We denounce the increase in violence against members of Frayba
• Breaking and entering, death threats, defamation, and surveillance are the most frequent acts.
• We reaffirm our commitment to continue walking alongside the organized people who defend their human rights.
The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba) has been promoting and defending human rights in Chiapas for 35 years. In this journey to defend rights, it has documented and accompanied victims and survivors of serious human rights violations who seek access to justice in the face of impunity, mainly in the context of the Internal Armed Conflict that has not yet been resolved.
Since its inception, Frayba has been the object of constant surveillance, intimidation, harassment and threats from non-state agents linked to governments, state and federal authorities and the Mexican Army, as well as stigmatizing public statements by high-ranking officials, for carrying out the work of defending human rights, which has bothered the reports of the human rights violations they commit. The common denominator is the lack of investigation, identification and punishment of those responsible.
Since 2021, we have warned of the increase in violence and human rights violations in Chiapas.
Since January, we have registered four attacks, aggressions and delegitimization of our work at the National Palace, directly by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. This has unleashed a series of cascading acts of digital aggression to our institutional accounts.
In the months of July, August and September, we have documented death threats and recently the raid on the home of a member of Frayba as a means of intimidation and threats. Hostile comments, defamation and discrediting of our work continue to be a constant. Added to this is extortion, intimidation, surveillance and verbal aggression, and several of them come from actors linked to the municipal, state and federal governments.
Despite the fact that Frayba has Precautionary Measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Mexican State has not guaranteed the protection of the human rights defenders who make up Frayba. The State’s failure to conduct a serious and exhaustive investigation aimed at finding out the truth about the facts and the sources of risk that have been disclosed affects daily work and has a chilling effect on exercising the defense of the rights that are claimed in a fair manner before the authority that violates them, because it knows de facto that there is a pact of impunity.
Within the framework of the United Nations Declaration on the right and duty of individuals, groups and institutions to promote and protect universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms, it is essential to emphasize that every person has the right to promote and seek the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels. In addition, each State has the primary responsibility and duty to protect, promote and make effective all human rights and fundamental freedoms, therefore, the Mexican State has the obligation to guarantee and protect every person against all violence, threats, reprisals, discrimination, denial of fact or law, pressure or any other arbitrary action resulting from the legitimate exercise of the defense of human rights.
The above reflects the commitment of the international community to ensure that human rights are respected and protected in all circumstances, and that States play an active role in the promotion and protection of these rights.
It is clear that the Government does not fully comply with protection in Mexican territory. Today we are in the midst of a deep crisis of human rights and widespread and criminal violence that is occurring in all spheres of life. The government of the Fourth Transformation could not, cannot stop the maelstrom of violence. On the contrary, the risks are increasing and with it those who defend human rights, such as in Chiapas.
Despite the government’s ineptitude, we at Frayba reaffirm our commitment to continue walking alongside the organized people who defend their human rights with the same spirit of solidarity, hope and humanism that we learned from jTatik Samuel. We call on national and international civil society to speak out and add their voices to demand respect for the work of promoting and defending human rights in order to continue building peace. We stand in solidarity with the peoples, organizations and collectives that have been repressed and criminalized for defending their rights, their land and territory. We are convinced that the alternatives to continue weaving organization and community lie below and to the left.
Original article by Frayba, September 19th, 2024.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.