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Human Rights Defenders Behind Bars PEACE BRIGADES INTERNATIONAL MEXICO PROJECT making space for peace Human Rights Defenders Behind Bars 2010, No. 1 MEXICO PROJECT NEWSLETTER 2! BEHIND BARS PEACE BRIGADES INTERNATIONAL CONTENTS EDITORIAL BEHIND BARS Editorial. Behind Bars 2 In this publication, PBI has chosen Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno. We The Cerezo Committee to address the issue of human rights will also address the human rights celebrates the release of defenders who are imprisoned and violations suffered in Oaxaca by Héctor and Antonio Cerezo 4 accused of committing crimes. We more than 130 Zapotec indigenous OPIM: years of prison will also deal with political prison- people from the Loxicha region. and persecution, waiting ers in Mexico, individuals who are They were imprisoned in 1996, and for justice 6 rarely presented by that name. In eight of them remain behind bars– recent years, we have observed a serving prison sentences of up to Defending freedom of process in which the distinction 34 years. In Guerrero, we outline expression: Radio Ñomndaa 7 between “political prisoner” and the accusations levelled against hu- “unjustly imprisoned human rights man rights defender David Valtierra Another year of impunity: defender” has become murky. Arango. He is one of the founders the case of Juan Manuel PBI aims to highlight cases about of Radio Ñomndaa, a community ra- Martínez Moreno 8 which it is directly aware. Here, be- dio station which broadcasts from yond questions of definitions, we Xochistlahuaca. The Organisation The Loxicha prisoners’: Long struggle for freedom 9 are faced with situations in which of the Me’phaa Indigenous People defenders, men and women, are (Organización del Pueblo Indígena Security and Protection either serving jail terms or facing Me’phaa, OPIM) also works in the for Human Rights Defenders 10 arrest warrants. Many of these war- state of Guerrero, and PBI has in- rants are based on dubious legal terviewed two OPIM members: The Prison Microcosm 11 principles or have been executed Raúl Hernández, a prisoner of con- with violations of due process. science who has been in jail since News on the Current Several sources have indicated April 2008, and Cuauhtémoc Ramí- Situation in Mexico 12 that there are more than 500 peo- rez, former OPIM president accom- ple in jail in Mexico who could panied by PBI, who has an arrest Tita Radilla’s European Tour 13 be considered political prisoners. warrant pending against him which Criminalisation of social They were detained based on ac- seriously limits his ability to work. protest: persecuted cusations of participating in armed Since 2002, PBI has accompanied human rights defenders. guerrilla groups, for activities re- the Cerezo Committee (Comité Today’s political prisoners? 14 lated to social protests, or because Cerezo) in Mexico City. The Com- of crimes in which there are strong mittee has denounced the human Four years with indications that evidence has been rights violations suffered by three Peace Brigades manipulated by groups holding po- of the Cerezo brothers when they International in Mexico: sitions of power. were jailed in 2001. The brothers, an evaluation 15 One of the best known cases, since released, have shared their re- both within and outside of Mexico, flections in this newsletter. We con- Felipe Arreaga Sánchez, is that of the 62 people jailed dur- clude the thematic block by detail- Mexican Environmentalist 16 ing the social protests in Oaxaca in ing several factors involved in the 2006–2007. In this newsletter, we violations of the basic rights of the describe the paradigmatic case of prison population. PBI MEXICO PROJECT DONORS Santander City Council (Spain) Overbrook Foundation Valladolid City Council (Spain) Prisioners of Conscience Fund for Nonviolence Rausing Trust Human Rights Defender’s Fund Rowan Foundation MFA France Civil Peace Service Misereor Welwärts Network for Social Change Zivic Non Violence XXI PBI Country Groups Cover Photos: 1] Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno, prisoner in Oaxaca, accused of murdering United States Camaraman Brad Will 2] Raúl Hernández, prisoner of conscience from the Organisation of Indigenous Meph’aa People (OPIM) 3] Cuauhtémoc Ramírez, subject of an arrest warrant, Secretary of the OPIM and accompanied by PBI 4] Isabel Almaráz (ex Loxicha prisoner) and Erika Sebastián, Loxicha prisoner Álvaro Sebastián’s daughter, in an interview with PBI 5] Felipe Arreaga, (1959- 2009), ex prisoner of conscience from the Organisation of Women Environmentalists of the Sierra de Petatlán (OMESP), and formerly accompanied by PBI MEXICO PROJECT BEHIND BARS 3 HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS AND MEMBERS OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS FACING JAIL POLITICAL PRISONERS AND American Commission on Human PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE Rights also expressed concern During its years of work in Mexico, regarding the use of legal actions PBI has become aware of the prob- against human rights defenders, lems faced by human rights defend- brought