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Rapid Response Network

RRN’s team of letter-writers responds to six urgent human rights cases each month to

  1. protect people living under threat
  2. demand investigations into human rights crimes
  3. bring human rights criminals to justice
  4. ensure that human rights crimes are not happening in the dark.

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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: El Salvador 12/24/2019
December 24, 2019
We are dismayed to learn that Lisiania Zelaya, lawyer, artist and member of the Amorales Collectve, has been convicted of slander against Ricardo Mendoza and fined US$ 2,027. Since 2016, artists of Amorales have denounced Ricardo Mendoza, a professor at the School of Drama at UES, whom they accuse of abusing his female students during rehearsals of theater productions. Abusive actions, which have been condemned by present and former students, include his asking them to take off their clothes for him. On May 27, members of the Amorales Collective received subpoenas from the Sixth Sentencing Court of San Salvador accusing them of slander and damage to Mendoza’s honor and personal reputation. The conviction of Lisiania Zelaya highlights the struggle of women against systematic, institutionalized violence.
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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Colombia 12/23/2019
December 23, 2019
We are quite concerned about the safety of staff and members of the human rights organization dhColombia (Asociación Red de defensores y defensoras de derechos humanos). Since the beginning of November, members of dhColombia have been surveilled by unknown men outside their homes and office. Prior to this, in August a member of dhColombia faced communication espionage, theft of sensitive information, and death threats. dhColombia made a request on October 4 for protection measures from the National Protection Unit (UNP); to our knowledge, they have not received a response.
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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Colombia 12/22/2019
December 22, 2019
We are shocked at three assassinations that occurred during the national strike that started on November 21. December 2 - Two unidentified attackers killed Manuel Santos Yatacue as he walked with his partner near the Elvira reincorporation zone in Buenos Aires in Cauca Department. Elvira is one of 24 areas where former members of FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) are based as they transition to civil society under the terms of the 2016 peace agreement. Manuel Santos Yatacue was a member of one of the local collectives establishing coffee production. Illegal armed groups, opposed to the peace process, are still vying for control over the illegal gold mining activities that continue there.
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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Mexico, 12/1/2019
December 1, 2019

December 1, 2019

Dear Governor Astudillo Flores:

We are shocked at the discovery of the body of indigenous community leader Arnulfo Cerón Soriano on November 20, under several tons of soil in a clandestine grave in the "El Aguaje" colony in Tlapa, Guerrero.

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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Colombia, 11/26/2019
November 26, 2019

November 26, 2019

Dear Sirs:

We are deeply disturbed by the killing of 18-year-old Dilan Cruz, who joined a demonstration in Bogotá on November 23, which was part of the nationwide strike that began on November 21. After suffering injuries from being struck on the head by a police tear gas canister, he died on November 25, on the day of his anticipated high school graduation.

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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Colombia 11/15/2019
November 15, 2019
Please find attached our letter (November 15, 2019) that we sent to officials in Colombia about the burning of the boat and outboard motor belonging to journalist David Torres in Simití in Bolivar Department on November 6.
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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Honduras 11/14/19
November 14, 2019
Please see the attached letter (November 14, 2019) we sent to officials in Honduras regarding the assassination of journalist Buenaventura Calderón, killed by armed gunmen in front of his house on November 1. His wife was also killed in the attack.
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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Colombia 11/13/2019
November 13, 2019

Excmo. Sr. Presidente Iván Duque Márquez
President of the Republic of Colombia

Sr. Fiscal General Fabio Espitia Garzón
Attorney General of Colombia

November 13, 2019

Dear Sirs:

We are shocked at the violent attacks on several indigenous people in less than a week in the Nasa Tacueyo reservation in Corinto, Cauca Department. Twelve were murdered, an assassination attempt on another, and others injured.

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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Honduras, 11/12/2019
November 12, 2019
We are horrified at the kidnapping and torture in Tegucigalpa of professor and union leader Jaime Atilio Rodríguez. On October 28 Mr. Rodríguez was on his way to the bus in Tegucigalpa when he was taken in a vehicle, blindfolded, tortured, stabbed in the throat and left for dead after being dumped near the Choluteca River. Fortunately, on October 29, he was able to make a phone call which resulted in his rescue and hospital treatment. His vocal cords may be permanently damaged.
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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Mexico, 11/11/2019
November 11, 2019
We are very concerned about the disappearance of indigenous community leader Arnulfo Cerón Soriano. He was last seen by his wife at 7:45pm on October 11 when he left home to give a lecture in Tlapa de Comonfort, Guerrero. At about 12pm the next day, his vehicle, with the keys still in place, was found abandoned in the residential area of Magisterio. His whereabouts remain unknown.
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