San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
December 12, 2025

Press Release No. 11

Antonio González Méndez Case before the IACHR: One Year After the Historic Ruling
Neither the investigations nor the search efforts have been diligent or effective

The enforcement of the ruling has not been properly prioritized by the Mexican State.

On December 12, 2024, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) notified its ruling condemning the Mexican State for the forced disappearance of Antonio González Méndez, an EZLN Support Base, who was disappeared on January 18, 1999, in the municipality of Sabanilla, Chiapas, by members of the paramilitary group “Organization for Development, Peace, and Justice” in the context of the counterinsurgency violence triggered by the implementation of the Chiapas Campaign Plan 94.

The ruling reaffirmed that forced disappearances committed within the context of the Internal Armed Conflict, which began on January 1, 1994, are not subject to statute of limitations and obliges the Mexican State to be held accountable. This represents a historic precedent for other victims of severe human rights violations.

As the 27th anniversary of his disappearance approaches, the Mexican State continues with mere administrative procedures, superficial efforts aimed at conducting an unfruitful investigation. Both the search and the investigations have not been diligent or effective in locating Antonio González Méndez. What the State Prosecutor’s Office considers the hypothesis of his disappearance at the hands of a paramilitary group reveals a case that remains unresolved. The IACHR ruling, which takes this hypothesis as a fact and holds the Mexican State responsible for supporting paramilitary groups in the region, continues to be disregarded, raising doubts about the seriousness of the State’s commitment. It is essential to fully clarify what happened and to identify, prosecute, and, if applicable, sanction all intellectual and material authors of this crime against humanity.

The obligation of the Mexican government must not be reduced to symbolic actions or mere paperwork; the investigation should include clear lines of action to identify those responsible, both material and intellectual, and prosecute them in accordance with human rights standards.

The persistent impunity and partial non-compliance with the IACHR ruling highlight the enormous challenges in translating an international ruling into real and tangible changes. The central issue remains the location of Antonio González Méndez and the carrying out of a professional, scientific, and independent investigation that guarantees justice and truth. This case not only reflects the pending debt to his family but also starkly exposes the structural crisis of human rights, justice, and impunity that Mexico is facing.

The Mexican State is obligated to implement the structural reforms ordered by the IACHR: a national and up-to-date registry of missing persons, effective prevention programs, specialized training to investigate state crimes, and public policies that recognize the collective rights of indigenous peoples through a comprehensive human rights approach. It is not just about complying with a ruling, but about transforming institutions so that these violations are never repeated.

At Frayba, alongside the family of Antonio González Méndez, we will continue to insist that justice be fully served. We will persist in the search for the truth and the demand for justice, because only in this way can we honor Antonio’s memory and pave the way for a Mexico where impunity is the exception, not the rule. This struggle is also the struggle for all the disappeared persons and for the dignity of the peoples who demand truth, justice, and non-repetition.

On December 8, 2024, a new government for Chiapas took office and announced the implementation of a “new” security strategy in response to the violence stemming from territorial and social disputes among organized crime groups. With a major communication campaign and under the narrative of a “recovered peace,” it has promoted in 2025 a partial decrease in some crime indicators and has deployed various security operations. From the Border Region Working Group, we ask ourselves whether the security strategy implemented by the government of the state of Chiapas seeks peace or pacification. Rather than achieving peace, pacification seeks to impose social control through the use of force. In the Sierra–Border Region of Chiapas, along the border with Guatemala, this strategy has not succeeded in curbing the violence crisis. On the contrary, throughout this year the situation is different: an increase in cases of families in forced displacement — both internal and toward the neighboring country — and in forced disappearances. These acts of violence, along with ongoing territorial disputes and the active presence of armed groups, reveal a far more complex panorama than that portrayed in official statements.

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WE CONDEMN THE CRIMINAL TERROR AGAINST THE PEOPLES AND COMMUNITIES OF THE COAST–SIERRA OF MICHOACÁN; WE DEMAND TRUE PEACE AND JUSTICE, NOT EMPTY WORDS

TO THE PEOPLES OF MEXICO AND THE WORLD,
TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA,
TO HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE ORGANIZATIONS.

