From Prisoner to Political Pawn: Fidencio Aldama's Ongoing Struggle and the Mirage of Freedom
We stand with the Yaqui people's opposition to the mega-projects, and with Fidencio Aldama.
From Prisoner to Political Pawn: Fidencio Aldama's Ongoing Struggle and the Mirage of Freedom
by taller ahuehuete
✎ 2 minutes
On July 14, 2023, after almost seven years of captivity, our comrade Fidencio Aldama was released by the authorities of the Sonora government. Fidencio was charged with a murder he did not commit. His arrest was a direct retaliation for his and his community's opposition to the Gasoducto Sonora.
Fidencio Aldama was arrested on October 27, 2016, in connection with the death of Cruz Buitimea Piña during a conflict between those supporting the installation of a gas pipeline by IEnova in Yaqui territory and those opposing it, including [Fidencio] Aldama and the community of Loma de Bácum, one of the eight traditional Yaqui towns. Fidencio pleaded his innocence, and his imprisonment became a testament to his role as a political prisoner defending his ancestral land from capital's dominance.
One of the 15 requests made to the federal government at the outset of the Yaqui Justice Plan was the release of [Fidencio] Aldama. Since the earlier mitigation in 2020 –– establishing the defendant's guilt by a Collegiate Tribunal –– his attorneys actively drafted an immediate annulment for the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN). On July 14, 2023, they received the stunning news of his release from jail. The lawyers, however, questioned the legitimacy of his release owing to the way it was carried out.
The release of Fidencio brought joy and uncertainty. The media's inability to deliver accurate reports has only exacerbated the situation. Municipal, state, and federal administrators visited Fidencio in prison before his release, forcing him to sign a document asserting responsibility for the fictitious offense. Despite continuous attempts to coerce him, Fidencio asserted his innocence and refused to yield to their demands.
On July 11, 2023, these authorities returned with a new document, supposedly addressed to the President of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. They authorized Fidencio to make changes with the assurance that once submitted, he would be granted complete freedom. Fidencio signed the document, hoping it would aid his exoneration.
Fidencio's lawyer, Colectivo Los Otros Abogadoz's Roberto López López, described the events behind his client's release. The INPI's Yaqui Justice Plan spokesperson and SEGOB's Máximo Moscoso pushed Fidencio to sign an agreement allegedly guaranteeing his release. These actions aligned with president Andrés Manuel López Obrador's July 16 visit to the Yaqui territory.
On July 14, Fidencio was finally released from prison, presumably establishing that his freedom was absolute and that he had been declared innocent of the charges. However, on July 20, he received a notification from a sentencing enforcement court informing him that he was, in fact, still confined in a form of semi-liberty. This status requires him to return to prison every evening at 8 PM and compels him to spend the night in jail, only allowed to leave again at 8 AM the following day. This Sisyphean cycle –– scheduled to persist for the next seven years and three months — demonstrates how the remaining sentence (his original 14-year term) was not eliminated but prevails in a different form.
The timing and sudden urgency to free Fidencio on July 14, coinciding with López Obrador's visit to oversee the Yaqui Justice Plan, appears motivated primarily by a desire for flattering press coverage for the administration. The authorities implementing the plan hoped to use Fidencio's release to demonstrate their responsiveness to the needs of the Loma de Bácum autonomous government. This manipulative act revealed the government's ulterior motives, as they never intended to recognize Fidencio's innocence nor grant him the freedom they have continuously denied. Instead, political and economic interests were, once again, prioritized by capital in partnership with the Mexican State.
