- The sentence recognizes, for the first time in more than a decade of judicial harassment, the inexistence of the attempted homicide against the alleged victim, Elisa Zepeda Lagunas.
- In considering the context of the facts, the Court qualified the accusatory testimonies as lacking credibility and sincerity.
- Miguel should be definitively acquitted by the Third Criminal Court of Oaxaca of the crimes of homicide and attempted homicide.
- In addition to Miguel, the Mazatec defenders who still have arrest warrants and criminal proceedings for this non-existent crime must be acquitted.
Different geographies, March 2, 2026. On February 25 of this year, the sentence issued by the First Collegiate Tribunal in Criminal Matters of Oaxaca in the Amparo Directo 631/2022 was published, which absolved Miguel Peralta Betanzos of all the accusations against him after a process of more than 11 years. This recognition is consistent with international standards of due process, presumption of innocence, and protection of indigenous defenders.
The amparo granted obliges the Third Criminal Court of Oaxaca to confirm Miguel’s innocence and absolute freedom for the crimes of homicide and attempted homicide. In addition, for the first time in the process, there is a judicial determination that denies the existence of the latter crime, supposedly committed against Elisa Zepeda, and considers the context in which the events occurred to qualify the accusatory testimonies as unreliable, insincere, and biased by sympathy to the cacique group, which evidences their intention to incriminate him.
For Miguel, this represents a small window where freedom can be seen in the distance; a space through which we can escape this confinement, because although we are free, we are still limited in many ways. We have won a small battle in this great affront against the State and its representatives. Our community has experienced in the flesh institutional racism, systematic delay, persecution, criminalization, fabrication of crimes, torture, forced displacement, and imprisonment. Once again, it has been confirmed that the lies that kept us behind bars are fading; they no longer have a way to sustain this fallacy they created to subjugate our people and take political and economic control. We will not stop resisting until all the persecuted people of Eloxochitlán are absolutely free.
For the community, which has been subjected to judicial harassment and the devastation of the Xangá Ndá Ge River by the cacique group, this sentence confirms, on the one hand, the persecution and fabrication of crimes with the aim of inhibiting community organization and the defense of the territory. On the other hand, it opens the door to justice for the rest of the people unjustly prosecuted, as it becomes solid external criteria to demand the release of 12 of the exiled defenders and 5 more, still subject to criminal proceedings for the same crimes. In addition, the sentence allows for combatting the stigmatization and repression that still prevails over the entire criminalized community, which, in 2025, was once again the object of more than 200 arrest warrants, which meant an intensification of persecution by the three branches of government of the state of Oaxaca.
This pattern of mass prosecution against indigenous defenders reflects criminalization practices that have been documented in different contexts against Indigenous Peoples exercising their autonomy and defending their territory.
It is important to remember that Miguel Peralta had already obtained his freedom in October 2019, after a grueling defense, because there were no direct accusations against him. However, the alleged victims appealed, and that sentence was revoked in March 2022 by the Third Criminal Court of Oaxaca; this has forced him to remain in exile for four years. Since then, he sought to obtain from the First Collegiate Court confirmation of his innocence and absolute freedom, going all the way to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, which, in November 2024, returned the case to that court to resolve it with a crosscultural perspective.
During more than a year of proceedings before the Collegiate Court, pleadings, evidence and amicus curiae briefs were submitted, forcing the magistrates to enter into a study of the merits of the case. As a result of two contextual anthropological expert reports, the court recognized the existence of a socio-political conflict that resulted in “antagonistic groups”. The sentence makes clear that the testimonies of those who maintain alliances with the cacicazgo, according to the expert reports themselves, make it possible to glimpse “the pretension of involving [Miguel] as part of the opposing group”. The sentence is forceful in pointing out inconsistencies and serious contradictions in the evidence that has been used against dozens of persecuted and exiled people from the Mazatec community.
This case has shown how the criminal justice system can be used as a mechanism of punishment against those who defend their territory and exercise their own community organization. The criminalization of Miguel Peralta and the Eloxochitlán Assembly is not an isolated event, but part of an attempt to weaken the exercise of autonomy and selfdetermination, maintaining the devastation of the river.
We hope that, without further delay, the Third Criminal Court will comply with this resolution, issue a definitive acquittal, and allow that, after more than a decade of proceedings, the persecution will end and justice will be served.
We thank you for your diffusion,
Miguel Ángel Peralta Betanzos
Mazatecas for Freedom
Support Group in Solidarity with Miguel Peralta
The Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI)
Photo: Elizabeth Díaz