In light of the terrorist attack carried out by organized crime at midday on December 6 against the headquarters of the Community Police of the municipality of Coahuayana, the community of Santa María Ostula firmly condemns this brutal crime, whose purpose is to generate terror among the population and to undermine the community security system established by the peoples of Coahuayana.

So far, 5 people have been confirmed dead and around twenty injured. None of them—nor anyone—deserves to be a victim of criminal groups such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which for five years has been attacking our communities in an attempt to displace our populations, as has happened in so many parts of this suffering country, and to seize our territories.

We want to make clear that we will remain united and organized to fully guarantee the safety of the inhabitants of our communities and of the general population, as well as to demand that all levels of government effectively commit themselves to combating crime.

In these very difficult moments, we extend our solidarity and full support to the Community Police of Coahuayana, headed by Commander Héctor Navarrete.

We recognize the enormous work and effort that this community security body has carried out since 2013 to put an end to delinquency and to the criminal groups that have ravaged the Coast–Sierra for more than a decade.

We also offer a fraternal and supportive embrace to the inhabitants of Coahuayana in the face of these painful events.

We demand that the state and federal governments genuinely work to dismantle the CJNG and any other criminal organization, since their purely demagogic speeches—proclaiming the rights of Indigenous peoples while criminals massacre and murder us with total impunity—lay bare the lack of will, if not outright collusion, of government institutions with criminal cartels.

Recently, the federal government announced the Michoacán Plan for Peace and Justice, with a budget of more than 50 billion pesos; but neither with this plan nor with previous ones are peace and justice being built.

On the contrary, with the Michoacán Plan, the federal armed forces have occupied the territories of our peoples and, specifically, the Mexican Navy and the National Guard have intentionally impeded the free functioning of our community police forces and communal guards, seriously undermining our self-defense capacities, with consequences as tragic as those of this December 6.

The solution is not to militarize the region, the state, or the country, nor to criminalize our community police; the solution is to dismantle these criminal organizations from their foundations and in all the places where they operate, as well as the terrifying complicity of institutions and corrupt officials with organized crime. The solution lies in RESPECT BY GOVERNMENTS FOR THE SECURITY STRUCTURES THAT ARISE FROM OUR MUNICIPALITIES AND COMMUNITIES, SUCH AS COMMUNITY POLICE FORCES AND COMMUNAL GUARDS. The solution lies in respecting the self-determination and rights of communities; the solution lies in building projects of life, not of death.

In line with the above, WE DEMAND OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND THE GOVERNMENT OF THE STATE OF MICHOACÁN:

1. THE PUNISHMENT OF THE MATERIAL AND INTELLECTUAL PERPETRATORS OF THE TERRORIST ACT OF DECEMBER 6 IN COAHUAYANA.
2. REAL AND LASTING ACTIONS FOR THE DISMANTLING OF THE CJNG AND ALL CRIMINAL CARTELS.
3. AN END TO THE COMPLICITY BETWEEN CRIMINALS AND GOVERNMENTS.
4. EFFECTIVE RESPECT—NOT ONLY IN SPEECHES—FOR THE RIGHTS OF OUR PEOPLES AND COMMUNITIES.
5. THE FULL GRANTING OF GUARANTEES FOR THE FUNCTIONING OF OUR COMMUNITY POLICE AND COMMUNAL GUARDS.

Never again a Mexico without us!

Nahua community of Santa María Ostula

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
December 3, 2025

Bulletin No. 10

Osmán Iván: victim of torture, arbitrary detention, and institutional racism

• 15 years of injustice—freedom cannot wait.

Osmán Iván Rubio Bonilla, a Honduran citizen unjustly accused in three case files by the Chiapas State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) and a survivor of torture, was acquitted of homicide on November 4, 2025, after 14 years and 6 months of tireless resistance. However, he remains deprived of his liberty at the State Center for Social Reintegration No. 7 (CERSS) in Tapachula. The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) call on the Judicial Branch of Chiapas to reverse the systematic violations of his human rights and order his immediate release.

