Photo: a mural at the Casa del Migrante Saltillo representing the countries of Latin America, painted by a migrant who passed through the Casa

Photo: Cloete, Coahuila 

Interview conducted by PBI with Alberto Solís Castro, Executive Director of Services and Consultation for Peace (Servicios y Asesoría para la Paz — SERAPAZ), an organization dedicated to positively transforming conflicts and fostering peace. They help indigenous and campesino movements that are defending their territory, environment and natural resources from large scale economic projects. SERAPAZ is member of the Espacio_OSC, which is accompanied by PBI.

Photo: Tom Pierce for The Guardian

On 19th June 2016, during a protest by the teacher-training college and member of the communities of Asunción, Nochixtlán, San Pablo Huitzo, San Franzisco Telixtlahuaca, Hacienda Blanca and Viguera that requested a dialgoue with the Federal Government in order to revise the educational reforms, many participants were seriously assaulted by different security forces in an attempt to halt the protest.

For PBI, as for many other civil society organisations, 2017 posed significant challenges. The six years of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration have been characterised by a continuation of the widely-questioned security policies initiated during the presidency of his predecessor Felipe Calderón, and by a marked reduction in the political space available to Mexican and international civil society organisations.

From the 17th til the 23rd of July this year, three human rights defenders from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras left their homes and headed North of the contient in order to participate in a speaker tour organised by PBI in Washington DC.  The tours we organise to the United States are always aimed at shedding light on the security situation for human rights defenders before key actors who can advocate in some way to improve their protection on the ground.

On this 30th June we remember our dear Alberto (“Beto”) Donis Rodriguez who died a year ago in a car accident.  PBI had the priviledge of accompanying Beto in his role as Coordinator of the Mirgant Refuge “Hermanos en el Camino” en Ixtepex, Oaxaca.

Beto began travelling to North at the age of 19.  He was born and raised in Santa Rosa, Guatemala and then went to work in the Guatemala City.  The violence forced him to seek alternatives.  He crossed the border four times and was deported after many difficult experiences on his journeys.

Interview with Verónica Vidal, Coordinator of the Association for Women´s Rights and Development (AWID)

Valentina Rosendo Cantú, indigenous me´phaa woman, originally from the community of Caxitepec, municipality of Acatepec in the high mountains of Guerrero, was victim of sexual torture by military members in 2002, a case in which the responsability of the Mexican State was decided by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in August 2010.