Press Release
On January 16th, Peace Brigades International, an international non-governmental organization recognized by the United Nations (UN) and with more than 11 years of permanent presence in the state of Guerrero met with Guerrero state governor Angel Aguirre Rivero. Said meeting was held as part of the regular contact PBI sustains with federal, state and local authorities through the organization's mandate, which is the protection, through international accompaniment, of the political space of people and organizations who suffer risk and/or threats because of their non-violent work in favor of human rights and social justice.
PBI maintained a dialog about the following points with Governor Aguirre:
a) the necessity for public recognition of the importance of the work of the people and organizations that defend and promote human rights in the state of Guerrero.
b) the implementation, in accordance with the responsibility of the state government, of the sentences emitted by the Inter-American Cort on Human Rights in favor of the Radilla family, and in the cases of Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantú, and that these sentences be implemented in collaboration with the victims. Emphasis was placed on the participation of high level state and federal government officials in the victim's presence in symbolic moments of sentence implementation.
c) compliance with provisional measures granted by the Inter-American Cort on Human Rights to 107 human rights defenders from the state of Guerrero
d) the necessity for due protection and the guarantee of access to justice for the members of the Me'phaa Indigenous People's Organization (OPIM) in order to end aggressions against them and insure proper investigations
Other topics were the lack of security conditions which difficult the work of the Organization of Women Ecologists of the Mountain of Petatlán (OMESP), located in the Costa Grande region of Guerrero; the risk situation of human rights defenders in the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres and the results of the recent report presented by the Civil Monitor of the Police and Armed Forces of the Mountain Region of Guerrero (Mocipol), From the citizen viewpoint (Desde la mirada ciudadana), regarding human rights violations by security forces in the Mountain region of Guerrero and about the importance of these sorts of citizen initiatives.
Finally, PBI expressed the preoccupation and the international repercussion of the events of December 12, 2011 in relation to students of the Rural School of Ayotzinapa.
As a result of this meeting, the state governor agreed to maintain regular contact with PBI in order to monitor the agreements and preoccupations of PBI in the area of human rights in the state of Guerrero.
Please contact the Mexico City Office for further information.
PBI Mexico | Mexico City Office
Medellin 33 | Colonia Roma | 06700 México DF
Tel / Fax: 01 55 55 14 28 55
pbidf(at)pbi-mexico.org | www.pbi-mexico.org
PBI Mexico | International Office
56-64 Leonard Street | London, EC2A 4LT
UK | Tel: +44 (0)20 7065 0775
coordinacion.pbi-mexico.org | www.pbi-mexico.org