Human rights body expresses concern for Mexican prisoner

• Nestora Salgado is a Mexican-born woman who arrived in the U.S. at age 20
• Seven years ago, she decided to return to her native Olinalá, a mountainous town in the troubled Mexican state of Guerrero
• She ended up becoming part of a movement to establish a vigilante-style community police force
• Such a force is allowed under Mexican law to help fight crime and corruption
• She claims she was fighting crime and that the charges against her are nothing but a political vendetta

By Associated Press

Published: 17:04 EST, 2 February 2015 | Updated: 02:02 EST, 25 February 2015

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has told the Mexican government to provide the necessary medical attention to a jailed vigilante leader who holds dual U.S. and Mexican citizenship.

The Washington-based body wrote in a Jan. 28 decision that it found adequate reason to be concerned for the health of 41-year-old Nestora Salgado, a resident of the Seattle suburb of Renton.

Salgado was arrested in August 2013 after people detained by the community self-defense force she leads in the southern state of Guerrero alleged they had been kidnapped.

A federal judge cleared Salgado of those charges last year, but related state charges have kept her locked up.

Jailed: Nestora Salgado, who has been detained since she was arrested Aug 2013 in the state of Guerrero, south of Mexico City, where she had been leading a vigilante group targeting police corruption and drug cartel violence

Salgado's fellow commanders said during a news conference in Mexico City that the force in the town of Olinala never demanded bail money, which her accusers called ransom.

The commanders said many of those detained were youths held at the request of their parents for 're-education.'

'The communitarian system does not request any bail,' said regional community police commander Cruz Morales Reyes. 'It does not request any ransom. There is no amount of money that can get someone out.'

A state law allows Olinala and Guerrero's other indigenous communities to organize their own police forces.

In need: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has told the Mexican government to provide the necessary medical attention to the jailed vigilante leader who holds dual U.S. and Mexican citizenship

Borderline case: The case is drawing attention in Seattle as demonstrators demanded Salgado’s release over the weekend

Morales said the community police, which rose up as a result of corruption within the local government and organized crime, arrests people accused of crimes but also young people whose parents deem them out of control.

One of those was Francisco Flores Jimenez, who said his mother asked that he be held and 're-educated' by the community police.

He described a regimen of manual labor and lessons about the value of hard work. He said detainees who worked hard were fed well, while those who didn't received whatever was available.

Flores also questioned charges by some detainees that they were abused. 'In my case, I was never mistreated,' he said.

Giovani Torres, a group level community police commander, said Nestora Salgado was among the citizens who rose up against the criminality in Olinala.

She distinguished herself through her bravery and was elected as a commander by an assembly of community police members, Torres said.

Salgado grew up in Olinala and moved to the U.S. when she was about 20. Eventually she began making regular visits back to her hometown.

'The government knows perfectly well that all of the charges they're accusing Nestora of are false,' said her sister Cleotilde Salgado Garcia.