Rapid Response Network

We wrote to officials in Mexico about the disappearance, torture, and assassination of Noé Jiménez Pablo and José Santiago Gómez Álvarez, members of the Independent Regional Campesino Movement (MOCRI) in Amatán, Chiapas State. They disappeared on January 17 when a group of unidentified armed men attacked MOCRI demonstrators who, since November 2018, had been protesting the failure of authorities to guarantee the basic needs of their community. On January 18, the bodies of the two victims, showing signs of torture, were found in a garbage dump near Amatán.

We are asking the heads of DHS and ICE why Camila Díaz Córdova, a transgender woman who sought political asylum in the US, was deported last year. That deportation placed her in extreme danger. High rates of violence—including murders and assassinations—against members of the LGBTQ community in El Salvador are well documented. She was attacked January 31 and died Feb 3 due to multiple injuries.

We urge an investigation into the killing of the third FENSUAGRO member in Cauca in just two months: Dilio Corpus Guetio, age 44, died after being shot repeatedly while riding his bike to work on the morning of January 29.

the increasing number of assassinations of social leaders that have occurred in the past month. In addition to the six assassinated social leaders about whom we wrote in our letter of January 12, we write you once again—saddened and outraged—about six more who have been killed, two as recently as today.

the murder of human rights defender Sinar Corzo Esquinca inArriaga, Chiapas. At 9:45pm on January 3, he died instantly close to his home when unidentified men on a motorcycle shot him in the head at close range.

Armed attack on human rights defender Alfamir Castillo Bermúdez near Pradera Municipality in Valle del Cauca Department.

Raid on December 21 of independent television news channel 100% Noticias in Managua and the arrest of two of its journalists: Miguel Mora Barberena, the station’s owner and director, and Lucía Pineda Ubau, the station’s news director. The channel has been banned from broadcasting.

Assassinations of six social leaders that have occurred during the first week of 2019.

Recent attack on indigenous leader Alejandro Pascal Pai and his wife. Alejandro Pascal Pai was recently elected Awá governor of the Pingullo Sardinero community in Barbacoas municipality, Nariño Department.

Ongoing criminalization and judicial harassment of Juana Carranza, a member of the Reyes Rodríguez Arévalo Campesina Cooperative, which is affiliated with the Yoro regional branch of the National Field Workers Office (CNTC) in El Progreso, Yoro Department.