Oaxaca/International: WOAT Warns about State Inaction in Disappearance Case of Ernesto Sernas Garcia

@Zona Roja

On October 10th, 17 months after the forced disappearance of Dr. Ernesto Sernas Garcia, the World Organization Against Torture (WOAT) published a video in which it denounced the inaction of the Mexican State in the case. Miguel Martin Zumalacarregui, Director of the WOAT in Brussels, Belgium, called on the federal authorities to “take action on the matter,” as well as to initiate an effective search to find Sernas Garcia’s whereabouts and he be presented alive. It also reiterated its support for those who make up the Sol Rojo (Red Sun) organization.

“It has been 500 days, 500 days in what has been an important mobilization by human rights organizations in Oaxaca, Mexico and internationally, 500 days in which it has been achieved that the United Nations Rapporteur show her concern with on the subject, 500 days in which the Mexican authorities have not taken action on the matter,” it said.

It should be remembered that, according to the Front Line Defender organization, on May 10th, 2018, the lawyer and university professor Dr. Ernesto Sernas Garcia disappeared in San Agustin de las Juntas, Oaxaca. His disappearance “coincided with a crucial moment of a criminal process in which he legally represented 23 defenders, whose detention in 2015 was declared arbitrary by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in its Opinion 17/2016. The case is being followed by the UN Committee against Enforced Disappearances and four members of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances condemned the lack of significant progress in the investigation.”

For more information in Spanish:

Dr. Sernas Presentación con vida (OMCT, 10 de octubre de 2019)

Denuncia OMCT inacción del Estado para iniciar búsqueda efectiva de Ernesto Sernas (El Universal, 11 de octubre de 2019)

Organización Mundial contra la Tortura exige aparición con vida de Ernesto Sernas (Zona Roja, 12 de octubre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ :

Oaxaca/Internacional: A un año de su desaparición, no hay avances en la desaparición del defensor de derechos humanos Ernesto Sernas García (May 16, 2019)

Oaxaca: 22 Members of Sol Rojo (Red Sun) Released (November 14, 2018)