Update on the 5E3

On Sunday, January 5, two groups of people threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at the offices of the Ministry of Communications and Transport and at the vehicles of a Nissan dealership in Mexico City.

 

The same night, Carlos, Fallon, and Amélie were arrested in downtown Mexico City for these attacks. Initially detained by the Ministry of Public Safety for the Federal District (Mexico City), their case was shortly thereafter transferred to the federal jurisdiction.

 

On January 9, the comrades were placed under arraigo, a special investigative measure, based on allegations from the Prosecutor’s Office of federal crimes, including terrorism, sabotage, organized crime and damage to public property. The arraigo allows the Prosecutor’s Office to hold any suspects up to 40 days pending investigation without appearing before a judge and without formal indictment.

 

At the end of the arraigo, Amélie and Fallon were transferred to the Centre de Réadaptacion Santa Martha, a women’s prison where they are still detained, and Carlos was transferred to Oriente, a men’s prison. Both are state-level prisons.

 

On February 20, the comrades appeared before a judge. In light of a lack of evidence, the federal charges for which the arraigo was granted were not pursued. Amélie, Fallon and Carlos are now facing breach of peace and damage to property while acting as a group. The comrades appealed the charges and are currently faced with the possibility that Nissan will accept a restitution of $10 000 for the damages to their property. This would mean that Carlos, Amélie and Fallon would be able to get bail for the charge of breaching the peace. The bail amount is not known at this point.

 

If Nissan refuses the restitution offer, the judge then has 15 days to decide whether to release the three accused or not. If the judge refuses, they will stay in prison until their trial, which could take between six months and a year.

 

All three are in good spirits and have released letters from prison. To contribute financially to support efforts, make donations online via CLAC: http://www.clac-montreal.net/mx#_1

 

Write a cheque to: Convergence des lutes anti-capitalists (PLEASE INDICATE MEXICO IN THE SUBJECT LINE) and send to:

 

CLAC-Montréal c/o QPIRG Concordia

1455 de Maisonneuve O

Montréal, Quebec H3G 1M8

 

At this time, Carlos is unable to receive letters.

 

To write to Amélie and Fallon:

 

Centro Feminil de Reinsercion social Santa Martha Acatitla

Amélie Trudeau / Fallon Rouiller

Calzada Ermita
Iztapalapa No 4037

Colonia Santa Martha Acatitla

Delagation Iztalpalapa

C.P. 09560

 

 

Letter from Carlos López Marín

 

A big hug to all comrades!

 

It has been very heartwarming to receive all of the gestures of support from the outside for us three anarchist prisoners. We remain strong and firm despite the stupid accusations against us and the intimidation (they tell us we will spend a lot of time in prison) that seek to smother our identities. They will not succeed, because we are strong in our conviction.

 

Today they took us downstairs to plead, hoping that we would plead either innocent or guilty. At this point I want to make something clear: personally I do not accept either position. Guilty? Innocent? That would be to give legitimacy to the stupid laws of the State, which I do not recognize its authority. After all, the State and its laws only exist to produce and regulate privilege, injustice, exploitation and domination.

 

I heard about something that made me sick…that they are trying to link us with the YoSoy132 movement, PosMeSalto and the like. I will not accept this in any way. I will not recognize a movement that is organized in a hierarchical institutionalized way. No way!

 

I spit hate to the prison system, I really do not know if there are people who are convinced in “reintegration”, as they say, that while in jail people are domesticated and when they get out they live a quiet life, in harmony with people and flowers around them. I look around and can only see one thing: KIDNAPPING, yes, when someone is deprived of his or her liberty it is called kidnapping. They try through their prisons to stomp out the will of those who fight for a new world and call anyone who rebels violent, dangerous to society and terrorists.

 

The State is the only terrorist, because it is the principal producer of violence, has the monopoly over weaponry, does the torturing and violates our natural rights. It is the system of domination that harasses us on a daily basis through our miserable wages, when any worker is seen not as a human, but as a money-generating machine. It forces us against nature in order to build shopping malls, it violates us with its TV programming designed to mold our thoughts.

