Two prisoners crucified themselves in southeast Mexico ahead of Easter after claiming to have been tortured to confess crimes, a state official said on Tuesday.
The prisoners tied themselves to wooden crosses made in a carpentry workshop and nailed holes in their hands until they bled, remaining there all day on Monday, the official said, requesting anonymity.
The two, who were later untied by fellow inmates, are part of 23 prisoners involved in two-week demonstrations at El Amate prison in Chiapas state, seeking a review of their cases and demanding to be freed.
The demonstrators, members of farmers’ unions, claim to have been tortured and forced to confess to murders and other crimes.
Last week four of the prisoners sewed their lips together, and eight others are on hunger strike.
Members of their families said police had removed them on Monday from their own two-week protests outside state government buildings.
The government said that those protests had stopped after talks in which they agreed to revise all the cases within 45 days.
This week, Semana Santa, is Mexico’s second most important holiday season of the year, behind only Christmas, and runs from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday.
In related news, the lawyer for the family of slain US journalist Bradley Will accused Mexican prosecutors on Tuesday of harassing him with false accusations of leaking confidential information.
Miguel Angel de los Santos said prosecutors were trying to intimidate him because he had criticized the investigation into Will’s death in 2006.
Will, a 36-year-old from New York who worked for Indymedia.org, was shot as he filmed a clash between protesters and state government supporters during the five-month political uprising in southern Oaxaca state.
Two supporters of the protest movement have been arrested in the killing, despite the belief of Will’s family that pro-government forces were behind his death. One of the two was ordered to stand trial on homicide charges last year.
The suspects are supporters of the radical movement known as the People’s Assembly of Oaxaca, which seized control of Oaxaca city for almost five months in 2006 to push for the ouster of Governor Ulises Ruiz.
De los Santos, who has represented the Bradley family in Mexico, said the federal Attorney General’s Office had summoned him twice for questioning over allegations that he leaked confidential information from the case to the news media.
He has not been charged with any crime and denied wrongdoing.
The Attorney General’s Office did not return requests for comment.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese