Oaxaca: PBI calls for strengthening of protection of rights-defenders in the state

Following a meeting with Oaxaca state governor Gabino Cué, representatives of Peace Brigades International (PBI Mexico) reported in a press-release on 19 February some of the challenges for the protection of human-rights defenders in the state, such as “the adequate functioning and strengthening of the institutions and implementation of the Mechanism for the Protection of Rights-Defenders at the state level, in cooperation with those who benefit from this.”

Ben Leather, representative of the PBI, recognized the opening of the Gabino Cué administration in terms of human rights, but he warned of the worrying statistics on assaults registered to date.  The latest report by Urgent Action for Human-Rights Defenders indicated that Oaxaca is the second state in Mexico (after Chihuahua) in the number of attacks on rights-defenders in 2011, and it leads for the first third of the year 2012.  Human-rights defenders continue to report death-threats, harassment, defamation, criminalization, physical attacks, and murder.  Due to the situation of risk confronted by rights-defenders, PBI has maintained a permanent team in Oaxaca since 2008.

For more information (in Spanish):

PBI México llama al gobernador de Oaxaca a fortalecer la protección a personas defensoras (PCI, boletín de prensa, 21 de febrero de 2013)

Oaxaca, el estado con más ataques contra activistas (Proceso, 20 de febrero de 2013)

Chiapas: Demand for motion in the case of Zapatista prisoner Francisco Santiz López

In an informational note published on 1 November, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) announced that it had presented a motion in favor of Francisco Santiz López, a Zapatista support-base from Banavil (Tenejapa municipality) who has been imprisoned in San Cristóbal de las Casas since the end of December 2011.  The CDHFBC posited that it had submitted this motion for the immediate liberation Santiz López “in light of the grave violations of due process committed against his person,” which include the “lack of adequate counsel and access to justice, given that he lacks both a translator and a social defender knowledgeable of his language and culture, so as to assist him in his declaration before the Federal Attorney General’s Office,” as well of course as the violation of the principle of presumed innocence.

In observance of the international campaign Global Echo in Support of the Zapatistas that will end on 17 November, the CDHFBC requested the sending of urgent actions to different authorities, requesting the release of Santiz López.

For more information (in Spanish):

Nota informativa del CDHFBC: Acciones para la libertad de Francisco Sántiz López BAEZLN (CDHFBC, 1ero de noviembre de 2012)

Ante violaciones procesales, el Frayba pide amparar a base de apoyo del EZLN (La Jornada, 2 de noviembre de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: News from two prisoners in Chiapas state prisons (15 October 2012)

Chiapas: Oventic JBG once again demands release of Francisco Santiz López (17 June 2012)

Chiapas: Forum against political prison and for the release of Alberto Patishtán Gómez (21 May 2012)

Chiapas: Assembly is held in El Bosque to demand the release of Alberto Patishtán (25 March 2012)

Chiapas: CDHFBC publishes more information on the Banavil case (9 February 2012)

Chiapas: Urgent Action in in case of aggressions against families who sympathize with EZLN by PRI group from the Banavil ejido and arbitrary detention of Zapatista support-base (8 February 2012)

Guerrero: Alert is requested for high number of feminicides

Photo @ Periódico Digital

To date in 2012, the number of feminicides has increased in Guerrero.  Data from civil organizations reveal that until last August, at least 135 women were killed in the state, and so these organizations consider it urgent that state government declare a gender alert.  The coordination of the “Hannah Arendt” Observatory for Gender Violence in Guerrero, Rosa Icela Ojeda Rivera, said that since 2006 she had requested the state authorities to declare a gender alert, a request that has been rejected, although each day its need grows, given the number of murders that have been reigstered from 2005 to date.  Ojeda Rivera detailed that beyond the increase in assault on victims, “sexual violence and torture has been documented before the murder in a high number of cases, the bodies of murdered women were abandoned in public spaces, thrown into the trash or in sanitation channels.”  Gender violence has also increased, with Guerrero maintaining the third place in the country in these terms, after Mexico City and Chihuahua.

