Rapid Response Network

On July 6 unknown men broke into the home Danelly Estupiñan, a human rights defender with Black Community Process (PCN) in Buenaventura, Valle de Cauca Department. Human rights organizations have reported that unknown persons made a payment to kill her.

Mexican authorities’ harassment and intimidation of personnel working at the Casa del Migrante de Saltillo (Saltillo Migrant House)in Saltillo, Coahuila State.

recent death threats to COPINH finance coordinator Rosalina Domínguez, her family, and other members of the indigenous Lenca community at Río Blanco in Intíbuca Department. Seven individuals, one of whom was armed, intercepted Domínguez’s path and called her “a witch like Berta,” i.e., Berta Cáceres, the indigenous and environmental defender who was assassinated in 2016. This reference implied intention to cause physical harm to Rosalina Domínguez.

Quelvin Jiménez, lawyer for the Xinca indigenous people in San Rafael las Flores in Santa Rosa Department, continues to be under threat.

paramilitary violence being waged in the port city of Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca Department. We are concerned that local security forces are complicit in allowing paramilitaries to take control over several districts of Buenaventura. The ongoing violence in Buenaventura is a clear example of how impunity for paramilitary actors threatens the true possibility of peace.

threats, and online harassment that have intensified during the past several weeks against journalists Bessy Ríos and Karen Fernández and Mariana Belioso. Each has expressed concerns about adverse human rights impacts of the government’s new “plan de control territorial” which will increase police and military presence in certain regions.

destruction of crops that occurred on July 15 at the sites of La Vege del Culatón and El Achotal in the Río Blanco community in Intibucá Department. The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) announced that during the night members of the Madrid family, associates of the Atala Zablah family, destroyed with machetes more than 15 manzanas of the Lenca indigenous community's corn harvest. At least 25 families have lost their principal food and main livelihood.

murder of Mario Moreno Jiménez, a member of the National Front for Socialism (FNLS), in Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas, on June 18.

death threats directed at ​Edwin Espinal, Raul Alvarez​, and ​Romel Portillo, human rights defenders imprisoned in the maximum security, military run “La Tolva” military prison, where they and other political prisoners have been detained​ since 2018 (cf our letters of February 11 and March 21, 2018).

continuing attacks against the Nuevo Día Ch’orti Indigenous Association (CCCND) in Olopa municipality in Chiquimula Department. CCCND provides legal support and visibility to indigenous Ch’ortí communities. They face repeated human rights violations and threats to their land, environmental, and cultural rights because of hydroelectric and mining projects in their territories