional' framework, etc.
"But the bourgeoisie are not mis-— taken; they know that in the workers they find a mortal enemy that will finish by sweeping them into the dustbin of history. Conscious of what he represents, they became rabid over Demetrio Vallejo -- nine years in prison on the 'basis' of the most absurd juridical technicalities.
"The arbitrary action against Demetrio Vallejo is a clear expression of the policy of repression against the peasantry, the working class, and other oppressed layers of the Mexican scene, in behalf of the privileged class, particularly the big investors, representatives and partners of Yankee imperialisn.
"That is why Vallejo decided to begin an indefinite hunger strike until he wins confinamiento, meaning the limited freedom of having one city as prison.
"Vallejo's decision, which constitutes an individual form of struggle, dramatically expresses the inability of the revolutionary movement to organize a broad, deep-going struggle for the release of all the men and women political prisoners in Mexico.
"In this situation of crisis in ‘revolutionary leadership, it is up to us to assume full responsibility in carrying out our obligation of struggling in support of Vallejo and the release of all the political prisoners.
"That is why we are signing this appeal, putting aside our ideological and political differences. We have decided to likewise go on an indefinite hunger strike (beginning at 9 a.m., April 8, 1968) in support of Compafiero Demetrio Vallejo.
"We appeal to the workers, peasants, students, and the entire Mexican people to mobilize and demonstrate their solidarity with the struggle of Demetrio Vallejo. Free Demetrio Vallejo. Free all the political prisoners, both men and women. For independence of the unions and the right to strike which have been tram— pled on. For unity in the struggle against the bourgeoisie and Yankee imperialism. For the destruction of the big capitalist estates and genuine return of the land to the peasants. For observance of democratic rights."
The Committee for Defense of Political Prisoners in Mexico is urging actions in behalf of the prisoners. Protests should be sent to Lic. Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, Palacio Nacional, México 1, D.F., México.
ANTBAL ESCALANTE, MIKE