For more information (in Spanish):

Guerrero: piden emitir alerta por feminicidios (El Universal, 6 de septiembre de 2012)

Guerrero es el tercer estado con más feminicidios: Arendt (Periódico Digital, 24 de agosto de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

National: Amnesty International publishes report on violence against women in Mexico (20 July 2012)

Chiapas: Justice is demanded in the case of the feminicide of the youth Itzel Yanet Méndez Pérez (16 May 2012)

Demand for end to feminicide in Oaxaca (8 September 2011)

Guerrero – briefs – Tierra Caliente is second-highest national location in number of feminicides (14 September 2010)

Chiapas: Urgent action for youth unjustly arrested

The social organizations Casa de la Mujer Ixim Antsetic and the Chiapas Center for Women’s Rights denounced that the Mexican minor Ana Laura Sánchez García, 16 years of age, was detained on Wednesday 22 February and taken to the National System for the Wholesome Development of the Family (DIF) in the Palenque municipality.  The next day, her mother arrived, but as she lacked a birth certificate, she presented documents pertaining to her birth and a vaccination card.  Regardless, the DIF officials told her that she needed to bring documents that confirm her as the parent, and that they would hold her daughter for a week.  In any case, on Saturday when the mother returned to bring clothes to her daughter, she learned that the girl had been transferred to the Prosecutorial Office for Migrants in Tapachula.

For more information (in Spanish):

¡MENOR CONFUNDIDA Con centroamericana! (Diario de Chiapas, 19 de marzo)

Acción urgente caso Ana Laura Sánchez García

Chiapas: Urgent Action for the forced transfer of prisoner Alberto Patishtán

According to information provided by prisoners fasting and on hunger strike in CERSS 5 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, director José Miguel Alacrón Garciá and commander Andrés Alfaro Figueroa arrived during the early morning of Thursday 20 October together with several other officials to the sit-in of the prisoners to take away Professor Alberto Patishtán Gómez, without his consent and without revealing to where he was being moved.

In a denunciation, the Network against Repression denounces that “this is clearly an attempt to demoralize the hunger strike.  They are as aware as we are of the moral authority that Patishtán represents within the prison and more clearly in the strike.  Beyond this, he is the official spokesperson of this just act that our incarcerated comrades have undertaken in the prisons of San Cristóbal, Amate, and Motozintla.  The government has not only not pronounced itself publicly on the matter and sought to make-invisible the protest of the comrades, but rather is attempting to divide and dismantle this hunger strike.”  It also made a call “to demand that relatives, friends, and comrades be informed of the whereabouts of Professor Patishtán Gómez” as well as that he be released immediately together with all others who are either fasting or on hunger strike.

Later in the day, the Prosecutorial Office of the state reported that Patishtán Gómez had been transferred to the Federal Center for Social Reinsertion no. 8 (Cefereso), located in Guasave, Sinaloa.  The state government declared that “in observation of the program of the reduction of prison centers, this Thursday the federal Secretary of Public Security carried out the transfer of 48 prisoners who had been held in the Chiapas CERSS to different federal prisons in the country.”

In an Urgent Action published at the end of the day, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights indicated that “the transfer of Professor Alberto Patishtán Gómez is a clear punishment intended to disarticulate the movement of the prisoners on hunger strike and of their relatives.  It violates the right to the freedom of reunion, manifestation, and expression, as well as the rights of incarcerated persons as stipulated in several international accords such as the Principles and Good Practices regarding the Protection of the Imprisoned in the Americas from the Organization of American States: ‘transfers of prisoners should not be carried out with the intention of punishing, repressing, or discriminating against the incarcerated, their family-members, or representatives; nor should these be carried out in conditions that would result in their mental or physical suffering or that would be humiliating [...].   The transferred [...] should be authorized and supervised by competent authorities who under all circumstances respect dignity and fundamental rights, and who will take into account the necessity of persons to be imprisoned in locales near to their family, their community, their legal representatives [...].”

