Thirteen members of 'various tendencies' of the left were arrested in Mexico in the middle of July and are being held in prison without trial by the Mexican Government accused of plotting to overthrow the government and install a 'popular socialist type' regime. The total of charges amounted to: "conspiracy, inciting rebellion, damaging property with an explosion with damage or danger to things, that could have caused grave danger to people, criminal association, and with respect to Silvestre Enrique Mertinez and Daniel Camejo Guanche they are charged in addition with the violation of Paragraph 11l of article 95 of the Mexican Population laws, which provides prison penalties for illicit activities in the country by foreigners". The evidence offered for proof of such a 'plot' was twelve tons of literature seized ~ in a raid on the pro-Maoist bookstore, El Primer Paso (The First Step), in Mexico City, consisting in the main of books and magazines printed in Peking, including Mao Tse-Tung's famous little red book of quotations, Lenin's ‘State and itevolution' and Marx's ‘Communist Manifesto'. Both Cuba and the Soviet Union were brought into the case. Martinez, a Salvadorean, was said to have 'fought in Cuba with Fidel Castro’. He was further said to have travelled in, a Soviet made Moskvich automobile No. 330 LK'. Further "startling"evidence was the revelation that two films had been found at the lodgings of Daniel Camejo Guanche, one of the accused. The two films were on Vietnam and Venezuela, one the 'Time of the Locust' by Peter Gessner and the other 'FALN' a reportage on conditions in Venezuela and the guerrilla struggle of the National Liberation Front of Venezuela. Both films have been shown many times in the United States, and 'FALN' has been shown recently in Britain at the OLAS solidarity meeting. Both films have been shown publicly in Mexico, Two showings were given at the auditorium, 'Justo Sierre' at the University of Mexico and another at the National School of Architecture on July 2nd. One indication of the reason for the present witch-hunt is given in the Mexico City English-language newspaper The News. ‘A high government spokesman called the group (of Alleged plotters)' not really very important, as far as being a danger to the stability of the country. But it is one more indication that we are alert to such attempts, and no one is pulling the wool over our eyes. Government spokesmen denied that the arrests and timing of the announcements were part of a public relations gesture for other Latin American countries. These nations complain that Mexico's insistence on maintaining diplomatic relations with Cuba gives the Cuban regime a base from which to direct subversive movements in other Latin American countries. However the discovery of the plot' was highly opportune in relation to the campaign being waged by the State Department against Cuba. It came on the eve of the Latin American Solidarity Conference in Havana, No date has been set for the trial of the defendants, who are held in the Preventive prison of the Federal District. No bail can be obtained for them since the penalties involved in the alleged violations of the law, should they be proved, exceed five years in prison, The frame up was so raw, however, that the Judge felt compelled to modify one of the charges. He threw out the charges of conspiracy against nine of the defendants, leaving only Adrian Campos Diaz an illiterate peasant charged with this crime. Confessions brought as evidence by the prosecution were renounced by the defendants as having been extracted under torture, Peter Camejo, the brother of Daniel Camejo, one of the accused reported that his brother was filthy when he saw him in prison, The prisoners were given little food and did not have cots or mattresses and were forced to sleep on the concrete floors. Protests from Britain should be sent to: The Mexican Ambassador, Senor Lic. Don Eduardo Suarez, Mexican Embassy, 48, Belgrave Square, London, S.W.1.
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