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El Laberinto, 1971-1987

HECTOR MARROQUIN

KANSAS CITY - Hector Marroquin stands in the Aztec room a the Guadalupe Parish Center talking with a small group of people. He beings talking about how friends of his, fellow students, were tortured and killed by the Mexican government. A woman in the crowd interrupts him and begins rambling about people being tortured with "chicharras"--electric cattle prods. Hector stops her, and speaking in good though hesitant english, the handsome 27-year old Mexican national says, "I didn't want to get into that!" There is a look of distress and fear in his eyes.

Hector tells the crowd tht he could be deported anytime with no notice whatsoever. And if deported to Mexico, he would surely face what his two friends have-- torture and death.

Hector Marroquin was an economics student at the University of Nuevo Leon in Moterrey, Mexico, involved in radical politics and also preparing to graduate. Five months before he was to receive his degree he left Mexico and entered the U.S. "illegally," and after working for a while as a machinist and organizing Chicano workers he was seriously injured in a car wreck. In the hospital, recovering from broken ribs, a fractured tibia, and removal of his spleen, Hector read in a daily Monterrey newspaper that he was accused of murder and terrorist activities.

When he left Mexico, five months prior to the trumped up charges, it was precisely to escape the government's political repression against CER--the Revolutionary Student Committee of which he was a member before breaking with that group and coming to the U.S. As "Roberto Zamora," the name he used in Galvaston, Hector could prove his innocence--the X-rays taken of his broken leg, with the metal joints inserted to mend the break, where his proof to being hundreds of miles from Monterrey at the time he supposedly killed two men.

The other students, two friends of Marroquin's, also accused in the Monterrey slayings, tried to flee police. "One was shot 29 times and the other 18 times in order to arrest them" Hector says. "Another student was arrested and later tortured and actually disappeared." He is now convinced that this student,too, is now dead."

In 1977, after three years hiding in the U.S., Hector decided to risk a visit to Mexico to meet with his lawyer. His stay passed without incident. But upon returning to the U.S. he was apprehended by immigration officials and imprisoned. In prison, he requested political asylum thus exposing the unusual features surrounding his case. It would be more than an embarrassment for the U.S. to grant Hector political asylum and allow him to remain in this country; it would be an admission that there is political repression in Mexico which is a close allay of the U.S. So his request was denied.

At first the migra planned to expel him with no opportunity to present witnesses, affidavits, or other evidence to prove a case of political persecution. But hector appealed to the U.S. Committee for Injustices for Latin Americans Prisoners and other civil liberties groups, and the response was a flood of inquiries, telegrams, phone calls and letters that swamped the San Antonio INS office. This outpouring of support rescinded this expulsion order, and worried about the size of the inquiries, the migra issued a deportation order to low-key the circumstances in his case.

Despite the great amount of support for Hector Marroquin, the close cooperation between the U.S. and the Mexican government in his cause had been intense because of Marroquin's socialist views. Hector, as a socialist, is an embarrassment to both countries because neither is willing to say unequivocally that Marroquin is being persecuted solely because he is a socialist!

"The United States would like you to believe the lies about socialists," Hector says. "There are some who still think that socialists have two heads and eat little babies! I don't eat little babies and I have only one head--which I'd like

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HECTOR MARROQUIN KANSAS CITY - Hector Marroquin stands in the Aztec room a the Guadalupe Parish Center talking with a small group of people. He beings talking about how friends of his, fellow students, were tortured and killed by the Mexican government. A woman in the crowd interrupts him and begins rambling about people being tortured with "chicharras"--electric cattle prods. Hector stops her, and speaking in good though hesitant english, the handsome 27-year old Mexican national says, "I didn't want to get into that!" There is a look of distress and fear in his eyes. Hector tells the crowd tht he could be deported anytime with no notice whatsoever. And if deported to Mexico, he would surely face what his two friends have-- torture and death. Hector Marroquin was an economics student at the University of Nuevo Leon in Moterrey, Mexico, involved in radical politics and also preparing to graduate. Five months before he was to receive his degree he left Mexico and entered the U.S. "illegally," and after working for a while as a machinist and organizing Chicano workers he was seriously injured in a car wreck. In the hospital, recovering from broken ribs, a fractured tibia, and removal of his spleen, Hector read in a daily Monterrey newspaper that he was accused of murder and terrorist activities. When he left Mexico, five months prior to the trumped up charges, it was precisely to escape the government's political repression against CER--the Revolutionary Student Committee of which he was a member before breaking with that group and coming to the U.S. As "Roberto Zamora," the name he used in Galvaston, Hector could prove his innocence--the X-rays taken of his broken leg, with the metal joints inserted to mend the break, where his proof to being hundreds of miles from Monterrey at the time he supposedly killed two men. The other students, two friends of Marroquin's, also accused in the Monterrey slayings, tried to flee police. "One was shot 29 times and the other 18 times in order to arrest them" Hector says. "Another student was arrested and later tortured and actually disappeared." He is now convinced that this student,too, is now dead." In 1977, after three years hiding in the U.S., Hector decided to risk a visit to Mexico to meet with his lawyer. His stay passed without incident. But upon returning to the U.S. he was apprehended by immigration officials and imprisoned. In prison, he requested political asylum thus exposing the unusual features surrounding his case. It would be more than an embarrassment for the U.S. to grant Hector political asylum and allow him to remain in this country; it would be an admission that there is political repression in Mexico which is a close allay of the U.S. So his request was denied. At first the migra planned to expel him with no opportunity to present witnesses, affidavits, or other evidence to prove a case of political persecution. But hector appealed to the U.S. Committee for Injustices for Latin Americans Prisoners and other civil liberties groups, and the response was a flood of inquiries, telegrams, phone calls and letters that swamped the San Antonio INS office. This outpouring of support rescinded this expulsion order, and worried about the size of the inquiries, the migra issued a deportation order to low-key the circumstances in his case. Despite the great amount of support for Hector Marroquin, the close cooperation between the U.S. and the Mexican government in his cause had been intense because of Marroquin's socialist views. Hector, as a socialist, is an embarrassment to both countries because neither is willing to say unequivocally that Marroquin is being persecuted solely because he is a socialist! "The United States would like you to believe the lies about socialists," Hector says. "There are some who still think that socialists have two heads and eat little babies! I don't eat little babies and I have only one head--which I'd like CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 [arrow going right] 12