An Indigenous migrant from Guatemala who didn't speak Spanish when arrested has been freed after spending seven years jailed in Mexico without a trial. Juana Alonzo Santizo, 35, returned home Sunday after a Mexican court ordered her immediate release.
The court ruled there was no consistent evidence against her, said Netzaí Sandoval, head of Mexico’s federal public defenders office.
The Mayan Chuj woman left her village, San Mateo Ixtatán, in 2014 seeking to migrate to the United States, he said. She was detained by immigration officials while in Reynosa, a Mexican border city across from McAllen, Texas, and one of the main smuggling points in Tamaulipas state.Police then accused her of kidnapping and put her in jail, Sandoval said. He said the charges were not translated into her Chuj language until this year.
An advocacy campaign for her freedom was supported by national and international groups and by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the Tamaulipas prosecutor office withdrew the charges against her.
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