Image @ Red Política
On 27 April, four years passed since the murder of Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola when they were participating in a humanitarian-aid caravan destined for San Juan Copala. Members of the European Parliament and relatives affirmed that the cases could have been resolved within two months, but that the authorities have not demonstrated the necessary political will to do so. Barbara Lochbihler, president of the Subcommission on Human Rights from the European Parliament, commented that “we have been discussing the situation of human-rights defenders and social activists in Mexico for nearly two months. And year by year we see that the situation continues to worsen.” Relatives denounced that, despite the fact that 13 people have been identified as the presumed murderers, the federal and state governments refuse to release arrest-orders against them. For her part, Karla Michel Salas, president of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers, stressed that “we know their names and that some of them even are public officials, but the arrest-orders are refused” using the argument that the government cannot itself enter the region of San Juan Copala.
It is for this reason that Omar Esparza, husband of Bety Cariño, and Eeva-Leena and Raimo Jaakkola, parents of the Finn Jyri, have initiated a day of national and international protest to obligate the Mexican State to observe its responsibility and to demand justice. Esparza and two members of the Zapatista Indigenous Agrarian Movement (MAIZ) undertook a hunger strike in front o the UN High Commissioner’s Office for Human Rights on 29 April to denounce the failures of the Mexican State to respect human rights in this case.
For more information (in Spanish):
Al cumplirse 4 años, sigue impune el asesinato de la Defensora de Derechos Humanos Bety Cariño (Red de Mujeres Activistas y Defensoras de Derechos Humanos de Oaxaca, 24 de abril de 2014)
Bety Cariño, puente de organizaciones y amistades (Desinformémonos, 28 de abril de 2014)
Con huelga de hambre y protestas en Europa recordaran asesinato de Bety Cariño y Jyri Jaakkola (Página3, 26 de abril de 2014)
Oaxaca: Es inaceptable la inacción de autoridades federales y estatales para detener a posibles responsables del asesinato de activistas(Amnistía Internacional México, 28 de abril de 2014)
Audio-video:
Sembrando sueños, cosechando esperanzas: Bety Cariño (CodigoDH, abril de 2013)
Oaxaca: Three-year impunity continues in the case of the murders of Bety Cariño y Jyri Jaakkola (17 May 2013)
Oaxaca: 12 arrest-orders released against presumed material authors of the murder of the Mexican defender Bety Cariño and the Finnish observer Jyri Jaakkola (12 October 2012)
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: 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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