On January 28th, various acts were held at federal level, including Chiapas, Michoacan, and Veracruz, to demand that the Mexican State “implement all the necessary actions to locate alive” the lawyer and human rights defender Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca and the teacher and community leader Antonio Diaz, disappeared in Michoacan on January 15th.
In the Plaza de la Paz in San Cristobal de Las Casas, more than 50 people, including survivors of the Acteal massacre, Chenalho municipality, residents of the Porvenir ejido, Huixtan municipality, ejido members from Bachajon, Chilon municipality, declared that “Today we would not be here and it would be a different day if the intelligence of the Mexican State, the Army and the other security forces did their job properly.” The representatives of different organizations and indigenous communities in Chiapas recalled that the lawyer, Ricardo Lagunes, had legally accompanied various processes of these communities, defending human rights.
Due to the forced disappearance of the teacher and leader of the indigenous community of Aquila, Michoacan, Antonio Valencia, “the family, community members from Aquila and various organizations in the country and from different continents have carried out actions ranging from legal to roadblocks and the closure of a mine belonging to the Ternium company, as a de facto power group in the Aquila area”, reports La Jornada. The community leader represented “the majority group of community members, who have been litigating for years, with the advice of Ricardo Lagunes, in order to carry out a democratic election process, which would result in the loss of power of a minority group who unconditionally supports the mining company and who has managed large resources for years for that reason. The family and the community members are convinced that this group close to the mining company is behind” his disappearance, according to La Jornada.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued Resolution 1/2023 on January 22nd, granting precautionary measures in favor of Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca and Antonio Dias Valencia, “after considering that they are in a serious and urgent situation of risk of irreparable damage to their rights”, reports the IACHR.
For more information in Spanish:
CIDH otorga medidas cautelares a favor de los defensores Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca y Antonio Díaz Valencia en México (CIDH, 26 de enero de 2023)
Piden comunidades indígenas de Chiapas localizar a Ricardo Lagunes (La Jornada, 28 de enero de 2023)
«Que nos los devuelvan con vida», piden familiares de Antonio y Ricardo(Diario de Xalapa, 29 de enero de 2023)
Comunidades indígenas exigieron la reaparición de Ricardo Lagunas y Antonio Díaz, activistas desaparecidos (Infobae, 29 de enero de 2023)
For more information from SIPAZ:
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