Adolfo Guzmán, comrade to Margarita Martínez. Photo @Frontline Defenders
On 16 July, several organizations, including the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba), the Center for Women’s Rights in Chiapas, and Consorcio for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equity in Oaxaca published a press-release in which they disclose that the rights-defender Margarita Martínez and her family have left the state of Chiapas. In their words, “In light of the inefficacy of the Chiapas state-government and the federal government to guarantee the life, integrity, and security of the human-rights defender Margarita Guadalupe Martínez Martínez and her family, these individuals have decided temporarily to leave the state of Chiapas, given that the risk to their lives is high. The Mexican State has proven incapable of protecting Margarita Martínez, despite her having been awarded precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). She and her family have received several death threats, the most recent one dating from 30 June, just as Margarita had been preparing her presentation at the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) at the United Nations in New York, as part of a delegation of rights-defenders from Mexico.”
For more information (in Spanish):
Boletín conjunto (16 de julio)
Ante falta de garantías por su vida, Margarita Martínez y su familia salen de Chiapas (Consorcio Oaxaca, 17 de julio)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: New death-threats directed against Margarita Martínez and her family (10 July)
Chiapas: New death-threats against human-rights defenders; they denounce intimidating treatment on the part of judicial authorities (27 October 2011)
Chiapas: Announcement of International Accompaniment for the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights center on the part of the International Service for Peace (10 December 2010)
Chiapas: 7 months after the beginning of harassment directed at members of Enlace Comunicación y Capacitación of Comitán (23 June 2010)
Chiapas: Wife of Adolfo Guzmán Ordaz, Member of Enlace, Comunicación y Capacitación, Margarita Martínez: Beaten, Kidnapped and Threatened with Death (26 February 2010)
Chiapas: new harrassment of a member of the civil organization Enlace, Capacitación y Comunicación, AC (13 January 2010)
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