On October 1 2010 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights informed the Mexican state of its sentences in the cases of Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantú. Both verdicts stated that in 2002 the indigenous Me´phaa women had been raped and tortured by members of the army in the state of Guerrero, Mexico.
PRESS RELEASE
N° 105/11
IACHR WRAPS UP VISIT TO MEXICO
Mexico City, September 30, 2001—The Office of the Rapporteur for Mexico of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) carried out a working visit to Mexico September 26-30, 2011. The delegation was made up of the IACHR Rapporteur for Mexico, Commissioner Rodrigo Escobar Gil; the coordinator of the Mesoamerican Region, Isabel Madariaga; and human rights specialist Fiorella Melzi.
The Cerezo Committee is an organization dedicated to the defense of the human rights of political prisoners in Mexico. It was founded after the arrest, torture and imprisonment of the brothers Alejandro, Hector and Antonio Cerezo Contreras and the co-defendant Pablo Alvaredo Flores; all detained in a high security prison in Mexico on the August 13 2001. They are now currently free.
The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) will send a delegation of lawyers to Mexico from 19 to 24 September 2011. The aim of the visit is to support the work of human rights defenders (HRDs) through meetings with HRDs themselves, Mexican authorities and diplomats in Mexico City, Guerrero and Oaxaca. In the context of these meetings, the delegation will follow up the results of the work of his previous visit.
Members of the Organization of the Indigenous Me´Phaa People (OPIM), an organization accompanied by PBI, with an office in Ayutla de los Libres (Guerrero) have condemned the recent acts of aggression against them. The Interamerican Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) recognized that the people working in indigenous organizations in this region are highly vulnerable, and through this the court granted precautionary measures in favor of the members of OPIM and other organization in the region in April, 2009.
The Cerezo Committee Mexico on August 24 and 25 celebrates several events to commemorate its tenth anniversary. It is also publishing a report on violations of human rights in Mexico during the period of 2009 to 2010.
The Attorney General for Military Justice sent the investigations of Inés Fernández and Valentina Rosendo to the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic.
It is now up to the Attorney General to bring the military personnel responsible for the rape and torture committed against Inés and Valentina to federal justice.
A group of political counsellors from European Union (EU) members states' (MS) embassies in Mexico along with the EU Delegation undertook a working visit to Chilpancingo, Guerrero, on 1 August together with Tlachinollan Human Rights Center of La Montaña and Peace Brigades International (PBI).