For m ore information (in Spanish):

RvsR Chiapas denuncia: Alberto Patishtán fue sacado del plantón en la madrugada del 20 de octubre (20 October)

Denuncia audio de Solidario de la Voz del Amate, en huelga de hambre (20 October)

Acción Urgente: Trasladan al Profesor Alberto Patishtán Gómez, vocero de La Voz del Amate (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas (20 October)

Por huelga de hambre, envían a penal para reos peligrosos a maestro tzotzil (Proceso, 20 October)

Llevan a penal de Sinaloa a Patishtán Gómez, vocero de reos de Chiapas en huelga de hambre (La Jornada, 21 October)

Trasladado a penal de Sinaloa (Cuarto Poder, 21 October)

Comunicado de Amnistía Internacional preocupada por el trato a huelguistas de hambre en Chiapas (21 October)

Audio:

Denuncia de traslado arbitrario de Alberto Patishtan – en Huelga de Hambre (20 October 2011)

Familiares de presos – huelga y ayuno (20 October 2011)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: 20 days into hunger strike and 11 days into sit-in of relatives, 2 prisoners are released (27 October 2011)

Chiapas: 15 days of hunger strike and  days of sit-in (17 October 2011)

Chiapas: Sit-in of relatives of relatives of prisoners on hunger strike(17 October 2011)

Chiapas: MPJD arrives once again to Chiapas, there to express solidarity with Las Abejas, prisoners on strike, and Zapatistas (17 October 2011)

Chiapas: 8 days of hunger strike at CERSS no. 5 (7 October 2011)

Chiapas: Prisoners fasting and on hunger strike (4 October 2011)

Chiapas: Public day for Fasting and Prayer for Peace in the San Cristóbal prison (26 September 2011)

Chiapas: FNLS denounces harassment following return to Las Conchitas

Members of the FNLS upon suspension of their sit-in SCLC @SIPAZ

The National Front of Struggle for Socialism (FNLS) denounced that following its return to the community fo Las Conchitas, municipality of salta de Agua, the 5 families that were displaced in July find themselves newly subjected to harassment and intimidation on the part of armed persons, according to Marciano Gaspar González.  In its urgent action published on 24 August the FNLS denounces that “the paramilitary group continues to ambush our comrades in their lands, carrying out nocturnal rounds and firing at whichever hour as acts of intimidation, showing their power to kill our comrades.”

They added that the authorities have not moved judicially against the aggressors of the violent displacement perpetrated on 4 July, something which they see as reflecting “that the government of Juan Sabines, the secretary of government Noé Castañón, functionaries of the federal CONANP, PROFEPA, and SEMARNAT not only organize, finance, and direct the paramilitary groups in coordination with military structures but also allow them total impunity so that they can continue carrying out counter-insurgent actions against organized peoples and communities.”

They concluded that tension and uncertainty is what is lived daily since the return of their comrades who saw it as necessary to return so as to work the land and so survive, given that the state authorities were deaf to their pleas, leaving them defenseless and at the mercy of criminals and murderers.

For  more information (in Spanish):

FNLS; El gobierno reorganiza los ataques y hostigamientos a los compañeros de la organización del MRPS-FNLS, retornados hacia la Comunidad Las Conchitas, preparando una nueva masacre  (Acción Urgente, 28 August 2011)

Fin del plantón, retorno y solicitud de garantías: FNLS (Boletín de Prensa FNLS, 15 August 2011)

Exiliados vuelven a Conchitas (Cuarto Poder, 16 August 2011)

Desalojan plantón de la CNDH y de la Plaza Catedral en SCLC (El imparcial de Chiapas, 17 August 2011)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: End of sit-in and return to Las Conchitas (FNLS) (19 August 2011)

Chiapas: protests regarding displacement of 5 families of Ranchería Las Conchitas, municipality of Salto de Agua (27 July 2011)

Mexico: National Day against Forgetting and Impunity by the FNLS (8 June 2011)

Chiapas: Agua Azul, new happenings and denunciations

On 11 February was pronounced the imprisonment sentence of 10 indigenous individuals from the community of San Sebastián Bachajón, municipality of Chilón, adherents to the Other Campaign, following the confrontation on 2 February in area of Agua Azul, which left one dead and several injured among PRI militants. The incarcerated adherents are accused of homicide, attempted homicide, and attacks on public peace, as reported sources close to the case. The accused insist on their innocence. The same day adherents to the Other Campaign in the community of Mitzitón blocked the highway in solidarity with the prisoners, to demand their release.

