The Basque citizens Asier Arronategi (Mexican citizen via naturalization), Jon Artola, Axun Gorrotxategi, Joseba Urkijo, Felix Garcia and Ernesto Alberdi are enduring a hunger strike in their cells at the Reclusorio Norte in Mexico City. They are all facing an extradition process requested by the Spanish justice, they stand accused of operating a money laundering scheme in behalf of the armed group ETA without any solid evidence being presented by Spain to this date which means that the accusations are only backed by the persecution and harassment tactics that the Spanish State uses against Basque nationalism.

The specific case of these six Basque political refugees, all of them with well-established lives in Mexico have become a true scandal that every other day floods the front pages of the Mexican press. Just a few days ago the prestigious daily "La Jornada" informed that "the Spanish Ambassador to Mexico Cristina Barrios Almazor, gave false information on July 16th 2003 to the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE), with the clear objective of trying to justify the provisional detention of the six Basque citizens that last Sunday marked one year since they have been imprisoned at the Reclusorio Norte in Mexico City".

The issue does not stop there. The Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon requested the extradition process of the six Basque citizens six days after they were detained in a number of synchronized operations
by the Mexican police force in which Spanish agents also participated. The above mentioned Mexican news paper revealed that, according to the local body of laws, Garzon was obligated to send a note to the government of President Vicente Fox requesting the arrest of the accused, in failing to do so the whole procedure lost judicial validity, and it is sustained only by the false information provided by the Ambassador to Mexico.

On the light of such ludicrous events, the two main opposition parties in Mexico, the PRI and the PRD, joined their voice to the chorus of numerous jurists and organizations dedicated to the defense of Human Rights that had previously demonstrated their concern and indignation for all the injustice carried out against the six Basques, whom, a year after being arrested, have declared a hunger strike while the Mexican Government decides if the extradition demand proceeds or not, there is a dead line for that decision on July 27th. We have learned that the hunger strike is causing severe health hazards among the prisoners, some of who have pre-existent health conditions.

The Asociacion Diaspora Vasca warns the international community that we are witnessing yet a new vindictive operation by the Spanish Government against the more that two thousand Basque women and men forced to live their land behind, simply because they dared to defend the right of Euskal Herria, the land of the Basques, to decide its own future and to achieve its freedom. This is in fact one more chapter of a long political conflict that neither France nor Spain have been able to resolve, or better said, they expected they could solve by repressive measures, torture, bans and crimes against the Basque nationalism. We take the chance to tell the, from the Diaspora, that they are wrong, the resolution will take place within a frame of dialogue and up most respect to the rights of Euskal Herria as a nation.

Once again, we ask from all of you to watch closely over the situation of the six prisoners in Mexico. We should not allow for six political refugees to end up in the hands of the Spanish State, a government that as reported recently by the UN Rapporteur Against Torture provides the conditions for the physical and psychological abuse of Basque women and men.

Asociación Diáspora Vasca

Germany, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Castile, Catalonia, Colombia, Chile, Denmark, Ecuador, Spanish State, French State, United Kingdom, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela.

 http://euskalherria.cjb.net
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