Abraham Cortés Ávila

Abraham is a youth from the city of Oaxaca who was arrested on October 2, 2013 in Mexico City during a march commemorating the massacre of thousands of students on October 2, 1968 in Mexico City. Every year there is a march, lifting up the student struggles in the city. And on that occasion Abraham wasn’t planning on going to the march. He’s an artisan and he went to buy some things in the city center for his work. He saw the march and said, “Of course I’ll join because it’s important.”

He joined the march and was with the compañeros and at a certain point the police attacked the mobilization. When the police came towards Abraham, the first thing he did was grab a plastic water bottle and instinctively threw it at the police and ran. The evidence against Abraham is an image edited by Televisa, a massive media company in Mexico City. It is of Abraham throwing the water bottle, they cut away, and the next image is of a Molotov landing on a cop and setting him on fire. Though it’s obvious that what Abraham is throwing is a water bottle while the next clip is a Molotov burning a cop. That’s the evidence.

First he was sentenced to more than 12 years, but after an appeal his sentence was reduced to a little more than six years for attempted murder, for trying to kill a cop, something that isn’t true. He’s also part of the Cimarrón Collective. He gives workshops on handicrafts, drawing, he boxes on the inside.

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