Photo: Tom Pierce for The Guardian

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.

Chihuahua is one of the most dangerous areas of Mexico for the defense of human rights and journalism.  According to the National Network of Civilian Human Rights Organisms "All Rights for All" (Red TDT), Chihuahua is the state with the highest number of human rights defenders killed and the state with the second highest number of journalists killed.  Considering these attacks, a high percentage of human rights defenders count on precautionary protection measures given by the Inter-American Commi