How The LA Times Got It Wrong On #NestoraSalgado: (3/23/2016)

In the following post, community organizer and activist, Pakal Hatuey, responds to LA Times coverage on Nestora Salgado. In Community activist freed after more than 2 years in Mexican prison, the LA Times falsely claims community support did little to secure her release:


Nestora Salgado in Olinala, Guerrero, March 18, 2016. Source: ANTONIO NAVA, Prensa Internacional

Pakal Hatuey -- Nestora Salgado, an Indigenous human rights leader from Guerrero, México was just released from prison on March 18, 2016. Some mainstream reporters have been correctly informing us on her freedom, but they have also misrepresented some critical details about her release and imprisonment. The usually offbase Los Angeles Times reported on Salgado's situation and in doing so added language and opinions that are simply incorrect to what is obviously a momentous victory for the Mexican community and by extension Indigenous communities of the "western hemishpere". Reporters Chris Kraul and Cecilia Sanchez wrote the article titled "In México, An Activist Goes Free." The first error to note is their use of the term "vigilante" to describe the Coordinadora Regional de Autoridades Comunitarias (CRAC) also known as Policia Communitaria. This Indigenous institution was created and directed by Indigenous people, which Nestora joined and even helped establish a branch in her hometown of Olinala, Guerrero.

Curiously, the article seems to misunderstand the facts they referenced, having stated that the CRAC was "taking advantage of Mexican law that permits Indigenous groups to form community vigilante associations, she emerged as a fearless leader...". This is confusing because since the LA Times acknowledges that the CRAC operates within Mexican legal law, but still injects the term "vigilante" into the discourse. Effectively, the group is marked as violent lawless individuals.

Here are some definitions of the term "vigilante" from the online Miriam-Webster dictionary:

-a person who is not a police- officer but who tries to catch and punish criminals.

-a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate); broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice

- a member of a group of volunteers who are not police but who decide on their own to stop crime and punish criminals

Source:Merriam Webster

The CRAC is a democratically elected institution equivalent of any branch of the Mexican government. Therefore, the term "vigilante" does not describe Nestora nor any member of CRAC because they are democratically elected by their own towns to assume a position within the twenty year old institution. And, it is "Guerrero State Law 701 and Article 2.A of the Mexican Constitution" which "guarantees the right of [I]ndigenous people to self-government and self-defense, including the formation of their own police forces."

A second inaccurate and offensive claim of the article is when the reporters state that the grass roots organizing that her husband Jose Luis Avila engaged in the United States for the past 31 months "yielded little results." Such opinion must be questioned by first of all asking "how would they know?". Despite the significant victory, one asks themselves if these ideologically bound reporters are discouraging people from community activism and organization. Contrary to this short sighted remark, it was the international support that helped Nestora and her family to push against these violations.

The article falls flat on its face in every domain possible. Upon Nestora's release, in fact, Jose Luis Avila, with great humility, thanked all the community organizers that generously spoke and acted on behalf of Nestora and their family:

Learn more about Nestora's fight against the Mexican government below. Great international support Nestora and her family received was key and is well documented: Community Support.