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Mexico: News & Updates

Mexico shares a 2,000-mile border with its neighbor to the north. The US has played a significant role in militarizing the nation in misguided and ineffective policies to stop the flow of drugs and immigrants.  Human rights abuses are prevalent throughout Mexico but especially in the southern, mostly indigenous states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas.  Human rights defenders and indigenous community leaders—working to protect their ancestral lands and heritage—are targeted with threats, assaults, abductions and assassinations. Their struggles for peace and liberation are linked with those of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples throughout the hemisphere. 

Learn more here. 

RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Mexico 7/31/2020
July 31, 2020
The arrest and criminalization of indigenous and environmental rights defenders is part of a strategy of intimidation and violence against them. Fredy García is one victim of this violent strategy in Oaxaca, Mexico. Fredy García is the spokesperson for the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Peoples (CODEDI). He has been in Tanivet prison in Oaxaca since November of 2019 on fabricated charges of “assault,” “injuries” and “aggravated robbery.” On July 10, prison guards severely beat Fredy García, saying that they were acting on “orders from above.” On July 12 he was transferred to a cell in a different block where his use of the telephone is severely restricted, and he is forced to work outdoors in areas with very little shade. When his wife came to visit, she was told by prison authorities that Fredy García was placed in a punishment zone of the prison. During a restricted 20-minute visit, she saw his injuries, including several bruises and a blood spill in his left eye. We are urging authorities in Oaxaca to: 1) conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into the harsh treatment of Fredy García, publish the results, and bring the perpetrators to justice , and 2) take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Fredy Garcia, in accordance with international standards (United Nations’ Set of Principles for the Protection of All Persons Under Any Form of Detention or Prison, 1988)
PDF icon 2020_07_31_frontlinedefenders_mexico_letter.pdf
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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: Spring 2020 - urgent human rights cases
July 1, 2020
April, May and June RRN case summaries at a glance
On behalf of our 190 Rapid Response Network members, IRTF volunteers write and send six letters each month to government officials in southern Mexico, Colombia, and Central America (with copies to officials in the US). Who is being targeted? indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders, labor organizers, LGBTI rights defenders, women’s rights defenders, journalists, environmental defenders, campesinos, and others.
PDF icon 2020_03_rrn_letters_summary_apr_may_jun.pdf
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Event
From Chiapas: Report from visit to coffee cooperative Comon Yaj Noptic
April 15, 2020
Equal Exchange has continued to create spaces for us to connect as a community and to take action as an alternative network. We will continue to provide spaces for connection and brainstorm ways to build an independent food system. One meaningful way that we want to engage with you is to continue to invite you into our world by sharing the stories of our producer partners as much as we can.
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News Article
Supreme Court Rules Border Patrol Agents Who Shoot Foreign Nationals Can't Be Sued
February 26, 2020
In 2010 Mesa, an on-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent who was at the border in El Paso, Texas, shot Hernández at least twice — once in the face. At the time, the boy, a Mexican national, was on the southern side of the border in Ciudad Juarez. What is in question, and at the core of a legal dispute the U.S. Supreme Court has been trying to resolve for nearly three years, is whether Hernández's parents, who are also Mexican nationals, have a legal standing to sue Mesa for damages in the killing that occurred outside of U.S. territory. On Tuesday the court delivered its decision: The Hernández family cannot sue.
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News Article
Government: Immigrant from Mexico Died in Custody in Ohio
February 24, 2020
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A man from Mexico in government custody and awaiting deportation died by apparent suicide in an Ohio prison, U.S. immigration authorities said Friday. David Hernandez Colula, 34, was being held at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown during pending deportation proceedings, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. Colula died at a hospital early Thursday after prison staff found him unresponsive in his cell. Colula apparently died by suicide but the case is under investigation, authorities said. Colula was transferred to the Ohio prison following his arrest in Michigan in December for an outstanding warrant.
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Event
Tigers Are Not Afraid - film from Mexico
February 21, 2020
Tigers Are Not Afraid tells a very current story, especially given how much the drug war on the border of Mexico and the state of immigration dominates our political discourse. Filmmaker Issa López opens by reminding us how many people have been murdered and disappeared in Mexico since 2006, when the drug war intensified and riddled the air with violence to such a degree that there are entire cities that have become ghost towns. Our story is set in one of these cities, where children have been orphaned by the violence that surrounds them, forming a sort of “lost boys” group of their own on a rooftop. López merges the horrors of real life with fairy tale structures and storytelling in a way that’s ambitious and consistently fascinating. [Summary taken from film review by Brian Tallerico, 8/23/29]
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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: 2019 Year End Update- urgent human rights cases
February 13, 2020
RRN case summaries at a glance
On behalf of our 190 Rapid Response Network members, IRTF volunteers write and send six letters each month to government officials in southern Mexico, Colombia, and Central America (with copies to officials in the US). Who is being targeted? indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders, labor organizers, LGBTI rights defenders, women’s rights defenders, journalists, environmental defenders, and others. By signing our names to these crucial letters, human rights crimes are brought to light, perpetrators are brought to justice and lives are spared. Our solidarity is more important than ever. Together, our voices do make a difference.
PDF icon 2019_year_end_rrn_letters_summary_generic_reeel.pdf
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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: RRN Fall 2019 - urgent human rights cases
February 13, 2020
RRN case summaries at a glance
On behalf of our 190 Rapid Response Network members, IRTF volunteers write and send six letters each month to government officials in southern Mexico, Colombia, and Central America (with copies to officials in the US). Who is being targeted? indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders, labor organizers, LGBTI rights defenders, women’s rights defenders, journalists, environmental defenders, and others. By signing our names to these crucial letters, human rights crimes are brought to light, perpetrators are brought to justice and lives are spared. Our solidarity is more important than ever. Together, our voices do make a difference.
PDF icon 2019_12_rrn_letters_summary_generic_reel.pdf
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News Article
More than two-thirds of migrants fleeing Central American region had family taken or killed
February 13, 2020
Study finds 42.5% interviewees leaving Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador reported the violent death of a relative “We’re speaking of human beings, not numbers,” Sergio Martín, MSF general coordinator in Mexico, said at the study’s presentation on Tuesday. “In many cases, it’s clear that migration is the only possible way out. Staying put is not an option.” A 2019 survey from Creative Associates International found violence was the main driver of migration for 38% of Salvadorans, 18% of Hondurans and 14% of Guatemalans. In Guatemala – the main source of migrants detained at the US border with Mexico – 71% of respondents cited “economic concerns” as their main motive.
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News Article
US sends asylum seekers to Mexico to await hearings held 350 miles away
February 10, 2020
Authorities are expanding the Remain in Mexico program, which critics say puts migrants into dangerous border towns A Human Rights First report released in December documented at least 636 public reports of violence against asylum seekers returned to Mexico including rape, kidnapping and torture. Human Rights First said that was a steep increase over October, when the group had identified 343 attacks, and noted the latest figure is surely an under-count because most crime victims don’t report.
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