In Mexico, community activist Nestora Salgado has been freed after two-and-a-half years of what a United Nations panel deemed an illegal detention. Salgado, a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen, organized a community self-defense group in her hometown in Guerrero state, where the line between drug cartels and local officials is often blurred. Salgado walked free Friday after a judge determined that kidnapping and other charges lodged against her by local officials were baseless. Speaking at a news conference, she described her imprisonment.

Nestora Salgado: “I felt that I was buried alive in a drawer. I was out of touch for 20 months, in isolation for a crime that I did not commit. They didn’t even let me coexist with the other prisoners. I only saw them when I went to court. They treated me in the most brutal way that they could. It’s difficult to struggle against the government when they are out to get you, but it’s even worse that they did this when all I wanted was to defend my community.”