By Daina Beth Solomon
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican labor lawyer Susana Prieto on Wednesday said she appealed a court order banning her from a labor court in the northern state of Tamaulipas, arguing it violates a new trade deal by stopping her from fighting for workers’ rights.
The 2-1/2 year ban from the Special Local Board No. 6 for Conciliation and Arbitration in Matamoros, a border city with dozens of factories in the U.S.-Mexico supply chain, was a condition of Prieto’s release last week after the activist spent nearly a month in jail on charges tied to a labor protest.
Prieto said she represents 1,000 factory workers in cases under review at the board.
Her detention prompted U.S. union leaders and Democratic lawmakers to call for Prieto’s release, citing the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that aims to improve union independence and worker rights in Mexico.
“These workers have been left without their defender,” Prieto, the founder of an independent union, told a news conference.
Prieto has also said a judge prohibited her from re-entering the state except for court hearings, while a statement from the Tamaulipas prosecutor’s office said only that she could no longer visit the labor board, without detailing a wider ban.
A spokesman for the prosecutor did not immediately reply to a request from Reuters to review the judge’s comments.
Workers from Tridonex, a unit of U.S. auto parts firm Cardone Industries, Inc., had protested outside the same labor board in March, demanding new, better representation.
Tamaulipas authorities accused Prieto of organizing the group, which they said was violent, charging her with having committed crimes against officials.
Prieto denies the charges. Her lawyers filed an appeal on Monday seeking to overturn the court’s order.
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Dan Grebler)
