An Anonymous Note Left in the Offices of the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center Also Threatens International Human Rights Defenders Working in Mexico
February 1, 2000
On Monday, January 31, lawyers at the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center (PRODH) in Mexico City received an anonymous death threat.
This is not the first time that the human rights center, one of the most vocal defenders of human rights in Mexico, has been the target of intimidation. Last fall, the center, its employees and associates were subject to several death threats, most of them left in the center's locked offices. The intimidation reached a peak on October 28 when Digna Ochoa, the head of the center's legal section investigating military abuses in the state of Guerrero, was tied up in her home and interrogated by two masked men for nine hours.
In a deliberate attempt to escalate tension and isolate the PRODH from the international community, the threats have been extended for the first time to foreigners working in solidarity with the center. The center has worked very closely, and publicly, with international human rights and humanitarian groups, and has vigorously defended the rights of expelled human rights observers in Mexican courts.
Monday's threat, which was found in an envelope in a desk drawer in the center's legal section at about 2:00 p.m., contained two separate messages:
DEAR ALL, YOU'D STARTED BREATHING EASY BECAUSE
WE LET YOU REST?
WHAT FOLLOWS NEXT IS GOING TO BE THE FUN PART
DO YOU WANT TO SEE, SONS OF BITCHES, IF YOUR FOREIGN ACCOMPLICES
WISH TO CONTINUE THEIR SOLIDARITY
MAYBE THEY WILL, MAYBE THEY WON'T
LET'S SEE
NOW HERE COMES THE GOOD PART
NOT ONLY YOUR FUCKING LAWYERS
THE OTHERS TOO WILL FIND OUT
THAT THEY'RE NOT SO FUCKING MARVELOUS,
WE'LL SEE WHO CAN TAKE THE FUN
Please write your letters of protest to the list of Mexican government officials at the end of this email. We recommend that you include the following demands in the text:
- That the Mexican authorities guarantee the physical and psychological welfare of members of the Prodh and international human rights observers connected with the center;
- That the Mexican government use all legal methods at its disposal to make sure that the threats and intimidation against Prodh staff come to an immediate halt;
- That Mexican law enforcement agencies investigate the origin of the threats and punish those responsible according to Mexican law.
- That the Mexican government cease its campaign of obstruction, defamation, and arbitrary expulsion against international human rights observers in violation of the Mexican Constitution and international human rights law.
Please address your letters to:
Dr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León
Presidente de la República Mexicana
Palacio Nacional, Patio de Honor
1er. Piso Col. Centro, México, D.F. 06067.
Fax 55 15 57 29, 52 77 23 76
Lic. Diódoro Carrasco.
Secretario de Gobernación
Bucareli 99, 1er. Piso, Col. Juárez, México,
D.F., 06699.
Fax: 55 46 53 50.
Jorge Madrazo Cuellar.
Procurador General de la República
Paseo de la Reforma 65, Esq. Violeta,
Col. Guerrero, México, D.F., 06300. Fax: 56 26 44 19.
Dr. José Luis Soberanes
Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos
Periférico Sur 3469, 5º Piso, Col San Jerónimo Lídice.
México, D.F. 10200.
Fax: 56 81 71 99
Dr. Samuel del Villar K.
Procurador de Justicia del D.F.
Niños Héroes 61 3ºPiso, Col. Doctores,
México, D.F., 06720.
Fax: 56 25 70 81.