According to the assembly of ejidatarios of Bachajón, “those who carried firearms were from the PRI group, with Carmen Aguilar Gómez and his son, together with their comrades, who were firing against us. They claim that there was one dead and several injured, blaming us, the comrades of the Other Campaign.” They denounced as well that “[t]he threat of a police invasion and occupation in the area has been corroborated since February 2010, when the ‘Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas’ Center for Human Rights denounced the pressure that the state and federal authorities had been exercising to oblige the ejidatarios who are adherents to the ‘Other Campaign’ in the San Sebastián Bachajón ejido to participate in a dialogue-table that would skillfully seek that the control-point of Agua Azul be turned over to the state government while simultaneously generating conditions that would justify a military intrusion.”

In other news, the World Organization against Torture among others expressed its concern for the arbitrary detention and violation of legal process as regards the minor and other ejidatarios of San Sebastián Bachajón who are adherents to the Other Campaign. “It has been denounced that the 117 ejidatarios did not enjoy at any moment the assistance of defense counsel or a translator who would understand the Tseltal language and customs, neither during the investigation of events nor during the presentation of declarations. The ejidatarios who declared themselves claim to have been threatened by the state police and harassed by members of the administrators of justice during the reception of declarations.”

In a public communiqué, the Center for the Rights of Women in Chiapas also denounced that “the events that occurred on 2 February constitute the perfect pretext for the government, both state and federal, to take control of the area, to militarize it, and carry out what it has intended to do for years—to utilize the territory as an ‘ecotourist’ center managed by private capital without taking into account those who legitimately possess such a right. We lament the occurrence of a confrontation among indigenous brothers, because given this, the possibility of an organized resistance against official and private interests for the appropriation and exploitation of natural resources that are found in the area is weakened.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Using blockades, indigenous of Chiapas demand liberation of 10 comrades (Proceso, 10 February 2011)

Maderas del Pueblo finds Oppdic responsible for the harassment of ejidatarios in Bachajón (La Jornada, 14 February 2011)

Residents of Chilón and Tumbalá negotiate control point in Agua Azul (La Jornada, 14 February 2011)

Security guarantees are demanded for incarcerated adherents (La Jornada, 13 February 2011)

Indigenous of Chiapas allege their innocence regarding homicide (La Jornada, 13 February 2011)

Prison sentence for 10 indígenous individuals of the Other Campaign accused of homicide (La Jornada, 12 February 2011)

Pronunciations and urgent actions:

World Organization against Torture: Arbitrary detenction/Absence of judicial guarantees/Harassment/Fear for security and personal integrity (11 February 2011)

Communiqué of organized women in collectives of the northern zone of Chiapas (11 February 2011)

Arbitrary kidnapping of ejidatarios in Chiapas-Frayba (11 Febraury 2011)

Center for Rights of Women in Chiapas finds state government responsible for provoking conflict in Bachajón (7 February)

Video testimony:

http://www.frayba.org.mx/videos.php?ID=1586&language_ID=1&hl=es

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: update in the Agua Azul case (14 February 2011)

Chiapas: confrontation over control point at Agua Azul leaves one dead and several injured (7 February 2011)

Chiapas: Ejidatarios de Bachajón denounce governmental strategy and escalation of aggression by Opddic (25 November 2010)

Guerrero: Briefs – Concern for the safety of the inhabitants of La Morena, NGOs sent a letter to the Minister of the Interior regarding the recent threats against OPIM; Monitor Civil documented 384 cases of human rights violations by the police; Inter-American Court of Human Rights rules in favor of campesino ecologists

Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera (@El Universal)

On December 7, about 35 military personnel aboard three Hummer vehicles entered the community of La Morena, municipality of Petatlan, using their weapons and causing panic among residents. According to testimonies, men and teenagers rushed to the nearby hills, while women, children and elders gathered in their homes, which were raided by the military. In February, Adolfo Torres Rosas was killed by soldiers, while Anselmo Torres Quiroz and Huber Vega Correa were arrested. Both are currently imprisoned in the prison of Acapulco for alleged drug crimes. In recent months, the harassment against the Cruz Torres family has focused on the intermittent and threatening presence of military in their community, as well as on the promotion of rumors suggesting that the Torres Cruz family is involved in kidnappings, a denunciation that hasn’t been properly reported to the civil authorities.

