Mixteco human rights defender receives visits from UN representative and international partners including the RFK Center
(WASHINGTON, March 15, 2012) – Despite protective measures ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in 2009, after almost two months, Mixteco human rights defender Maximino García Catarino remains imprisoned in Ayutla de los Libres, Guerrero, Mexico.
Mr. Catarino’s imprisonment has already been denounced by notable figures including RFK Center President Kerry Kennedy, who met with Catarino and members of the Organization for the Future of the Mixtec People in August of 2011.
Mr. Catarino is one of the 107 human rights defenders in Guerrero who were issued provisional protective measures by the IACHR in 2009 upon a finding that these defenders were being targeted because of their human rights work.
On March 6, the Mexico Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Javier Hernández, met with Mr. Catarino in the Ayutla detention center. Two days earlier, a delegation representing Spain’s General Council of Attorneys (Fundación del Consejo General de la Abogacía Española) had also visited the Mixteco human rights defender.
“The purpose of the Inter-American Court’s protective orders is to ensure the most basic level of protection for persons that are protecting others’ human rights,” said RFK Center Advocacy Officer Salvador Sarmiento, who visited Mr. Catarino on March 4. “The ongoing imprisonment completely disregards those orders; it undermines efforts to secure human rights in the region.”
For over a decade, the Mixteco and Me’phaa in the coastal regions of Guerrero have faced threats and attacks for denouncing human rights abuses against their communities. In 2009, two Mixteco leaders from Mr. Catarino’s organization in Ayutla were disappeared and found dead eight days later with visible signs of torture.
Mr. Catarino was detained on January 21, 2012 by officers of the Ministerial Police in Mexico’s state of Guerrero. He is now the fourth human rights defender from the same organization that has been targeted with false charges, but over two dozen indigenous defenders have faced similar charges in recent years.