URGENT ACTION

Migrants’ rights defender threatened, at risk

Migrants’ rights defender, Fray Tomás González received a telephone threat on 9 September. It is believed he was threatened due to his work with migrants’ shelter La 72 and the Usumacinta Human Rights Centre.

At around 9:30am on 9 September, Fray Tomás González received a telephone call in his local parish in Tenosique, Mexico. The caller told Fray Tomás González that he was calling from the local prison and identified himself as the relative of an official at the National Migration Institute (Instituto Nacional de Migración, INM). The caller demanded to know why Fray Tomás González had caused so much harm to his relatives, because of a criminal complaint the Usumacinta Human Rights Centre (Centro de Derechos Humanos del Usumacinta, CDHU) had filed. The caller went on to threaten Fray Tomás González, saying “something is going to happen to you” (‘algo te va a pasar’) and then hung up.

The CDHU, which was founded by Fray Tomás González, has recently been campaigning for justice in cases of kidnapped migrants in Mexico and has also filed formal complaints against INM officials for alleged human rights abuses against migrants. The CDHU and the migrants’ shelter, run by Fray Tomás González, have also been playing an important role in assisting members of a displaced Guatemalan community who have sought refuge in Mexico.

Another activist working at the migrants’ shelter was unofficially advised to stop her work at the shelter after she was photographed recently participating in a meeting between the CDHU and the National Human Rights Commission on protection measures for human rights defenders. Amnesty International is concerned that previous protection measures agreed to by the authorities, including police patrols near the shelter, have not been implemented.

Please write immediately in Spanish, English or your own language:

• Express concern for the safety of Fray Tomás González, and other human rights defenders working at the migrants shelter La 72 in Tenosique and staff at the Usumacinta Human Right Centre;

• Call for protection measures, including police patrols, to be implemented immediately in strict accordance with the wishes of those at risk;

• Call on the authorities to fully and impartially investigate the threats and intimidation against Fray Tomás González and for those responsible to be brought to justice;

• Remind the authorities of their obligation to ensure that human rights defenders can carry out their legitimate work without fear of reprisal, as established in the 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 26 OCTOBER 2011 TO: