Visibility, Solidarity, and Advocacy: Highlights from May and June
Over the past months, PBI Mexico has continued to strengthen its accompaniment of human rights defenders while amplifying their voices internationally. Here are some key moments from recent activities:
📅 May 10 | Accompaniment during Mother’s Day Marches
On May 10, PBI Mexico accompanied demonstrations led by collectives of relatives of disappeared persons. Across the country, thousands of mothers and families marched to demand truth and justice for their missing loved ones.
Our presence in Mexico City, Morelia, and Cuernavaca aimed to amplify their voices and ensure international attention, reaffirming our commitment to those who continue the tireless search for their relatives with dignity and hope.
🔗 Click here to see our post from that day
ACCOMPANIMENT TOURS | Michoacán, Puebla, and Sonora
Our field teams conducted physical accompaniment and advocacy visits in several states to strengthen the protective presence of PBI.
In Sonora, we:
Participated in an assembly of the Alianza Yoreme in Cohuirimpo focused on territorial justice
Held a security and protection workshop with community members
Visited Ejido El Bajío to continue supporting their struggle and assess the local security context
Facilitated workshops with search collectives, focusing on protection strategies during field searches
In Michoacán, we accompanied COFADDEM during the March of Dignity on May 10 and held safety workshops with members of the Red de Solidaridad por los Derechos Humanos (RSDH), the MAPAS collective, and various land and territory defenders to strengthen their self-protection capacities.
In Puebla, we supported a social mobilization by the Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra y el Agua – Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala (FPDTA-MPT), as part of our long-term accompaniment since 2020. Our international presence sought to raise visibility and offer protective support to their mobilization efforts.
🤝 Meeting with the Council of the European Union’s Latin America and Caribbean Working Group (COLAC)
On May 16, PBI Mexico met with COLAC representatives in Mexico City during their official visit. We shared findings from the 2023 Civil Observation Mission to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, highlighting concerns about the impact of large-scale projects on communities and human rights defenders..
Subsequently, the COLAC delegation traveled to Oaxaca, where they held meetings with PBI Mexico’s allied organizations, such as Consorcio Oaxaca, as well as with other human rights organizations in the state.
📲 Click here to learn more about this visit.
UNITED KINGDOM | Jesús Thomás González from Ejido El Bajío
In May, as part of an advocacy tour organized by PBI UK, land defender Jesús Thomás González shared his community’s struggle against mining companies in Ejido El Bajío, Sonora. He met with government and civil society actors to denounce the illegal exploitation of communal lands by Fresnillo PLC.
📖 Read more about his visit here.
🖥️ INTERNATIONAL WEBINAR | Volunteering for Protection: Indigenous Rights and the Impact of Megaprojects
On June 10, our field volunteer Melody Moore and Alejandra Ignacio Álvarez from RSDH (Michoacán) participated in a webinar co-hosted by PBI Canada and the UK, discussing Indigenous rights and the risks posed by megaprojects.
Read more about it here.
🌍 PBI FRANCE | Voices from the FPDTA-MPT
On June 17, a representative from the Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra y el Agua – Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala shared her experiences resisting megaprojects like the Proyecto Integral Morelos. This was part of PBI France’s ongoing webinar series highlighting the struggles faced by human rights defenders in Mexico.
📌 Don’t miss the upcoming sessions:
July 1 → Ejido El Bajío and the defense of human rights in Sonora
August 18 → Reflections from a year of field volunteering with PBI Mexico
September (TBC) → Protection challenges and the shrinking space for civil society in Mexico and France
🔜Interested in joining PBI Mexico as a field volunteer? Stay tuned for our next call for applications, launching in August!