Don Alfredo and Don Fidelino

Their beaming smiles and genial dispositions betray their surroundings. Don Alfredo and Don Fidelino excitedly talk to us through the bars that have held them for 5 years. Political prisoners of Mexico wrongfully held for the murder of two men because of a land dispute within an indigenous community in the state of Chiapas.

7 years ago, José Lopez murdered a man, a Zapatista, in his community. Not wanting to escalate the situation, the family of the murdered agreed not to involve outside authorities and Lopez agreed to give the widow 10 hectares of his farmland. Shortly afterwards, Lopez fled the state for over two years.
In the meantime, the widow rented her new land to two farmers and friends of the family, Fidelino and Alfredo, to make money to support herself. When José Lopez returned, he demanded his land back. The young widow would not throw Don Alfredo and Don Fidelino off of the land and refused to give the property back.
Lopez, not known for his cool-head, got into a row with another community member, José Orlando. Evidence shows that Orlando shot and killed Lopez. In revenge, the son, Salomon, and the nephew, Isaías, decided to go after Orlando.

Fidelo’s niece waits with us. A girl with the face of a ten year old, but the eyes of a women many times that age. She curiously stares at another young girl who is happily slobbering lollipop all over herself. The rest of the family sit patiently. Their simple clothes are further cheapened by the discotheque dress of the penal secretaries. The secretaries, whose minds are on all the women they sweated and gyrated with of the dance floor the night before, are serving justice to the Dons, whose minds are on the women they sweated and bled for in their fields everyday.

Forms are brought to the men behind bars and they press inked thumbs to them. A shawl-clad secretary slips the paper into a stack of papers. The case files are so large here it is one staffers job to manually drill holes through the stacks and sew the papers together.

On the stand, Lopez’s family told the jury they saw Don Alfredo and Don Fidelino shoot and kill Lopez and Orlando. A year later, their story changed, but it was too late. With Alfredo and Fidelino behind bars, Lopez's family was able to take back the ten hectares of land. For the past two years CAPISE, an research organization that focuses on indigenous human rights violations, has built a case for a mistrial based on forensics, testimonies, and police evidence for a retrial to try to free the Dons.

With broad smiles, the two men wave goodbye as they are escorted away from their families and back into their cells. Everyone must now wait longer as the paperwork is processed…