Mexico Urgent Action
28 February 2002
We have received from the Oaxacan Human Rights Network (Red Oaxaqueña de Derechos Humanos) the following urgent report of another act of harassment and intimidation against a member of the Ricardo Flores Magón Indigenous Popular Council of Oaxaca (CIPO–RFM).
On February 19th 2002, Reyna Pérez Hernández, a human rights defender from the Support Centre for the Oaxacan Popular Movement (Centro de Apoyo al Movimiento Popular Oaxaqueño) and member of CIPO–RFM, returned to her home to find that it had been broken into and her belongings left in disorder. She also found a written message that, although it was incoherent as well as obscene, clearly threatened her with physical attack and abduction. The message referred to her connection with the CIPO–RFM, referring to the latter's "political" activities, and warned her that her movements were being closely watched.
Sra. Pérez reported the break–in to the legal authorities, who opened the preliminary investigation file #J49(CDA)/2002 but declined to inspect her home – stating that the probable guilty parties were members of the PRI (Partido de la Revolución Institucional – the governing party in the state of Oaxaca – and for seventy–one years the governing national party – which is also present at the local level).
BACKGROUND:
In addition to the incidents of harassment directed against the CIPO–RFM that are described in Urgent Action #981 (Februrary 8th 2002), 46 members of CIPO–RFM were abducted, held in detention, and threatened, from January 1st until January 5th 2002, by the Municipal President of Tanetze de Zaragoza. Also during January, the Municipal Office of Tanetze de Zaragoza sent out a message (with an official seal) containing a death threat against Raúl Gatica, the spokesperson for the CIPO–RFM. Although a preliminary investigation file (#275 (S.C.)/2002) was opened with respect to the behaviour of the Tanetze de Zaragoza authorities, matters ended there, and these same authorities continue to commit human rights abuses.
RECOMMENDATION:
Please write to the government of Mexico asking for immediate steps to be taken to safeguard the physical and psychological integrity of Reyna Pérez Hernández and Raúl Gatica and their respective family members and associates, as well as to protect the forty–six members of the CIPO-RFM who were abducted in early January. Please request a prompt and thorough investigation of all of the acts of harassment against the CIPO–RFM.including an investigation of those that were carried out by the municipal authorities of Tenetze de Zaragoza.
Please inform the Canadian government of this latest incident of harassment of human rights defenders in the state of Oaxaca.
ADDRESSES
Lic. Vicente Fox Quesada
Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Residencia Oficial de ALos Pinos@
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, Mexico D.F., C.P. 11850, MEXICO
FAX011 52 55 522 4117 or 516 9537 or 515 1794 vicente@fox2000.org.mx or go to www.gob.mex and from there to interactivo to send a message. If you have access to a fax machine and are able to get through, the fax method, being less impersonal, is probably more effective. If you live in a city where there is a Mexican consulate, they will almost certainly be willing to forward a fax to President Fox on your behalf.
Please send a copy of your letter to
the Minister of the Interior
Lic. Santiago Creel
Secretario de Gobernación
Bucareli 99, primer piso
Col.Juarez, Mexico D.F., CP 06699, MEXICO
FAX 011 52 55 546 5350 or 546 7388 segob@rtn.net.mx
and to the Governor of the State of Oaxaca
Lic. José Murat Casab
Gobernado del Estado de Oaxaca
Fax011 951 516 3737 gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx
and, if possible to the Red Oaxaqueña de Derechos Humanos rodhmx@yahoo.com.mx
as well as to
Ambassador Ezequiel Padilla Couttelenc. Embassy of Mexico, 45 O'Connor St., suite 1500, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 14A Fax613 235 9123 infor@embamexcan.com
For Canada
Hon. Bill Graham
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0G2 Graham.B@parl.gc.ca
Fax 613 996 9607
Harassment and intimidation of human rights defender in Oaxaca, Mexico
28 February 2002
We have received from the Oaxacan Human Rights Network (Red Oaxaqueña de Derechos Humanos) the following urgent report of another act of harassment and intimidation against a member of the Ricardo Flores Magón Indigenous Popular Council of Oaxaca (CIPO–RFM).
On February 19th 2002, Reyna Pérez Hernández, a human rights defender from the Support Centre for the Oaxacan Popular Movement (Centro de Apoyo al Movimiento Popular Oaxaqueño) and member of CIPO–RFM, returned to her home to find that it had been broken into and her belongings left in disorder. She also found a written message that, although it was incoherent as well as obscene, clearly threatened her with physical attack and abduction. The message referred to her connection with the CIPO–RFM, referring to the latter's "political" activities, and warned her that her movements were being closely watched.
Sra. Pérez reported the break–in to the legal authorities, who opened the preliminary investigation file #J49(CDA)/2002 but declined to inspect her home – stating that the probable guilty parties were members of the PRI (Partido de la Revolución Institucional – the governing party in the state of Oaxaca – and for seventy–one years the governing national party – which is also present at the local level).
BACKGROUND:
In addition to the incidents of harassment directed against the CIPO–RFM that are described in Urgent Action #981 (Februrary 8th 2002), 46 members of CIPO–RFM were abducted, held in detention, and threatened, from January 1st until January 5th 2002, by the Municipal President of Tanetze de Zaragoza. Also during January, the Municipal Office of Tanetze de Zaragoza sent out a message (with an official seal) containing a death threat against Raúl Gatica, the spokesperson for the CIPO–RFM. Although a preliminary investigation file (#275 (S.C.)/2002) was opened with respect to the behaviour of the Tanetze de Zaragoza authorities, matters ended there, and these same authorities continue to commit human rights abuses.
RECOMMENDATION:
Please write to the government of Mexico asking for immediate steps to be taken to safeguard the physical and psychological integrity of Reyna Pérez Hernández and Raúl Gatica and their respective family members and associates, as well as to protect the forty–six members of the CIPO-RFM who were abducted in early January. Please request a prompt and thorough investigation of all of the acts of harassment against the CIPO–RFM.including an investigation of those that were carried out by the municipal authorities of Tenetze de Zaragoza.
Please inform the Canadian government of this latest incident of harassment of human rights defenders in the state of Oaxaca.
ADDRESSES
Lic. Vicente Fox Quesada
Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Residencia Oficial de ALos Pinos@
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, Mexico D.F., C.P. 11850, MEXICO
FAX011 52 55 522 4117 or 516 9537 or 515 1794 vicente@fox2000.org.mx or go to www.gob.mex and from there to interactivo to send a message. If you have access to a fax machine and are able to get through, the fax method, being less impersonal, is probably more effective. If you live in a city where there is a Mexican consulate, they will almost certainly be willing to forward a fax to President Fox on your behalf.
Please send a copy of your letter to
the Minister of the Interior
Lic. Santiago Creel
Secretario de Gobernación
Bucareli 99, primer piso
Col.Juarez, Mexico D.F., CP 06699, MEXICO
FAX 011 52 55 546 5350 or 546 7388 segob@rtn.net.mx
and to the Governor of the State of Oaxaca
Lic. José Murat Casab
Gobernado del Estado de Oaxaca
Fax011 951 516 3737 gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx
and, if possible to the Red Oaxaqueña de Derechos Humanos rodhmx@yahoo.com.mx
as well as to
Ambassador Ezequiel Padilla Couttelenc. Embassy of Mexico, 45 O'Connor St., suite 1500, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 14A Fax613 235 9123 infor@embamexcan.com
For Canada
Hon. Bill Graham
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0G2 Graham.B@parl.gc.ca
Fax 613 996 9607