"Washington, D.C., February 24, 2009 — The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemns the murder of Raúl Lucas Lucía and Manuel Ponce Rosas, defenders of the rights of indigenous people in the State of Guerrero, Mexico, and urges the authorities to investigate and punish those responsible.

Raúl Lucas Lucía and Manuel Ponce Rosas were the president and secretary of the Organization for the Future of the Mixteco People and active members of the organization of the Me’phaa Indigenous People. According to the information received by the IACHR, on February 13, 2009, when they attended an inauguration ceremony of construction works at a school, they were confronted by persons who identified themselves as policemen and who forced them at gunpoint to get into a black vehicle with opaque windows and without plates. On February 19, the IACHR requested the State of Mexico urgent information about the whereabouts of Raúl Lucas Lucía and Manuel Ponce Rosas, on the basis of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons."

More information on the Inter-American Commission on Human Right´s website