 

AI FERRI CORTI AGAINST ALL FORMS OF DOMINATION

 

 

Letter from Amélie

 

On the evening of January 5, I was arrested with my comrades Fallon and Carlos for allegedly attacking the office of the Federal Secretary of Communications and Transportation of Mexico, and also a Nissan dealership. Windows were broken and Molotov cocktails were thrown inside the ministry (according to what the evidence says) and inside the new cars of the dealership. Damages are evaluated at more than 70 000 pesos at the ministry and 100 000 pesos at Nissan.

 

Indeed, I’m an anarchist and live in Montreal, Canada. I was traveling in Mexico, and now my trip is being prolonged some time. After being arrested, they locked us up for 96 hours and then transferred us at the Federal Centre of Arraigo—without having seen a judge. We were held captive for 40 days. In a cell, 23 hours per day, a cigarette a day, smoked in 10 minutes; 3 meals per day, but with only 10 minutes to eat each time, without talking; not allowed to have a pencil; 9 minutes of phone per day… In short, it was a long wait, and there was nothing more than Mexican “telenovelas” playing on TV all day. Luckily, our friends sent us some books! Thanks, I don’t know how I could have survived without.

 

On day 40, the General Prosecutor of the Republic (PGR—federal) transferred our files to the PGJ (state police) because they have no evidence to charge us with a federal crime. Thus, since February 17, Fallon and I are at “Santa Martha” State penitentiary for women in Mexico City, where we were transferred, and Carlos is at “Oriente” State penitentiary for men 20 minutes from us. Here, it’s a micro-society surrounded by cement and barbed-wire, but where you can do as you wish inside.

 

At the moment of writing this text, it’s 7:30 am. I’m in the yard and I’m looking at the sun rising behind the watchtower occupying the scenery. Actually, I almost feel like I’m in the yard of an apartment block when i look at the building with clothes hanging from windows without bars. There’s plenty of pigeons, garbage cans, yellowed grass, and barbed-wire. There’s also plenty of people with their own stories.

 

Prisons are necessary for maintaining social peace, as are cops. It is the domination and control that permits this sickening world to persist. Prison means fear, the unknown, shame, solitude, isolation. Society is the domestication of individuals into “good citizens.” Thus, my strength as individual takes root in the refusal of fear being a limit in my life. For sure I’m afraid, like everyone, of many things, but my desires for freedom are stronger. Fear is often constructed, and is deconstructed when we face it. What’s important is to see further, beyond the boundaries and borders, beyond the walls, mountains, rivers and oceans.

 

I don’t know how long I’m here for, but I don’t feel sorry for myself. I’m confident that outside the struggle goes on, and people meet, love each other, hate each other, live, dammit. In fact, I’m not comfortable with people focusing on our case without engaging their own struggles in their own contexts. I believe that the best solidarity is built in the sharing of individual and collective strengths. The worst thing for me would be that nothing goes on outside while we’re held captive, but I know my friends continue despite the difficulties we must face. My reality as an anarchist in prison is a fact among others with which we have to adapt. The most difficult is often to maintain and protect bonds of trust with comrades whom we have affinity with, for long-term thinking. When it is possible, unimaginable possibilities emerge.

 

In that sense, my ideas and analyses remain the same as outside. That’s why I don’t feel like changing my discourse to get people’s support. I greatly appreciate the efforts of solidarity that have been done till now, although I distance myself from certain initiatives that have been taken in solidarity with us. In Montreal: during a demo that took place in front of the Mexican consulate, the speech denounced torture and human rights violations by the Mexican State. The UN was mentioned in a reformist and progressive tone. Honestly, I appreciate that many people feel concerned with our case, but I refuse to use that illusory reformist discourse. As I see it, injustice, torture and human rights violations are integral parts of the world as it is. Rights are regulated by the State and are suspended at any moment as needed. Furthermore, it promotes democratic ideology (rights for citizens), the biggest of illusions. And most of all, to support our ideas with references to instances of power like the UN cannot build a strong anti-authoritarian struggle. It’s not by trying to influence public opinion with reformist discourse that we will build strong foundations for a struggle impossible to recuperate.