In a press release of December 7, the Collective Against Torture and Impunity (CCIC) and the Workshop for Community Development (TADECO), demanded to the authorities, among other things: to cease harassment against the Torres family, the immediate departure of the Army from the indigenous community of La Morena, and not to use the discourse of the struggle against drug trafficking to conceal acts of harassment and intimidation against the communities of the Sierra of Guerrero. Similarly, on 21 December, the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) expressed concern about the situation in La Morena sending out an urgent action. It reiterated that to date nothing is known about the new investigation into the circumstances of the death of Adolfo Torres Rosas, and it denounced violence during the arrest and detention of Anselmo Torres and Huber Vega, who have presumably been victims of abuse and torture.

Moreover, on December 15, Social and Civil Organizations, sent a letter to the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB), expressing concern about the threats occurred against members of the Organization of the Me’phaa Indigenous People (OPIM) on November 28. OPIM’s members have accompanied Inés Fernández and Valentina Rosendo, me’phaa indigenous women who were raped by soldiers in 2002, whose cases were recently resolved by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CoIDH) against the Mexican State. These organizations emphasized that “in light of the recent threats, a prompt and full compliance with the sentences of the CoIDH [against the Mexican state] becomes crucial to prevent that unfortunate new facts may occur.”

On another hand, the Monitor of Civil Police and Public Safety Corps in the mountains of Guerrero (Monitor Civil), which was created three years ago, made public the fact that it documented 384 cases of police abuses. It mentioned that the ministerial authorities are the police that most violates the fundamental rights of citizens in the Mountain region (179 registered cases). From the experience of the Civil Monitor, institutional conditions of this corporation lead to police abuses, since the absence of internal and external mechanisms of control and accountability allows ministerial elements to violate human rights and legality without punitive consequences. The most frequent violations perpetrated by the police corps were arbitrary detention (122 cases), extortion (87 cases) and cruel inhuman and degrading treatment (59 cases). To a lesser extent, there were other also violations such as torture (6 cases), extrajudicial execution (3 cases), unlawful entries (22 cases) and the imposition of excessive fines (31 cases). The Civil Monitor issued a report on the status of the police in the mountains of Guerrero through which it seeks to establish guidelines for a democratic reform of the police.

Finally, on December 20, the CoIDH condemned the Mexican state for violating the rights of freedom, integrity, judicial guarantees and judicial protection of Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, known as “the campesino ecologists.” The court ruling noted that the Mexican government must make a criminal investigation into the alleged acts of torture that Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera have denunciated. In addition, within two months, it will have to compensate the farmers for all the damages they have suffered, as well as for the cost of medical and psychological treatments they have received.

In 1999, Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera were arrested by the military, for their fight against deforestation in the Sierra de Petatlán, and according to their testimonies, they were tortured. In 2004, the case of “the ecological campesinos” was presented to the American Commission on Human Rights and in 2009 it was taken by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CoIDH). The ruling of the CoIDH also ratified that Mexico should reform the Code of Military Justice, to exclude the jurisdiction of military courts for crimes related to human rights violations.

For more information (in Spanish):

- México: Preocupación por la seguridad de los habitantes de la comunidad de La Morena en Petatlán, en particular por los familiares del Sr. Javier Torres Cruz, Estado de Guerrero, México. (Acción Urgente Organización Mundial contra la Tortura, OMCT, 21 de diciembre)

- OSC envían carta a Segob por las recientes amenazas contra la OPIM entorno a las sentencias de la CoIDH (CENCOS, 15 de diciembre)

A tres años de trabajo Monitor Civil documenta 384 casos de violación a los derechos humanos por parte de la policía (CENCOS, 17 de diciembre)

- CIDH falla a favor de campesinos ecologistas (El Universal, 20 de diciembre)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English)

- Guerrero: briefs – New threats against leaders of the OPIM; inclusion of resources for La Parota in federal budget; Invitation to the sixth anniversary of Radio Ñomndaa (December 14, 2010)

- Guerrero: briefs – NGOs present amicus brief to Inter-American Court on case of environmentalists; activist is detained (September 23, 2010)

- Guerrero: The Civil Monitor documents 117 cases of police abuse (December 3, 2008)

Oaxaca: Urgent Action in the case of Padre Uvi

Padre Uvi (@ Colectivo Pinotepa)

On Thursday 5 August, the Regional Center for Human Rights “Bartolomé Carrasco Briseño” A.C. (Barca), located in Oaxaca de Juárez, released an Urgent Action regarding the case of Father R. Fco. Wilfrido Mayrén Peláez, also known as Padre Uvi.  The Urgent Action emphasized the work Padre Uvi has engaged in on human rights since the year 1992, being the founder of Barca.  It disclosed that Padre Uvi has supported the social-organizational process of the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala in the Triqui region, approaching different media and international organizations “so that they be familiar with the situation that prevails in the area.” He denounced the killing of Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola on 27 April of this year, presumably prosecuted by members of the Union for Social Welfare of the Triqui Region (UBISORT), and he has taken on the defense of Padre Martín Octavio García Ortiz following his kidnapping by strangers on 19 June.

