More reports on Cesar Zelada campaign and financial appeal

Further to the news we published yesterday about the international day of action for the release of Cesar Zelada, we have also received the information that there was a picket of the Bolivian embassy in Peru, organised by the Fuerza de Izquierda Socialista (Left Socialist Force – FIS), the organisation Cesar belongs to, with about 40 people present.

In Mexico a delegation of student activists from the three main universities in the capital (UNAM, UAM, IPN) went to the Bolivian embassy and handed in a letter of protest.

Also as a result of the visit by supporters of the campaign in Belgium to the Bolivian embassy in Brussels, the embassy officials have filed a complaint with the local police! It now seems that it is acceptable to detain and imprison student activists in Bolivia, but protesting at the Bolivian embassy in Brussels is not allowed.

The case of Cesar Zelada is finally filtering into the news, having been reported in the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina on September 23 and also in one of the main Peruvian newspapers La República, as well as having been featured in the UK Indymedia website.

More messages of solidarity from all over the world have been received demanding the release of Cesar Zelada. You can see a full list here. Amongst these there are message from the Ecuadorean Popular Front, an organisation which includes the National Union of Teachers, the Federation of Secondary Students, the Federation of University Students and the Revolutionary Youth of Ecuador; from the Chilean Movement for Socialist Revolution, and from Sri Lanka from the president of the National Health Workers’ Union, the secretary of the Government Printworkers’ Union and the president of the Committee for Wage Increase for Public Sector Workers.

The campaign so far has been excellent. Now we need to provide comrade Cesar with the best legal defence possible and also to send an international delegation to visit him and put pressure on the authorities. For all this we have launched a Cesar Zelada Defence Fund and we appeal to all supporters of the campaign to donate and contribute to this. You can make donations on-line by filling this form:

September 28, 2004

See also:

• Intimidation tactics of Bolivian embassy in Brussels against supporters of the Cesar Zelada Campaign (September 28, 2004)
• Friday, September 24: a day of action for Cesar Zelada (September 27, 2004)
• Free Cesar Zelada – International Solidarity starts to build up (September 23, 2004)
• European Parliament Officials demand freedom for Cesar Zelada (September 23, 2004)
• Letter from Cesar Zelada from the San Pedro prison (Bolivia) (September 21, 2004)
• Urgent: Peruvian Student Activist arrested in Bolivia (September 20, 2004)

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