Communities rally against unfair detention during a protest on May 17. Courtesy Itan Dehui

A month before protesters blocked the main roadway to Oaxaca, Mexico’s airport demanding the release of five imprisoned political activists, the daughter of one of those prisoners journeyed to San Francisco to publicize her father’s case.

Itandehui Haydeé Manzano Sánchez, 22, visited San Francisco on July 29 to expose the agony of many political activists in Mexico, like her father, Leonel Manzano Sosa, who has been incarcerated for more than 450 days in Jalisco’s Puente Grande penitentiary.

Itandehui Haydeé Manzano Sánchez during her visit to San Francisco at the offices of Causa Justa, July 23, 2014, to publicize her father’s case.

“They’re stalling, the agents who detained him will not show up,” said Manzano Sánchez, who claims her father is being held for political reasons. “There are no charges, just a confession under torture… and they wanted him to snitch on others.”

Manzano Sosa, co-founder of the Ample Front for Marginalized Communities of Oaxaca (FACMEO), was arrested in the parking lot of a shopping mall in Oaxaca on May 17, 2013, for allegedly kidnapping two children.

According to the court record, Manzano Sosa was arrested for organized crime with the purpose of committing the kidnapping of businessman Juan José Álvarez Candiani’s two children in the Guadalupe Victoria neighborhood of Oaxaca on Jan. 14, 2013.

The Alvarez Candiani children were freed a day after Manzano Sosa was arrested during a police operation in Oaxaca. The family of the children did not issue any statements after their release.

“My father’s arrest was staged and we are the victims,” said Manzano Sánchez. “[The police] blamed him in the media, and in doing so they violated the principle of presuming of innocence without taking due process.”

Manzano Sanchez claimed she didn’t know for certain if the kidnapping took place.

“If the investigation had been convincing in a judicial manner, it would not have been necessary to make them confess something they didn’t do via torture,” she said. “He was not presented before the prosecution for 17 hours. The constitution says that immediately upon detaining [someone] they are supposed to be taken to the nearest agency where they write the diligence certificate.”

But during those initial hours, Manzano Sosa claims that he was forced to sign a confession under torture.

“A wet blindfold over my eyes…blows to the back of my neck… on the temples… between the eyes…they threatened me with raping my wife and oldest daughter. They’re forcing me to sign some documents without showing me their content,” Manzano Sosa allegedly told his lawyer, his statement appearing on a leaflet that his daughter handed out in San Francisco.

On July 14, more than a year after his detention, Manzano Sosa’s lawyer Augusto Cesar Sandino Rivero presented formal proof to the judge that his client was tortured. Doctor Ricardo Loewe and psychologist Liliana Souza did the medical exam in accordance with the Istanbul Protocol, the international guidelines for documenting torture.

Manzano Sosa worked as a political organizer in his native town of Santa María Zoquitlán, in the Central Valley region of Oaxaca.

“He introduced changes in the town that angered other people,” said Manzano Sanchez. “He labored for the awareness of people and they carried out projects…and he finished them.”

This hasn’t been the first incident with Manzano Sanchez’ family. In April of 2007, her family was attacked by gunfire. One of her uncles died in the attack, and her father was in a wheelchair temporarily after being shot six times. On Dec. 24, 2011 her uncle Rafael Vicente Rodríguez Enríquez, who co-founded of FACMEO with her father, was murdered.

Manzano Sanchez framed the incarceration of her father as part of the “Peña Nieto administration’s low impact war against social movements, and in favor of neoliberal reforms that benefit just a few.”

According to Manzano Sanchez, Mexico is ruled by corruption, impunity and social injustice.

She mentioned the death of activist Rocío Mesino, of the Organization of Socialist Farmers in the neighboring state of Guerrero, on Oct. 19, 2013.

“[Mesino was] a burning fighter who was first incarcerated, and because she didn’t give in, they killed her,” she said.

“In our country, justice is not prompt or expedited. My father’s human rights were violated… it is an illegal detention, torturing someone nullifies all evidence,” she said in citing the 17th article in the Mexican Constitution.