Hours before the Federal Judiciary issues a final ruling in the cases of Miguel and David Peralta, victims of a systematic policy of criminalization deployed for over a decade by the local political boss Manuel Zepeda Cortés and his daughter, Morena party congresswoman Elisa Zepeda Lagunas, the International Coordinator for Solidarity and Freedom of Political Prisoners and Mazatecs for Freedom demand their immediate release.
They also demand “full justice” for community photojournalist David Peralta and the prosecution of local political boss Manuel Zepeda Cortés, as well as conditions for their safe return to the Mazatec community of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón.
Miguel Peralta was imprisoned between 2015 and 2019, after being sentenced to 50 years in prison. He appealed that decision and won his freedom. Three years later, and behind his back, the Third Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Oaxaca revoked his freedom; and today he continues to be persecuted, not for committing crimes, but for exercising rights: the right to defend the territory, the right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination, the collective right to water and a healthy environment, and the right to community organization.
Meanwhile, the attack against David Peralta, perpetrated on April 3, 2025—an attempted hit-and-run, pursuit, violent robbery of his work equipment, and subsequent forced displacement—constitutes much more than a common crime, as it is a direct attack on the exercise of freedom of expression, the right to information, and the community’s collective right to document and denounce the environmental damage that threatens its territory.
The respective hearings will be held this Friday, February 20, at the headquarters of the Federal Judiciary in Oaxaca.
They believe that “what is happening in Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, Oaxaca, Mexico, is not a series of isolated incidents or private conflicts: it is a systematic policy of criminalization deployed for more than a decade against an Indigenous community that has decided to defend its territory, its river, and its right to exist autonomously.”
In a statement, the international coordinator calls on the judges of the First Collegiate Court for Criminal Matters based in Oaxaca, Víctor Hugo Cortés Sibaja, Carlos Abel de los Santos Sánchez, and Jahaziel Reyes Loaeza, to issue an absolute release and acquittal for Miguel Peralta, given that it has been demonstrated that the proceedings against him lack real evidentiary support and are part of a pattern of criminalization against Indigenous land defenders.
And they demand “full justice for David Peralta” from the Attorney General’s Office, particularly from the Acting District Judge of Control, based in Oaxaca, Álvaro Niño Cruz. This implies a thorough and due diligence investigation into the attack he suffered, as well as the formal indictment of Manuel Zepeda Cortés as the alleged perpetrator.
They believe that judicial recognition is necessary to acknowledge that these cases are not isolated incidents, but rather expressions of a policy of community criminalization sustained for over a decade by local power brokers with the tolerance—if not the outright support—of the three branches of government in Oaxaca.
Source: proceso
