SAN DIEGO.- Days after the broadcast of a documental nationwide that showed the brutal assault of Anastasio Hernández in the hands of federal agents that ended with his life two years ago, last Monday his widow and local activists announced a campaign to collect signatures and demand punishment for the responsible.

Anastasio Hernández who passed away on May 28 of 2010 in the port of entrance to Mexico from the United States was the central theme of a program at the PBS network who collected never before seen material where it shows that the Mexican was never against the attack of a dozen agents.

The video presented by Ashley Young of 24 years old, shows how besides attacking the Mexican, the agents used a Taser gun on him and one of the agents took down is pants while Anastasio was mouth down and handcuffed.

Far from showing resistance, as it was mentioned in the beginning by a press release of the Police Department of San Diego, on the video we can see Anastasio begging for help.

According to Christian Ramírez, director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, until today they aren't any reports of agents involved in the case receiving some kind of punishment.

"We demand a clear process", said the local activist on a press conference last Monday. "We will take this fight until Washington to demand an answer for this torture".

The Department of Justice is in charge of the case, but in the two years of the process, they haven't showed any progress in the investigation.

Authorities of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, have denied any comments on the case under the argument of being "an ongoing investigation".

[/p]

"We deserve a better answer than 'no comments' " said Ramírez, "there aren't any excuses for a two years delay, it's not possible that a TV show has made more investigation than the authorities".

The campaign will be altogether with the group "Presente.org" where the idea is to collect signatures and send them to the federal public prosecutor of the United States and President Barack Obama.

"We want the Latin community to be part of this movement, the more signatures we get, the bigger message we send to our authorities" declared Ana Pérez, director of the organization.

Also, María Puga, widow of Hernández Rojas and mother of his five children, exhorted the community to be part of the campaign, she also expressed how her life was changed since the murder of her husband.

"It's been extremely hard, they destroyed a family" mentioned. "It hurts to see how time passes by and we still don't have answers, I think the new video shows it was a murder".

Puga said her children of 22, 20, 13 and 6 years old haven't seen the video.

For the lawyers that represent the family of Anastasio Hernández, the new footage is key in the case because it agrees with what the witnesses say and contradicts the arguments of the federal authorities.

"The images are important evidence and will help to pressure the Department of Justice " declared the lawyer Guadalupe Valencia, part of the legal team next to Adrián Martínez and Eugene Iredale.

Valencia also commented that they have the names of every agent involved in the murder of Anastasio Hernández but there is a "protection order" made by a judge that forbids the release of the information.

This is revealed in a copy of the lawsuit where it shows the names of the five children of Anastasio Hernández while the identity of the agents it's indicated with numbers.

On the document, it's mentioned that from the agents involved, three are officers of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, one supervisor among them, six are members of the Border Patrol, two of them are supervisors and two more belong to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The lawyer mentioned also that right now the lawsuit is in the process of collecting testimonies from both sides.

Valencia, said that the most important part of the videos is that they agree with what the witnesses have declared.

"We know that besides them, they were more persons who recorded what happened but officers confiscated their cell phones and erased the information, that only shows how they wanted to cover a crime", Valencia emphasized.

Alberto Díaz, spokesman of Mexican Consulate in San Diego, also emphasized the demand of justice with the responsibles in the murder of Anastasio Hernández : "We have always asked for a clear process and the Mexican government awaits the results of the investigations made by the Justice Department".

alexandra.mendoza@sandiegored.com

Original Text : Alexandra Mendoza

Translation : Brenda Colón