Rapid Response Network

assassination of Javier Vásquez Benítez, son of an indigenous leader whose community is organizing resistance to the Los Encinos Dam in La Paz Department.

death threats to Rafael Maldonado, Legal Director for the Guatemalan Centre for Environmental, Social and Legal Action (CALAS). This follows the escape from house arrest of a security director of Tahoe Resources’ open-pit silver mine El Escobal in Jalapa Department

threats to Catholic priest and migrant rights defender Fray Aurelio Montero Vásquez, who presented a legal complaint for the kidnapping and sexual violence of migrants in Tenosique, Tabasco State.

attempted assassinations of land rights defenders on the Atlantic coast: Vidal Leiva (President of the Committee for the Defense of Land of the [Afro-descendant] Garífuna communities Crystals and Black River), Irma Lemus and Rigoberto Duran (Permanent Observatory of Human Rights of Aguán (OPDHA).

death threats to Danelly Estupiñán (Process of Black Communities, PCN), and Rocío del Pilar Segura (community leader), organizing resistance to port expansion at Buenaventura sea port in Valle de Cauca Department.

assassination of Daniel Abril, member of the Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE), who had been vocal about human rights abuses committed by oil companies in Casanare Department. Also: death threats to María Cardona Mejía, technical secretary of the Caldas Department chapter of MOVICE.

death threats to and surveillance of Teresa Naves and Bertha de Leon, human rights lawyers for the Study Foundation for the Application of the Law (FESPAD) who are working on a criminal lawsuit against former President Francisco Guillermo Flores Pérez (1999-2004) for embezzlement.

shootings, murder and threats to indigenous human rights and campesino land rights defenders, members of the National Front for Socialism (FNLS) in Chiapas State and Mexico City and Campesino Organization Emiliano Zapata for the National Front for Socialism (OCEZ-FNLS). Shot: Matías Flores, Jesús Hernández Reyes, Rubicél Hernández García, Emilio Morales Díaz. Killed: Hector Sántiz López. This follows years of death threats by paramilitaries Los Petules, which has been blockading the OCEZ-NFLS communal land Ejido El Carrizal, in Chiapas.

unjust detention and false charges against National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) member Juan Carlos Orozco Matus, Othón Nazariega Segura, Efraín Picaso Pérez and Roberto Abel Jiménez García in Oaxaca.

death threats circulated by paramilitaries Black Eagles against human rights legal defense organizations Lawyers’ Collective José Alvear (CCAJAR) and the Yiri Castro legal firm; Diego Martínez, a member of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CPDH); Ruby Castaño of the Association for Solidarity in Help (ANDAS); and Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) members Adriana Cuellar, Ana Jimena Bautista, Claribeth Albor (MOVICE-Bogotá) and Blanca Díaz (MOVICE-Bogotá).