Osmán Iván was detained on May 2, 2011, in Huixtla, Chiapas, during an operation carried out by the Municipal Police, the State Preventive Police (PEP), and the State Border Police (PEF), without an arrest warrant and under circumstances that constitute arbitrary detention and torture.

According to his testimony, during the arrest he was blindfolded, bound, beaten, asphyxiated with water, subjected to electric shocks, sensory deprivation, and physical and psychological abuse, until he was forced to incriminate himself in various crimes. These assaults were documented by the State Human Rights Commission (CEDH), which recorded injuries consistent with torture and issued Recommendation 013/2020-R in 2020, rejected by the FGE and the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSyPC).

The three criminal proceedings against him stem from statements obtained under coercion:

1. Attempted Illegal Deprivation of Liberty and Organized Crime (criminal case 177/2023): has remained in the evidentiary stage for over 13 years, without the Criminal Court of the Tapachula Judicial District issuing a ruling.
2. Aggravated Homicide (criminal case 423/2023): a sentence was issued in 2023 based on ministerial confessions and testimonies that did not identify him; overturned in 2024 to investigate the reported torture. On November 4, 2025, he was finally acquitted.
3. Carrying a firearm without a license: a federal case in which he was acquitted in 2014.

Frayba’s documentation reveals systematic irregularities: fabrication of evidence, contradictions in police reports, manipulated expert examinations, and prosecutorial actions that ignored early reports of torture. The CEDH confirmed that the arrest did not occur at the location of the alleged kidnapping and that there was no direct identification by the complainant, ruling out the flagrancy invoked by authorities.

After nearly 15 years in prison, Osmán Iván faces a process marked by violations of due process, racism, lack of consular assistance, absence of effective investigation, and unjustified delays that keep him in prolonged pretrial detention, contrary to international standards. In the face of impunity sustained by the Mexican State, Frayba and OMCT filed a complaint in August 2024 before the UN Human Rights Committee, registered in April 2025 under number 4740/2025, still pending resolution.

Frayba and OMCT urgently call on state and federal authorities to ensure a thorough and impartial investigation into the reported torture. In addition, we demand guarantees for access to justice and reparation for the violations committed against Osmán Iván Rubio Bonilla, beginning with his unconditional release.

The case of Osmán Iván Rubio Bonilla is a symbol of institutional violence and racism that permeates the justice system in Mexico. His freedom is not a concession—it is a right taken from him through torture and arbitrariness. Every day he remains imprisoned prolongs injustice and impunity.

We demand his immediate and unconditional release. The dignity of Osmán Iván, and of all survivors of torture and arbitrary detention, cannot be kept waiting any longer.

Presented on Saturday, November 29 to the community of Eloxochitlán in Spanish and Enna (the Mazatec language). The report is the result of the Observation Mission carried out in July of this year by an interdisciplinary group.

It concludes that the community is the victim of crimes against humanity which, being systematic and prolonged for a decade, constitute a case of ethnocide aimed at destroying the forms of organization and life of this Mazatec community. The ethnocide of the community of Eloxochitlán seeks to undermine community resistance to extractivist activities that have caused the ecocide of the Xangá Ndá Ge River and the destruction of the community’s right to self-determination:

– In this regard, arbitrary detentions, prolonged pre-trial imprisonment, political criminalization, forced displacement and ethnocide, as well as gender-based violence, were detected.

– Regarding the plundering of the Xangá Ndá Ge River, hydrological alterations, contaminating agents, and desiccation were identified, in addition to damage to flora and fauna.

This compilation of documentation seeks to be taken to international bodies, as it argues that there are no legal conditions in place to guarantee the protection of the community’s rights. Acts of aggression, political persecution and criminalization have resulted in 50 direct victims and at least 500 indirect ones.

The documentation collected identifies governors, agency heads, and magistrates as responsible actors, who—with the backing and complicity of the State—have contributed to the denial of justice, persecution, and fabrication of case files.

