ashthomas//blog: Arrested For Poetry

ashthomas//blog

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Arrested For Poetry

A Mexican writer is awaiting trial for publishing a poem that criticised the Mexican government. From the Washington Post:
Sergio Witz Rodriguez was one ticked-off poet.

He thought nobody was solving Mexico's social and economic problems, least of all its politicians. So he worked himself into a righteous, lyrical lather and wrote a 21-line poem, saying, among other things, that he would like to use the Mexican flag as toilet paper.

Sergio Witz Rodriguez was arrested after writing a poem suggesting the Mexican flag be used as toilet paper.

The poem was published in a literary journal in 2001. That's when Witz, a father of three young girls, was arrested, fingerprinted, hauled before a judge and introduced to Chapter 5, Article 191 of the federal penal code, which calls for up to four years in prison for "insulting national symbols."

"This is absurd," said Witz, 42, a college literature professor in this Caribbean city on the Yucatan Peninsula. "I am not a threat to the state."

Now, after more than three years of legal proceedings that Witz described as Kafkaesque, his case may soon be heard by the Mexican Supreme Court in what legal analysts called one of the most important freedom of expression cases in recent memory.

The Mexican constitution guarantees free speech, as long as that speech doesn't injure someone else, provoke a crime or incite public disturbances. But federal law dating to the 1930s makes it illegal for anyone to insult national symbols, particularly the flag and the national anthem. The laws are vestiges of an era when presidents with vast power controlled the press and placed little importance on individual freedoms. Legal observers said the court may use Witz's case to determine the constitutionality of the law.

This is one of the most surreal and ridiculous cases I have heard about for a while. Hopefully the Mexican courts will throw out what is obviously a bizarre misuse of the law.

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