On 27 September, two years and five months after the murders of the Mexican human-rights defenders Beatriz Cariñ and the Finnish observer Jyri Jaakkola, 12 arrest-orders were released against the presumed material authors of their deaths. The announcement was made in a press-conference carried out in Mexico City on 1 October. At the event, the lawyer David Peña from the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (ANAD) announced that a penal denunciation will be presented before Finnish prosecutors against the intellectual authors of these crimes; included within these are the PRI ex-governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, Evencio Nicolás Martínez Ramírez, then the secretary general of Oaxaca, as well as the mayor of Juxtlahuaca in 2010, when the ambush was perpetrated in which Cariño and Jaakkola lost their lives. “None of this is being investigated in Mexico; the PGR has not opened an investigation into the intellectual authors, among them former governor Ulises Ruiz for his financing of armed groups like Ubisort.” Peña noted that the team will meet in Mexico City with officials from Governance, the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR), and the Chancellery to request security measures for witnesses and those who were injured on 27 April 2010, given that they fear for their lives.
For his part, Omar Esparza, husband to Beatriz Cariño, stressed that it is not enough to release arrest orders, but rather that now it depends on the government of Gabino Cué to observe the orders and arrest these 12 persons.
This information was released to coincide with the visit of the Eurodeputies Satu Hassi y Ska Keller, who were in the country from 1 to 5 October to verify the grave humanitarian situation that prevails in states like Oaxaca and Guerrero.
For more information (in Spanish):
Ordenan capturar a 12 presuntos asesinos de Cariño y Jaakkola (La Jornada, 1ero de octubre de 2012)
Denunciarán a Ulises Ruiz en Finlandia por muerte de activistas (Proceso, 1ero de octubre de 2012)
Boletín de prensa de la ANAD y Alianza Mexicana por la Autodeterminación de los Pueblos (1ero de octubre de 2012)
Video conferencia de prensa aquí (33 min.)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Oaxaca: Meeting in front of the PGR against impunity in the case of Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola, nearly two years after their murders (21 April 2012)
Oaxaca: Triquis return to their communities after 16 months of sit-in (8 February 2012)
Oaxaca: justice demanded for San Juan Copala (14 December 2011)
Oaxaca: Eurodeputies in the case of Cariño and Jaakkola (17 October 2011)
Oaxaca: following the caravan “Bety Cariño y Jyri Jaakkola” to San Juan Copalá (21 June 2010)
Distrito Federal: visiting Mexico, the parents of Jyri Jaakkola demand justice for the case of their son and that of Bety Cariño (9 September 2010)
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