 

I must say I honestly have nothing to do with student and worker unions, and that even in the “syndicalisme de combat” [transl. combat unionism] very fashionable back home, in Montreal. Those organizations are formal and bureaucratic. They reproduce “direct democracy.” Those are the same structures I want to destroy, which impose distance between individuals and the way they relate to the world and to the living. Formality, bureaucracy, law and institutionalization transform the relationship between people. They immobilize the constant possibilities of transformation, exactly as political parties do. They try to organize and lead the “formless masses.”

 

Therefore, there is an obvious contradiction: we’ve received support from student associations in Quebec. For my part, I have no problems with accepting money that will without doubt help us out of prison. But I must say that these organizations have nothing revolutionary about them. They’re rotten to the core. They’re based on Maoist organizational structures and are totally formal, with their politician’s procedural code. This language is incomprehensible. Charismatic speakers manipulate the votes of the masses by expressing what the majority wants to hear rather than speaking from the heart. Crowds of 100,000 people march like zombies, sing and repeat the same reformist slogans and then return home, to their daily routine.

 

In the situation in which I find myself, waiting for my sentence or my release, to express openly that I am an anarchist can put me in a precarious situation. I chose to do so anyway. Many times, I felt the need to communicate with other anarchists who have experienced similar situations. When confronting State repression, there are several ways to react. I think that using a moderate discourse provides privileges, such as getting out of jail faster, obtaining financing or social acceptance. But I think as long as the words and deeds will be moderate, it will be difficult to spread insurrectional and anti-authoritarian practices. That is why it is important to communicate my ideas openly and knowingly.

 

I do not know how long I will be locked up here, but one thing is certain: it will not be for a lifetime. I am fortunate to have great friends and comrades in struggles, and I do not feel alone. The strength and courage are found first in oneself. There is a universe of possibilities, here as elsewhere. All forms of domination are to be fought, those that create the structures and institutions as much as those that interfere in our relationships. There is no heaven or perfect world. Freedom is the permanent movement and conflict, in confrontation with the world of images, symbols and appearances. Freedom is the destruction of the structures of domination over our lives. In Mexico, Montreal, France, Vancouver, United States, Spain, Greece, Chile, Egypt, Belgium, Italy, Germany, England, Holland, I greet my friends and comrades of struggle. For total freedom, I wish for links to be forged in the struggle.

 

In solidarity with Carlos “Chivo” and Fallon.

 

With love, down with all the prison walls.

 

Amélie

 

 

Letter from Fallon 

 

I want to begin this letter with a huge hug for all the compxs who are on the run, all those who are fighting for their liberty, and all those who are locked up and for whom this world of domination is trying to quell their rage. There is no cell, no wall, no authority to whom I give enough power to quiet my rage and my desire for liberty.

 

I’ve had these feelings since I was a little one and now, in my heart and my head, they are stronger than ever, and there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think of you guys, my friends. I can imagine, and they tell me as well, that the situation outside is very precarious. This doesn’t surprise me, as us deciding to be in conflict comes with repression. It isn’t simple, it isn’t easy, and there are many emotions that are all mixed up, but the specific emotion that we all have in common is our force; individually and collectively. No one can cage this feeling—neither a prison nor a border. Friends, I am thinking of you all with much love, especially Marc, who is locked up in a prison in Kingston, and I’m thinking of the compxs from the Che who were tortured by the Comite Cerezo, of the cumbia ballerina, and of Tripa, Amélie and Carlos. Let’s stay strong, regardless of the distance!

