URGENT ACTION

HUMAN RIGHTS OBSERVERS ATTACKED IN MEXICO

Human rights activists in Oaxaca state, Mexico, are at serious risk following an attack on human rights observers on 27 April, which left at least two dead and scores injured. The authorities have not done enough to investigate the incident and the whereabouts of five people who are still missing following the attack, or to protect those affected.

On 27 April a group of about 30 human rights observers was ambushed by armed men in the Indigenous Triqui area of Oaxaca state, southern Mexico. Human rights groups in Mexico believe that this was a planned attack by a paramilitary group that had previously threatened the human rights observers. The observers were attacked after they were forced to stop their journey because rocks were blocking the road. One man, observer Jyri Antero Jaakolafrom Finland, and one woman, Indigenous human rights defender Beatriz Cariño (head of the organization CACTUS in Oaxaca state) were killed. Sources in Mexico suggest five people are missing, and may have been taken hostage by the attackers. The five, all Mexican, are journalists David Cilia and Erika Ramírez (the only woman among those missing), and three activists: Fernando Santiago (a member of Mexican organization Brigadas Indigenas) and David Venegas and Noé Bautista (members of Oaxacan group VOCAL). Some of those wounded in the ambush were apparently initially taken hostage and later released. Sources in Mexico suggest they were told to pass on the following message to Omar Esparza, a leading member of the Oaxacan organizations CACTUS and MAIZ: “Tell him that he escaped this one, but he will be next” (“Digale quede esta se libró pero él es el que sigue”).

Days before the attack, the human rights defenders organizing the trip requested that the state authorities protect the observers, but no protection was provided. Following the attack, federal and state authorities did not go to the scene of the ambush until the day after the attack, claiming this was due to security concerns. Victims and witnesses who managed to identify some of the attackers have not been interviewed; nor have they been offered protection by the authorities. Evidence at the scene of the incident is yet to be gathered by investigators.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in Spanish or your own language, calling on the Mexican authorities to:

• carry out an urgent, thorough and impartial investigation into the attack on the human rights observers, with the results made public and those responsible brought to justice;

• immediately do everything necessary to find all those who are still missing;

• provide adequate and immediate medical assistance to all those wounded and affected by the attack;

• take immediate steps to protect all those affected by the attack, in accordance to their wishes;

• publicly condemn the attack and reinforce its commitment to the protection of human rights defenders in Mexico with prompt and effective action.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 10 JUNE 2010 TO: