@Frayba
On April 14th at dawn, after 40 hours of detention, the two human rights defenders, members of the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba), were released. They were detained on Monday by residents of the community of San Felipe, municipality of Ocosingo.
According to some news reports, the retention was derived from a car accident in which the vehicle where they were traveling and another from the Oxchuc-Ocosingo transport service were involved. In addition, before being handed over to the negotiating team, representatives of the state government, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), the State Attorney General’s Office, the Ocosingo city council and the Oxchuc parish, among others, the community members who belong to the Regional Organization of Coffee Growers of Ocosingo (ORCAO) demanded the repair of the damage and took the opportunity to request the repair of a drinking water pipe, the El Heraldo de Chiapas newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, Frayba denied reports where it was stated that the reason for the detention was due to a traffic accident. Rather, it expressed concern that these versions “minimize the context of violence in the region and consequently the high risk that human rights defenders experience, misrepresenting the attacks to which we are constantly targeted, making passing them off as acts unrelated to our work”,explains Frayba in a statement that was published the same day of the liberation.
“Regarding the situation experienced by our colleagues, for now we consider not making the details of such events public because it puts them at risk and violates their safety and that of those of us who make up Frayba, however, we reaffirm that the deprivation of liberty of our compañeros originates from our work in the promotion and defense of human rights in Chiapas”, the Center for Human Rights stated.
Given what happened, several individuals, religious authorities, civil society, groups and national and international human rights organizations expressed their concern and issued urgent actions for the immediate release of the two defenders, including SIPAZ.
For more information in Spanish:
Quedan libres activistas de los derechos humanos del Frayba (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 14 de abril de 2021)
Liberan a dos integrantes del Centro Frayba en Chiapas (La Jornada,14 de abril de 2021)
Fueron liberados los defensores de derechos humanos Lázaro Sánchez Gutiérrez y Victórico Gálvez Pérez (Comunicado, Frayba, 14 de abril de 2021)
Liberan a integrantes de centro de DH cautivos por indígenas en Chiapas (El Universal, 14 de abril de 2021)
For more information from SIPAZ:
Chiapas: Urgent Action – Two HR Defenders, Frayba Members, Kidnapped in Ocosingo (April 13, 2020)
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