 

I feel a little weird writing a letter without any specific destination, I have the feeling that I’m writing to a galaxy that seems a little bit far away. I want to say one thing: I want to be clear that I am not writing this letter to retain support or to portray myself as the victim. My intention is to use the pen and paper to communicate with friends, and to share analysis.

 

I think that the situation of being imprisoned is a very special opportunity to get away from the “fetishisation” of prison and to make it a reality in a contextual manner. Today, I am writing this letter from Santa Marta, but who knows what is next.

 

When we were arrested, January 5, 2014, to me, it was a bit of a joke. With the seven cop cars blocking the street, it felt a bit like a scene from a play, and from this moment onwards, this feeling never left.

 

Everybody has their role. I remember this moment, at 2 or 3 in the morning, when we were transported from the PGJ to the scientific centre for tests. We were 3, in 3 different cars, with 2 cops on either side of us, and with a minimum of 10 cop cars with their lights flashing in the deserted streets of DF, and with the scientists who were still almost asleep when we arrived at the centre. It was such a show; CSI Miami in Mexico.

 

And the Arraigo Centre, ouf!

 

This was the most theatrical thing I’ve lived through in my whole life. When we got there, the street had been closed off for our arrival. The men with their soap-opera muscles and machine guns were outside in the street, as well as inside the car with us. I couldn’t stop laughing—laughing at their authority that I don’t even have the smallest amount of respect for, laughing at the way they take themselves so seriously. “Ken and Barbie” with federal police uniforms. And the prisoners, who don’t have names but instead have the good luck of having a colour. Mine was orange. The worst was that the girls in my cell were taking on the roles of submission, of fear, and of authority between each other, so seriously, as if they were in an audition for a Hollywood movie.

 

Sorry to the people who think that I’m making everything seem absurd, but, this is the way it is! A joke, the playing of a role. And here, in Santa Marta, there are many neighbourhoods from A to H, there is a ‘park’, apartments, and neighbours. There is a corner store, sex workers, drugs everywhere; there are people who reproduce the gender roles of ‘girls and boys’, and there are also tons of babies. There is a school, a doctor, a court. There are studies to classify us in Santa

Marta, there is corruption, formal and informal power, schedules, and many emotions, many histories, lots of time to share together, rage, and definitely lots of cigarettes and coffee to share. If it isn’t already clear (here my Spanish fails me a bit), but now, Santa Marta is my new city, ‘A’ is my new neighbourhood, 107 is my new apartment, and Amélie, my neighbour. For me, this is clearer than any theory.

 

And so, I end my letter.

 

A note:

 

First, I wrote this in Spanish* because, it’s sometimes easier. So, I also want to give a big thanks to all those who do the translation, I will try to translate other letters into Français and English.

 

This is the first letter I’ve written in a long time because in the Arraigo Centre it was very difficult; pens, like everything else, were prohibited! For me, it was important to write this letter with a touch of humour and sarcasm, not because I want to minimise the impact that prisons can have on people, but to minimise the impact prison can have on me. What I tried to express, in simple Spanish (I hope to one day master it; I also hope it’s understandable), is that since my imprisonment, the elements that have had the most impact on me have been the game of roles and city-prison, prison-city. I won’t lie to you—it isn’t always easy, we are surrounded by barbed wire, but there is one thing I am certain of and it’s that freedom starts in our heads, regardless of where we find ourselves. In mine right now, there’s a lot of rage, a lot of force, and yes, despite everything, there is more freedom than ever.

 

Thanks to the friends who came to visit! To those who took our collect calls. To those who are organizing, despite the tensions. To those who nurture the fire and who attack this rotten society. RAGE AND ANARCHY!! (A)

 

And solidarity with Marc, the compxs from the Che, Tripa, the witch cumbia dancer, Amélie and Carlos.

 

Fa

 

Santa Marta, Mexico, March 14, 2014

 

And Happy March 15! (A)

 

* The letter was originally written in a combination of French and Spanish.