Likewise, it states that the Huautla Court bears the greatest responsibility by allowing omissions and practices that favor local strongmen, as it has rejected acts of torture substantiated under the Istanbul Protocol, obstructed legal processes, criminalized community authorities, carried out arbitrary detentions, and manipulated testimonies.

Through a timeline of events, the report describes the process of aggression the Mazatec community has endured, including military intervention, intimidation, torture, dispossession, home raids, threats, and abuses of authority. Many of these forms of violence predate 2014, as multiple formal complaints had been filed since 2011, none of which advanced due to omissions by the Huautla court.

In recent weeks, Oaxaca governor Salomón Jara has labeled Eloxochitlán a “red zone,” attempting to portray it as a violent community—a smear strategy taking advantage of his authority and media reach to support the strongman Manuel Cepeda in the municipal elections of November 23, where he received the second-highest number of votes.

The presentation also served as a space for community reflection, where a message was directed at those who continue to push the narrative of “a conflict between two families,” a simplification of the severe attacks carried out in complicity with the three levels of government. They responded that Eloxochitlán is made up of many families with different surnames, a small town where it is common to share last names.

Many women, as shown in the Radio Zapote broadcast that day, stated their last names. Those who spoke were mothers, wives, and sisters of former political prisoners and persecuted individuals since 2014, who had to leave their homes to dedicate themselves to the struggle for their relatives’ freedom—working the land those relatives once worked to feed their children, sleeping on the streets during sit-ins such as the one maintained for over two years outside the Supreme Court of Justice in Mexico City, while waiting for the justices to take up the case.

The report concludes that, given the incompetence of the Mexican justice system in guaranteeing minimum conditions of safety, justice, and respect for the human rights of the persecuted community of Eloxochitlán, the case must be brought before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and calls for precautionary measures for all persons at risk, as well as specific protective measures for indirect victims.

The preparation of this report marks an important precedent in the forms of resistance against State injustices and violations toward Indigenous peoples. The Mazatec women comrades are an example of how to confront impunity and criminalization; their struggle for freedom has been arduous and is not yet over.

As they have done in recent years, the Mazatec women for freedom again extend their invitation to the “Internationalist Faena to End Criminalization,” which will take place from December 3 to 4, 2025, in Mexico City in front of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, and on December 3, 4, and 5 outside UN Women at Calzada General Mariano Escobedo 526, Anzures neighborhood, Miguel Hidalgo.

Texto y fotos: Javier Bedía Prado | Avispa Midia

Desde hace más de treinta años, Marly Anzualdo busca a su hermano Kenneth, desaparecido en el Cuartel General del Ejército del Perú. Los responsables hoy tienen a su favor una ley de amnistía que podría anular los procesos y sentencias por violaciones a derechos humanos en el período de violencia política ocurrida entre los años de 1980 al 2000.

Contra la impunidad y el olvido, cada jueves en el centro de Lima, las familias de personas desaparecidas durante el conflicto armado interno y de víctimas de represión estatal en democracia se reúnen frente a la sede principal del Poder Judicial. Un ejercicio de memoria desde un presente bajo terrorismo de Estado.

“Quien busca, encuentra. Ninguna persona desaparece, son desaparecidas, y cuando lo hace el Estado, sabemos quiénes tienen que darnos una respuesta. No importa cuánto tiempo pase. Queremos justicia, no puede haber paz sin justicia”, expresó para Avispa Mídia, Marly Anzualdo.

El 16 de diciembre de 1993, Kenneth Anzualdo Castro, estudiante de economía de la Universidad Nacional del Callao, fue secuestrado en Lima por agentes del Servicio de Inteligencia de la Marina, cuando se movilizaba en un bus, en represalia por denunciar la desaparición de un compañero. 

La guerra subversiva-contrasubversiva causó 69,000 muertes, de acuerdo al informe de la Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación, la mayoría de población civil quechuahablante de los Andes peruanos, víctima de la violencia extrema de Sendero Luminoso y el Estado. En el conflicto también actuó el Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru (MRTA).

De las más de 22,000 personas cuyo paradero se desconoce, solo se ha finalizado la búsqueda de 2,582, según el Registro Nacional de Personas Desaparecidas y Sitios de Entierro (Renade). 

