At the request of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, Peace Brigades International has accompanied Obtilia Eugenio Manuel, Andrea Eugenio Manuel and Cuauhtemoc Ramirez Rodriguez, members of the Organization of the Indigenous Me'Phaa People (OPIM), since February 2005 in Ayutla de los Libres, Guerrero and in the nearby communities of Barranca de Guadalupe, El Camalote, and Barranca de Tecuani. The OPIM was founded in 1998 by Obtilia Eugenio Manuel and Cuauhtémoc Ramírez Rodríguez. The organization has been committed to the defense and promotion of indigenous people's rights in the Costa Chica region of Guerrero.

At the request of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center located in Tlapa de Comonfort, Guerrero, the PBI Mexico Team began to provide accompaniment to members of the Ayutla office of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center in December 2003. Tlachinollan requested accompaniment for the Ayutla office due to the high profile cases that the Ayutla office is working on. One of these cases involves the alleged rape of two indigenous women (Ines Fernandez Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantu) by members of the Mexican Army. Other cases include intimidation, extortion, abuse of authority, rape, torture, and kidnapping of indigenous people in the region.

Tlachinollan's work focuses on the 17 indigenous municipalities located in the Montaña Alta region. About 300,000 residents of the 600 communities in this region belong to the Mixtec, Nahua, and Tlapanec indigenous groups. This indigenous region is highly marginalized and is among the poorest in Mexico. Given the serious human rights violations in the region, Tlachinollan works to defend the rights of these indigenous groups.

Tlachinollan website

Information about Ines and Valentina's cases on the Amnesty International website

The PBI Mexico team began to provide accompaniment to the Association of Relatives of the Detained, Disappeared, and Victims of Human Rights Abuses in Mexico (AFADEM) in August 2003. This organization belongs to the Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared (FEDEFAM). AFADEM has local committees in Chilpancingo, Acapulco, Zihuatanejo, and Atoyac, Guerrero.

PBI provides international accompaniment to Tita Radilla Martínez, vicepresident of AFADEM and spokesperson for FEDEFAM, due to the risk to her and other family members that belong to the organization. AFADEM has made denouncements and filed complaints for torture and forced disappearances with several entities of the Mexican justice system. These denouncements accuse General Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro and Francisco Quirós Hermosillo, high-ranking members of the Mexican army who are currently incarcerated for drug trafficking.

In addition, AFADEM has filed complaints against the Mexican government with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for the forced disappearance of Tita's father, Rosendo Radilla Pacheco.

AFADEM website

FEDEFAM website

At the request of SOS Bahia and the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, the PBI Mexico Team began to offer international accompaniment to the Organization of Women Ecologists of the Sierra de Petatlán, A.C. (OMESP) in August 2005. This accompaniment began as a result of several events that put at risk the life and physical integrity of its members, particularly of Celsa Valdovinos Ríos, president of the organization and Felipe Arreaga Sánchez.

In 2000, Celsa Valdovinos and her husband Felipe Arreaga founded OMESP. The organization now has over 80 active members and promotes productive projects and reforestation. For many years, Celsa Valdovinos and Felipe Arreaga have been noted for their work to protect the forests in the region. Felipe Arreaga was one of the founders of the Organization of Ecologists of the Sierra de Petatlán and Coyuca de Catalán, A.C. (OESP).

On November 3, 2004, Felipe Arreaga was detained and acused of homicide. Another 14 leaders and members of the OESP, including Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Albertano Peñaloza Domínguez, have arrest warrants for the same crimes. They are accused of having killed Bernadino Bautista Valle's son, Abel Bautista Guillen, on May 30, 1998.

On March 2, 2005, Felipe Arreaga was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International for "facing an unjust trial." After spending 10 months in the local prison in Zihuatanejo, he was absolved of the charges against him and liberated on September 15, 2005.

On May 19, 2005, two of Albertano Peñaloza's children were assassinated in an ambush in the community of Banco Nuevo, which is part of the municipality of Petatlán. Both Albertano and two of his children were injured. The attack only adds to the persecution and harrassment of the environmental leaders in the region.

At the request of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, AC in Tlapa, Guerrero, the PBI Mexico Team has been providing international accompaniment since November 2006 to the lawyers and staff of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center in Tlapa during their work on the case of Sócrates Tolentino González Genaro, member of the indigenous Tlapanec community.

On January 14, 2006, Sócrates Tolentino González Genaro, 18 years of age, was detained in Zapotitlán Tablas by members of the municipal preventative police who took him to the municipal prison. The next day, the municipal authorities told his mother, Lucia Genaro Linares, that he had committed suicide in prison. Given that the municipal official had told her that the authorities would pay for the funeral costs, Lucía Genaro Linares followed the instructions of the Municipal Official and signed official documents.

Given this attempted cover-up, the family, with the help of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, was able to exhume Sócrates' cadaver. Lucía Genaro then presented a complaint in the Public Ministry in Tlapa, Guerrero against several municipal authorities, including the municipal president, the municipal official, and three agents of the municipal police of Zapotitlán Tablas. According to Amnesty International, Lucia Genaro and other family members have reported intimidation on various occasions.

Due to the high level of harassment due to the above-mentioned cases, there is an increased risk for Lucia Genaro Linares, her family, and the lawyers and staff of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center.

Acción Urgente de Amnistía Internacional