Barca’s communiqué relates that two representatives from the European Parliament requested asylum from Padre Uvi on 2 July after realizing that they were being pursued by members of UBISORT after having held a meeting in which had been discussed the situation in San Juan Copalá.  It mentions that UBISORT has accused Padre Uvi of being responsible for the killing of Anastasio Juárez Hernández, leader of this organization, on 30 July.  Barca emphasizes that “the attacks directed against father [Uvi] worry us, given that they are increasingly frequent and threatening,” adding that “unfortunately here in Oaxaca, there are many cases of attacks on human-rights defenders, and we believe that people from the government and complying groups could make attempts against the physical and psychological integrity of [Padre Uvi], given that the government has protected with all impunity some groups in the state, as is the case with UBISORT.” Barca made a call to “all those social human-rights organizations, people, and international media to be conscious of and endorse the responsibility of the Mexican State to guarantee security and protect the lives and work of human-rights defenders in Oaxaca.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Barca Urgent Action in full (5 de agosto)

Millenarians and subversive activists reject the army among the Triquis (Despertar, 2 August)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: more violence in the Triqui region following the killing of Anastasio Juárez Hernández, leader of UBISORT and brother to Rufino Juárez Hernández (13 August 2010)

Oaxaca: Update on the case of Padre Martín (19 July)

Oaxaca: arrest of cleric following killings of PRI functionaries in San José el Progreso (30 June)

Oaxaca: Attack on observation caravan — 2 dead and 4 missing (29 April)

Chiapas: several members of the VII teachers’ section arrested and subsequently subjected to house arrest

On 16 July in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez were arrested the teachers Pedro Gómez Bamaca and Carlos Misael Palma López, from the Democratic Teachers’ Block from Chiapas associated with the National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) that pertains to the VII Section of the National Union of Educational Workers, as well as the doctor Víctor Hugo Zavaleta, from Section 50 of the Union of Workers of the Health Secretariat, in addition to the director of the Emiliano Zapata Proletarian Organization (OPEZ), Caralampio Gómez Hernández, and six other members of this organization.  In accordance with an Urgent Action released by the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Center for Human Rights, the arrests were made arbitrarily and result from the mobilization of the arrested in the capital of the state of Chiapas in addition to the solidarity these protests received from other organizations.

Among the demands made by the Democratic Block was the call for the release of professor Alberto Mirón Vázquez, arrested on 7 July 2010, on the charges of criminal association during a sit-in and a protest in May and June of this year.  One of the reasons for the mobilizations has been the controversial manner by which the savings account of the magisterium has been managed.  Furthermore, the Democratic Block has denounced the imposition of Rosendo Galíndez Martínez as the new secretary of the VII Section of the SNTE, according to one of its communiques.

To date, Alberto Mirón Vázquez, Pedro Gómez Bamaca, and Carlos Misael Palma López remain under house arrest, while six members of the OPEZ and Víctor Hugo Zavaleta were released.

With regard to Caralampio Gómez Hernández, the OPEZ publicy denounced his arraignment and subsequent transference to CERSS. no. 14 “El Amate,” in Cintalapa de Figueroa; due to a riot in this prison, the security of the director of OPEZ is feared for.

For more information (in Spanish):

• Public denunciation of the OPEZ for the security of Caralampio Gómez Hernández (23/07/2010)
• Cuarto Poder: Release of detained teachers is demanded (21/07/2010)
• La Jornada: In ten days, five social leaders detained in Chiapas (18/07/2010)
• Urgent Action from the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Center for Human Rights (pdf) (17/07/2010)
• La Jornada: Director of the CNTE is arrested in Chiapas (08/07/2010)
• Blog Observatorio Ciudadano: CNTE teachers demand release of professor Alberto Mirón Vásquez