The Inter-American Human Rights Commission issued precautionary measures on behalf of 10 members of the Eco-tourism Cooperative Society "Zapotengo Pacheco" Pochutla, Oaxaca, Mexico.

December 5, 2011

On November 29 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued precautionary measures on behalf of 10 members of the Eco-tourism Cooperative Society "Zapotengo Pacheco" Pochutla who were forcibly disappeared on July 14, 2010, allegedly by members of the Federal Investigation Agency [Agencia Federal de Investigaciones, AFI], an agency of the Attorney General's Office [Procuraduría General de la República, PGR].

In the case MC-262-11-Mexico, the Commission requested that the Mexican government immediately adopt the necessary measures to determine the conditions and whereabouts of Andrew Vizarretea Salinas, Fidel Ruiz Espino, Gregorio Rodriguez Hernandez, Andres Vizarretea Salina, Luis Vizarretea Salinas, Juan Carlos Vizarretea Salinas, Benito Salinas Robles, Juan Antonio Feria Hernandez, Isauro Rojas Rojas, Carmona Adelaido Espino, Nemorio Vizarretea Vinalay and report on actions taken to investigate the facts that gave rise to such injunctions.

In recent years, violence has increased whithin the borders of Mexico: extrajudicial executions, murders, kidnappings, forced disappearances, torture methods and levantamientos [dissapearances], affecting both Mexicans and undocumented migrants of other nationalities.

In 2005, a group of people in the Zapotengo community formed the Cooperative Society "Zapotengo Pacheco," Flora and Fauna Eco-tourism Project, whose goal is to produce responsible tourism to create jobs and incomes for the native peoples of the region. It also benefits the community directly, thus preventing the construction of large resorts and foreign investment, as these bring with them environmental damage, migration and water pollution.

On July 12, 2010, the current beneficiaries of precautionary measures began a journey to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, to purchase heavy vehicles to develop works in the cooperative. Since then, they are disappeared and the last contact with them was a phone call from Mr. Nemorio Vizarretea to his family and a text message that read: "... we arrived well though, later I'll phone you".

On July 23, 2010, the Public Prosecutor's Office [Ministerio Público] of the second round of Puerto Escondido, Mixtepec, Juquila, Oaxaca, relatives of the disappeared began the following preliminary investigations: 284 (PEII) / 2010), 289 (PE II) / 2010, 290 (PEII) / 2010, 291 (PEII) / 2010 for the crime of "forced disappearance" or "involuntary disappearance of persons".

Months later, in a official letter dated March 18, 2011 Mr. Julian Celedon Suarez (Deputy Director-General for Information of Crimes Against Personal Integrity of the Attorney General's Office, PGR) [Director General Adjunto de Información de Delitos contra la Integridad de las Personas de la Procuraduría General de la Republica, PGR] reports to Mr. Artemio Ramirez Alvarado, (Attorney for high-impact Crimes of the Attorney General of the State of Oaxaca, PGJE) [Subprocurador para la atención de delitos de alto impacto de la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado de Oaxaca, PGJEO] than Juan Carlos Vizarretea Salinas, Salinas Vizarretea Nemorio, Fidel Ruiz Espino, Luis Vizarretea Salinas, Benito Salinas Robles, Antonio Hernandez Fair, Isauro Rojas Rojas Carmona Hawthorn and Adelaide and / or Adelaydo Espino Carmona, were arrested on October 6, 2010, without accusation, and are held in the Regional Office of Morelos. Without specifying the name of the prison. Therefore, the Mexican government is responsible for the life and physical integrity of persons referred, as it mentioned in the official letter that they are imprisoned in the state of Morelos.

According to these facts, an appeal for legal protection was made, number 849/2011 in the Third District Court of the State's Thirteenth Circuit. But due to the indifference of the state, on February 13, wives, sons, daughters, relatives and hundreds of simpathizers staged a march in the streets of Pochutla; months later, on July 14, 2011, a year after the disappearances, family and friends marched in downtown streets of the city of Oaxaca, and the wives of the disappeared and other family members settled on a hunger strike along the passages of the Government Palace of the City of Oaxaca.

On July 15, a committee of relatives of 10 missing went to the delegation of the Attorney General's Office in the city of Cuernavaca, Morelos, interviewing Delegate Ms. Aurora de la Mora, to verify in which prison in the state of Morelos and in what conditions their relatives were. In that meeting, the official said that it had been an error in the collected data, since at no time they were arrested and detained there.

In this regard, Human Rights Centre and Advice for Indigenous Peoples [Centro de Derechos Humanos y Asesoría a Pueblos Indígenas, A. C.] Human Rights Center "Bartolomé Carrasco Briseno" [Centro de Derechos Humanos “Bartolomé Carrasco Briseño” A.C] and the Diocesan Commission for Justice and Peace [Comisión Diocesana de Justicia y Paz A.C.], demand that the Mexican government immediaty comply with the precautionary measures and call for a meeting to implement them.

Regional Human Rights Center

"Bartolomé Carrasco Briseno" B.C.

Centre for Human Rights and Advice

Indigenous Peoples, B.C.

Diocesan Commission for Justice and Peace