Scene of the incident: entrance of the Chahuites Humanitarian Aid Center, during its opening in November, 2014. Photo: @ Diana Manzo
On May 23 Alberto Donis Rodríguez, coordinator of the migrant shelter “Hermanos en el Camino” in Ixtepec, Oaxaca, and Leyssa Palomino Arjona, a volunteer there, were attacked when they visited the Chahuites Humanitarian Aid Center. The coordinator was taking some food to the shelter and was giving a lift to some migrants who were victims of crime in Ixtepec, Oaxaca. A statement released by the Diocese of Tehuantepec said that “when leaving the Chahuites hostel to go to Ixtepec, the migrants got onto the truck. When Alberto was about to get in, a truck approached with two people on board, a man and a woman […] The moment Alberto got in, one of the people in the other truck pulled a gun and fired a shot, accelerated the vehicle in reverse and left the place.” The assailant was identified as Gustavo Herrera Allar, a resident of Chahuites, who according to the statement from the Diocese “collected signatures with the residents in November 2014 for us to close the Hostel. In the previous municipal elections, he was candidate to the Municipal Presidency of Chahuites for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).”
The attack was carried out just after a series of threats on social networks against the priest Alejandro Solalinde Guerra, human rights defender and founder of the migrant shelter “Hermanos en el Camino”. “They have fulfilled the recent threats”, Solalinde wrote. Alberto Donis Rodríguez filed a complaint with the Chahuites Public Prosecutor for Migrant’s Office and requested the support to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena).
For more information in Spanish:
COMUNICADO: Agreden a Alberto Donis coordinador del albergue Hermanos en el Camino (Movimiento Migrante Mesoamericano, 24 de mayo de 2016)
Priista ataca con arma de fuego al equipo del Albergue Hermanos en el Camino (EDUCA La Minuta, 24 de mayo de 2016)
CUMPLEN AMENAZAS CONTRA SOLALINDE: Priista ataca con arma de fuego a dos de sus colaboradores en Oaxaca (Notigodínez, 24 de mayo de2016)
Agreden con arma de fuego a dos colaboradores de Solalinde (Aristegui Noticias, 23 de mayo de 2016)
Chahuites-Ixtepec, la nueva ruta de agresiones a migrantes (Quadratín Oaxaca, 9 de noviembre de 2015)
For more information from SIPAZ:
Nacional/internacional: La CIDH expresa su preocupación ante el endurecimiento de las autoridades mexicanas hacia los migrantes y sus defensores en la frontera Sur (17 de junio de 2016)
Oaxaca: Nueva agresión a integrantes del Albergue para migrantes Hermanos en el Camino de Ixtepec (23 de septiembre de 2014)
Oaxaca: nueva amenaza de muerte en contra del Padre Solalinde (11 de octubre de 2012)
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