Sin embargo, en mayo de este año la Dirección de Búsqueda de Desaparecidos fijó un plazo de 18 meses de investigación en casos de desaparición forzada, lo que contradice la ley que obliga a las entidades públicas a realizar pesquisas de forma permanente, hasta hallar a la persona o sus restos. 

La Ley de Amnistía para integrantes de las Fuerzas Armadas, Policía Nacional, comités de autodefensa y funcionarios del Estado fue decretada por el Congreso en junio, con el apoyo de partidos de ultraderecha y conservadores, vinculados a las instituciones armadas y partícipes de la represión.

El dictamen elimina la responsabilidad penal para los sentenciados y procesados mayores de 80 años. Las fuerzas del orden perpetraron masacres de comunidades campesinas e indígenas, ejecuciones extrajudiciales, violaciones, torturas y desapariciones de menores de edad, ancianos, sindicalistas, militantes de izquierda, autoridades políticas y estudiantes universitarios.

Hay 156 sentencias y más de 600 procesos en curso que, en el papel, pueden eliminarse, pero en los juzgados peruanos no se está aceptando aplicar la ley que contravienen la jurisprudencia internacional.

“Matan a nuestros hijos y nos llaman terroristas”

Tras el retorno de la democracia, entre los años 2002 y 2019, se registraron alrededor de 300 muertes en conflictos sociales. En su mayoría de manifestantes y defensores de territorios asediados por extractivismos, indican los datos de la Defensoría del Pueblo y la Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos.  

November 26, 2025

We denounce with indignation, rage, and deep concern the murder of our comrade Marcos Aguilar Rojas, agrarian representative of the community of San Lorenzo de Azqueltán, as well as the gunshot wounds inflicted on his brother Gabriel Aguilar Rojas, delegate of the National Indigenous Congress.

The attack was carried out on November 26, 2025, by the assailants Esteban Aguilar Herrera, Manuel Aguilar Herrera, José Aguilar Herrera, Victor Hugo Pérez, Favio Flores Sánchez, and Abraham Pérez, all of whom are linked to the local caciques–or political bosses–and small landowners of the municipality of Villa Guerrero, Jalisco. They fled in a gray car toward either Villa Guerrero or Mezquitic.

The cowardly attack occurred on the communal land of El Caracol, a territory that the Azqueltán community has collectively defended against previous attempts at dispossession by these same individuals, who have acted under the protection of the systematic impunity granted to them by the Jalisco State Judiciary and Prosecutor’s Office. These institutions have repeatedly protected those who violate, threaten, and attack the Indigenous community, deepening the violence through their omission, silence, and complicity.

We hold the federal government responsible for denying agrarian recognition to the Indigenous community of Azqueltán; the government of the state of Jalisco for the impunity it guarantees to the criminals who have historically attacked the community; and we hold directly responsible the murderers Manuel and Esteban Aguilar Herrera and Victor Hugo Pérez, whose acts form part of a permanent strategy of dispossession and aggression against native peoples.

Today, as the National Indigenous Congress, we declare loud and clear: the violence against Azqueltán is not an isolated incident, but part of a national pattern in which power—whether governmental, economic, or criminal—attacks Indigenous communities when they defend their territory and their lives. We will not accept that the murder of our comrade goes unpunished, nor will we allow the dignity of Azqueltán to be trampled upon by the interests of local bosses, corporations, governments, or organized crime.

We demand full justice, immediate punishment for those materially and intellectually responsible, and a real guarantee of security for the community of San Lorenzo de Azqueltán.

From the rage and pain that we make our own, we embrace the community and its family.

Never again a Mexico without us!

National Indigenous Congress

Texto y fotos: Rocío Heredia | Avispa Midia

En conmemoración por el Día Internacional de la Eliminación de la Violencia contra las Mujeres, defensoras, periodistas, profesoras, estudiantes, activistas y mujeres diversas se dieron cita la tarde del miércoles (25) en la Antimonumenta -ubicada a un costado de la Fuente de las 8 Regiones- para exigir justicia frente a la violencia de género en Oaxaca.

