In March 2006, six plainclothes agents of

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

's Federal Investigations Agency (AFI) raided a market in Santiago Mexquititlán,

Querétaro Querétaro, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Querétaro, 18 municipalities. Its capital city is Querétaro Cit ...

, in search of unauthorized copies of copyrighted works. The agents later alleged that they were held hostage by vendors during the raid. Three women were convicted of the alleged kidnapping. In September 2009, Jacinta Francisco Marcial and in April 2010 Alberta Alcántara and Teresa González, were released from prison after the charges against them were dropped.

Allegations of kidnapping

During the raid, the six AFI agents were cornered by a number of unarmed vendors in protest. The agents later claimed that the vendors demanded a ransom to let them go. Local witnesses to the incident denied any ransom demand was made.

Jacinta Francisco Marcial

Jacinta Francisco Marcial, an indigenous Otomí woman, sold ice cream in Santiago Mexquititlán's predominantly indigenous tianguis. The six AFI agents who conducted the raid implicated Francisco Marcial after they were shown a newspaper photograph depicting her walking near a group of protesting vendors. In August 2006, four months after the raid, she was arrested for the alleged kidnapping. She was later convicted and sentenced to twenty-one years' imprisonment.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

denounced Francisco Marcial's imprisonment as resulting from a wrongful prosecution. The group declared her a

prisoner of conscience A prisoner of conscience (POC) is anyone imprisoned because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, or political views. The term also refers to those who have been imprisoned or persecuted for the nonviolent expression of their conscienti ...

, claiming there was no credible evidence against her, and that she had been prosecuted because of her gender, poverty, race, and inability to speak or understand the Spanish language. In 2009, prosecutors dropped the case against Francisco Marcial. In September 2009, she was released. In April 2010, the Mexican Supreme Court unanimously agreed to reverse the convictions of the two other women convicted of the same charges, Alberta Alcántara and Teresa González, and they were released from prison.

References

Copyright enforcement Law enforcement in Mexico Mexican intellectual property law 2006 in Mexico Wrongful convictions {{LatAm-law-stub