about with the aim of ers and members of civil move- harassing and discrediting them: ments who have arrest warrants “criminal proceedings are institut- pending or have been imprisoned. ed without any evidence, for the They are defined as prisoners of purpose of harassing the members conscience and political prisoners. of the organisations, who must as- According to the Fray Francisco de sume the psychological and eco- Vitoria Human Rights Centre (Cen- nomic burden of facing a criminal tro de Derechos Humanos Fray indictment. Some of these proceed- Francisco de Vitoria, AC), prisoners ings have reached advanced stages, of conscience face false accusations including the prolonged provision- and have committed no crime. Po- al detention of the accused.”3 litical prisoners belong to a social movement, and may have commit- POLITICAL PRISONERS IN Cuauhtémoc Ramírez, subject of an arrest ted illicit acts. Their imprisonment MEXICO TODAY warrant, Secretary of the OPIM and is a result of these illicit actions, but Various sources suggest that there accompanied by PBI the jail terms tend to be dispropor- are more than 500 people im- tionate to the acts committed.1 The prisoned in Mexico who can be cases drag for months or years, with defined as political prisoners or 1 Fray Francisco de Vitoria, OP, Human Rights Centre frequent procedural irregularities. prisoners of conscience.4 The best (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Francisco de Vito- ria). Their web page: www.derechoshumanos.org.mx. The late Felipe Arriaga, a human known cases are those of nearly 50 2 rights defender who was jailed for students and social activists who The Office in Mexico of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations (HCHR). ‘Defend- 11 months between 2004–2005 on were jailed for their participation er los derechos humanos: Entre el compromiso y el charges of homicide (he was later in protests against the European riesgo’. 13 October 2009. declared innocent), explained to Union–Latin America summit in 3 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. ‘Report PBI, “First they fabricate the crime, Guadalajara in 2004; the 62 people on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in the so for the State and the Prosecu- imprisoned during the social pro- Americas’. 7 March 2006. (Available here: www.cidh. oas.org/countryrep/Defenders/defenderstoc.htm). tor’s Office, you’re guilty. It’s then tests in Oaxaca in 2006–2007; and 4 CIMAC, 22 October 2009. up to you to prove that you’re in- the 12 people condemned, some 5 Statement by Dolores González (Serapaz director) and nocent.” of them to more than 67 years in Luís Arriaga (Centro ProDH director). ‘Libertad y justi- prison, as a result of confrontations cia para Atenco: Acciones para reivindicar la protesta’. VICTIMS OF HUMAN RIGHTS with police in San Salvador Atenco, n.d. <www.christus.org.mx/descargas/Arriaga.pdf>. VIOLATIONS in the state of Mexico, in 2006.5 The 2009 report on the situa- tion of human rights defenders in Mexico, published by the United Nations High Commission for Hu- man Rights, highlights the fact that human rights defenders, facing at- tempts to halt their activities, “have been victim of the arbitrary use of the legal system [...] in the cases where it has been possible to iden- tify the perpetrators, the participa- tion of authorities, especially local authorities, involved in obtaining and administering justice stands out.”2 A 2006 report by the Inter- Members of the Comité Cerezo accompanied by PBI on the 16th February, 2009, the day Héctor and Antonio Cerezo were released from prison 4! BEHIND BARS PEACE BRIGADES INTERNATIONAL THE CEREZO COMMITTEE CELEBRATES THE RELEASE OF HÉCTOR AND ANTONIO CEREZO Since February 2002, Peace Bri- was made, which was screened cessible to the public. Finally, gades International has accom- in nearly every Mexican state. the work implies travel to other panied Emiliana, Francisco and Now, with Héctor and Antonio countries to present the human Alejandro Cerezo Contreras, at the free, we have two more people rights problems we have identi- request of the Mexican League for who can participate in the Com- fied in Mexico. We also partici- the Defense of Human Rights (Liga mittee’s work, enriching it with pate in analytical processes on Mexicana por la Defensa de los their experience and the spirit the criminalisation of social Derechos Humanos, LIMEDDH). of resistance they developed in protest. The three have suffered harass- jail. Having them with us gives ment and threats as a result of us great happiness. It validates PBI: What obstacles do you face in their work in support of their im- us and confirms that it is pos- conducting your work? prisoned brothers. In March 2005, sible to make things happen. CC: We have suffered death Alejandro Cerezo was declared in- [With them,] we have developed threats, been followed by police, nocent and released. Héctor and a greater capacity to deliver received harassment and al- Antonio Cerezo completed their workshops and human rights most daily incidents of surveil- sentences and were released on courses.
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