AMLO offering political asylum to Julian Assange during his Matutina press conference. Photo: Cuartoscuro.
MEXICO CITY—Yesterday, in the Mexican Senate, during a session in which legislators from MORENA promised to fight, from Congress, for the release of the journalist and activist Julian Assange, the father of Wikileaks’ founder, John Shipton said that Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s position in confronting the United States government and offering asylum to Julian Assange “will resonate throughout the world.”
Later, during a discussion at the UNAM Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, John Shipton, accompanied by his son Gabriel, noted how, despite not being responsible for any crime, Julian Assange has been subjected to “cruel and malignant treatment” for more than 13 years, simply for having exposed the war crimes perpetrated by Washington in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Julian’s case, said Shipton, “is a disturbing example of how justice can be trampled on in today’s world without anything happening.”
At UNAM, Gabriel Shipton assured that, although the legal proceedings against his brother have been tainted from the beginning, there is still a chance that the Supreme Court of Great Britain will hear Julian Assange’s appeals, filed two weeks ago, and prevent his extradition to the United States.
Back in the Senate, Gabriel Shipton said that most of the world’s parliaments have presented petitions to drop the charges against Assange, and he then called on the MORENA legislators present not to give up the struggle in defense of press freedom. He followed up by asking them to communicate “to his colleagues in the United States Senate’s, the perception of the unjust persecution” of his brother.
Senator Citlalli Hernández Mora, general secretary of MORENA, during a speech covering freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press, expressed her support for “the outstretched hand” that the Mexican government has extended to the founder of WikiLeaks. Along with Senator Héctor Vasconcelos, she warned that the Assange case should be afforded greater visibility, and she encouraged activists and voters to join the struggle that John and Gabriel Shipton have led for years, calling for the journalist’s release from prison.
Hernández Mora noted that Mexico has been a world leader in offering political asylum since the 19th century, and expressed her hope that Julian Assange would find refuge in the country, as did José Martí, León Trotsky, Luis Buñuel, León Felipe, Fidel Castro, the family of Salvador de Allende, the Spanish Republicans, and those who in past decades fled Latin American dictatorships.
The activist and journalist Alina Duarte, who organized the Shiptons’ visit to Mexico, closed the event in the Senate with the phrase: “If we don’t get Julian Assange out of jail, tomorrow it could be any of us.”
During the UNAM conversation, she called for a demonstration to be held on October 8 at 12 p.m. in front of the embassies of the United Kingdom and the United States.
(La Jornada) by Andrea Becerril, Víctor Ballinas, and Fernando Camacho
Translation: Orinoco Tribune.
OT/FV/SL
