Protesters’ sentences are decried

Human rights activists and leftist leaders reacted with outrage Monday to 67-year prison sentences handed down to three leaders of an uprising last year in a suburb of this capital.

The men were sentenced late Friday after being found guilty of kidnapping related to the disturbances that swept through the rural community of San Salvador Atenco from February to May 2006.

The protests turned violent May 3, when a group of flower vendors resisted a government order to remove them from a local market. Five police officers, part of a large force sent to restore order, were kidnapped by community members and released unharmed after a few hours.

The three defendants were charged with the earlier kidnapping of a state official. The official was held for two days in February 2006 as activists and residents pressed the government to meet demands related to ongoing disputes over land and government resources.

Judge Blas Hernandez said there was sufficient evidence to prove that defendants Ignacio del Valle, Hector Galindo and Felipe Alvarez organized the kidnapping.

An official inquiry of the conflict in San Salvador Atenco found that police in the state of Mexico had committed gross human rights abuses in restoring order.

The 207 protesters and others arrested included 26 women who were sexually abused, according to a report by Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission. Two protesters were killed.

State officials say some officers involved in the clashes received administrative punishments.

However, none was relieved of duty and no criminal charges were brought against any officers.

“Now we see that those who defend their rights deserve jail, while those who truly commit crimes deserve to be free,” Trinidad Ramirez, the wife of Del Valle, said in a telephone interview.

The defendants’ case became a cause celebre to the Mexican left. Leaders of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party said the tough sentences showed that the government of President Felipe Calderon was hardening its stance against dissent.

Some pointed out that even the most notorious of Mexico’s drug cartel bosses have rarely received sentences longer than 20 years for their crimes.

The most prominent defendant sentenced Friday was Del Valle, a leader of a community assembly in the town.

On Monday, Humberto Benitez, secretary-general of the state of Mexico, rejected calls that the state government grant Del Valle and the other leaders amnesty.

“We live according to a system of laws and institutions,” Benitez told reporters in Toluca, the capital of Mexico state.

“We don’t consider it excessive, we consider it a correct sentence.... And yes, I consider Ignacio del Valle a delinquent, because a judge found him to be so.”

In Mexico City, prominent writer Elena Poniatowska called the sentences a crime and said she would help lead a public campaign to “express our indignation.”

On Saturday, guerrilla leader Subcommander Marcos told a rally for the defendants at a prison near Mexico City that the three men would not have to complete their full sentences “because this system of justice won’t endure for 60 years longer.”

America del Valle evaded arrest on charges similar to those presented against her father. Mexico state officials said this month that she was living with Marcos and his guerrillas in Chiapas.

Barbara Zamora, an attorney for Ignacio del Valle, said her client was sentenced under new, strict anti-kidnapping laws that were designed to fight the wave of kidnappings for ransom that have swept through Mexico. She said the prosecution had never presented evidence that Del Valle had sought a ransom.

An additional 174 defendants still face charges tied to the protests.

hector.tobar@latimes.com