On 11 January, Alba Cruz, lawyer and human-rights defender in Oaxaca, received an intimidating text-message to her cellular phone. The message was sent from the same number from which death-threats were sent in 2010 both against her and Marcelino Coache Verano, one of her clients. This new incident can be taken as one in a series of death-threats and episodes of harassment to which she has been subjected. It has the end of forcing her to leave behind the defense of victims of torture and unfounded incarceration in cases related to general demonstrations and police brutality that occurred in the state of Oaxaca in 2006. Since 2007, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ordered Mexico to take on measures to protect Alba Cruz. Despite the adoption of said measures, no protection of note has been received, and those responsible for the death-threats and acts of intimidation continue to act with impunity.
For more information (in Spanish):
- Human-rights lawyer harassed (Urgent Action from Amnesty International, 12 January 2011)
- AI requests urgent action to protect Oaxacan activist Alba Cruz (La Jornada, 15 January)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Oaxaca: attack on union leader Marcelino Coache (29 May 2010)
– Oaxaca: New threats in the case of Marcelino Coache (27 de abril de 2009)
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