@Frayba
On April 13th, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba), issued an Urgent Action that two of its members, human rights defenders, were kidnapped while they were traveling to the city of Palenque, Chiapas, and until now their whereabouts are unclear.
The Urgent Action says:
“On April 12th, 2021, at approximately 7:00 a.m., human rights defenders Lázaro Sánchez Gutiérrez and Victórico Gálvez Pérez left the Frayba offices in a white Hillux van bound for the municipality of Palenque, Chiapas, with the aim of holding a work meeting with members of the organization Peoples Autonomous for the Defense of Customs and Uses (PADUC) and relatives of prisoners.
At around 9:00 p.m. the same day, Frayba received information that the human rights defender Lázaro Sánchez Gutiérrez had made a call to his family from an unknown number indicating that he and his colleague Victorico Gálvez were well, that they were in the town of San Felipe, near Kuxulja, municipality of Ocosingo and that one of his family members should bring a certain amount of money in a private vehicle at 8:00 am today, April 13th.
It is important to highlight that from the outset the state and federal authorities have knowledge of the facts but up until now they have not given clear information about the situation.
Faced with these unfortunate events, Frayba expresses its concerns and strongly condemns these acts of intimidation, aggression and kidnapping of Lázaro Sánchez Gutiérrez and Victórico Gálvez Pérez.
We would also mention that these acts take place in an environment of criminalization of human rights defenders in Mexico and warnings against the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights. We urgently call on the Mexican State to carry out an exhaustive and impartial investigation of the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Lázaro Sánchez and Victórico Gálvez, to guarantee the life, liberty, security and integrity of our comrades.
We call on national and international solidarity to sign this urgent action available on the page http://www.frayba.org.mx and write to the Mexican authorities so that they commit themselves to implementing security measures for the exercise of the right to defend human rights.”
International Service for Peace, SIPAZ, has signed the urgent action.
For more information in Spanish:
Privación arbitraria de la libertad a integrantes del Frayba (13 de abril, Accion Urgente, Frayba)
For more information from SIPAZ:
sipazen.wordpress.com 