Minutos antes de las 5pm, un contingente integrado por mujeres de todas las edades avanzó sobre la Calzada Porfirio Díaz con dirección al parque El Llano. Con megáfonos, bocinas, micrófonos y sobre todo sus potentes voces coreando consignas y cantos anti-patriarcales, explayaron una particular algarabía que al unísono exigía una cosa: alto a la violencia contra las mujeres en Oaxaca.

En el mítin, protagonizado por diversas voces a lo largo de la manifestación, prevaleció un señalamiento: “van tres años de terror y violencia del gobierno jarista”, haciendo referencia a la gestión del gobernador de Oaxaca, Salomón Jara Cruz.

Algunas organizaciones feministas en Oaxaca se han dado a la tarea de llevar un conteo de feminicidios en el estado. En el sexenio de Alejandro Murat contabilizaron 715 feminicidios, mientras que del 1 de diciembre del 2022 a la fecha, periodo correspondiente a lo que va de la gestión de Salomón Jara, se han registrado 285 muertes violentas de mujeres: 81 oaxaqueñas asesinadas en lo que va de este año 2025.

El pasado 5 de septiembre del 2023, con absurdo uso de la fuerza, el gobierno de la Ciudad de México reprimió a quienes, de manera solidaria, se hicieron presentes en la alcaldía de Xochimilco en apoyo a la compañera Hortensia Telésforo, criminalizada por participar en la recuperación de la biblioteca comunitaria de San Gregorio Atlapulco, hoy convertida en Tlamachtiloyan (Casa del pueblo). Un grupo de choque con palos, armas punzocortantes y de fuego, agredieron indiscriminadamente a quienes asistieron a la manifestación, 5 compañeras y compañeros fueron desaparecidos por horas y posteriormente presentados en el Ministerio Público para fabricarles delitos, más tarde la represión se agravó en las instalaciones de la fiscalía de Tlalpan donde fueron golpeados brutalmente más de una veintena de personas.

Esta violencia es la verdadera cara de este gobierno.

Desde entonces no han cesado las amenazas y el asedio a nuestras y nuestros compañeros, ensañándose particularmente con nuestro hermano Max Emiliano Negrete, quien ha demostrado ser congruente con sus principios en defensa de su pueblo y por ello ha sido amenazado de muerte en reiteradas ocasiones a través de perfiles falsos en redes sociales.

Si fueron capaces de repetir uno de los momentos más lamentables de la historia de México: el halconazo, sabemos que son capaces de cualquier cosa, el uso de grupos de choque por parte de la Alcaldía de Xochimilco es una práctica criminal recurrente que debe parar.

Ante las reiteradas y cobardes amenazas a en contra de Max Emiliano Negrete, integrante de la Asamblea General Permanente del pueblo de San Gregorio Atlapulco, comunicador comunitario y defensor del agua, la vida y la autonomía, como Asamblea Nacional por el Agua, la Vida y el Territorio hacemos directamente responsables a los tres niveles de gobierno, particularmente al gobierno de la Ciudad de México de cualquier altercado a la integridad de nuestro compañero.

Son ya responsables de mantenerlo en un estado de alerta por las amenazas.

Como Asamblea respaldamos su labor en defensa de la vida y la autonomía y hacemos saber a los malos gobiernos que:

MAX EMILIANO NEGRETE NO ESTÁ SOLO

ATENTAMENTE

TIERRA, AGUA Y LIBERTAD

HASTA QUE LA DIGNIDAD SE HAGA COSTUMBRE

EL AGUA ES EL COMÚN DE LOS PUEBLOS

ASAMBLEA NACIONAL POR EL AGUA, LA VIDA Y EL TERRITORIO

Foto de portada: Cuartoscuro

Mientras la COP30 promete soluciones climáticas, mujeres indígenas de Brasil denuncian la cumbre como una farsa que excluye sus voces y encubre la violencia y el despojo en sus territorios. Su lucha por la demarcación “ahora” se revela como la verdadera clave para la justicia climática.