In the days following the release of the indigenous human rights defender <media 6746>Raúl Hernández Abundio</media>, who was imprisoned unfairly for more than two years, PBI has become increasingly concerned by the growing wave of aggressions against the human rights defenders whom we accompany in the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres, Guerrero.

Raúl, a member of the Organisation of Indigenous Me´phaa People (OPIM) and accompanied by PBI, was released on August 27. However, just one day later a daughter of <media 6152>Inés Fernández Ortega</media> – also a member of the OPIM and who this year denounced before the Inter American Court of Human Rights her rape by members of the Mexican army – was victim of a second abduction attempt in Ayutla de los Libres. The aggressors threatened both the daughter and Raúl Hernández.

What is more, on August 30, the coordinator of the Organisation for the Future of the Mixteco People (OFPM) Álvaro Ramírez Concepción, and three other members of the group, were wounded when fired upon by eight men who arrived at the farm of Jorge Luis García Catarino who is a beneficiary of protective measures from the Inter American Court of Human Rights. The OFPM is the sister organisation of the OPIM, who PBI has accompanied since 2005. PBI also accompanies the Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre, who called attention to this situation in their <media 6767>recent press release</media>.

PBI is extremely concerned for the security of all human rights defenders in Ayutla at the moment and, in particular, for that of Raúl, Inés, their families and other members of the OPIM and the OFPM.

These recent actions show that, in spite of the release of Raúl Hernández, the pattern of insecurity which affects human rights defenders in Ayutla, and which PBI documented initially in their bulletin <media 2578>Silenced</media>, continues today.

<media 6768>Download Amnesty International's Urgent Action about this situation (pdf, Spanish)</media>

Read the report from Latin American Working Group about the issue (pdf, English)