Oaxaca occupies the first place of murdered activists in 2021

MEXICO, (January 6, 2022).- In 2021, seven activists were extrajudicially executed in Oaxaca, placing the entity as the one with the highest number of murdered defenders, according to a report published by the Cereso Committee.

The activists executed in the state were:

– Fidel Heras Cruz and Jaime Jiménez Ruiz from the Coordinator of Peoples in Defense of the Río Verde (Copudever)

– Federico de Jesús Gutiérrez, Oliverio Martínez Merino, Flor de Jesús Hernández and Marcelino Álvarez González, from the Triqui Unification and Struggle Movement

– Manuel Cartas Pérez, from the Popular Revolutionary Front (FPR).

Oaxaca is followed by Chiapas with five murdered activists, Sonora with four, Morelos and Guerrero with two cases each; in the rest of the documented states, there was one case per state.

INFORME: 25 personas defensoras de derechos humanos ejecutadas extrajudicialmente en el 2021
Para descargar el informe: https://t.co/GoESYhCaD4 pic.twitter.com/lXTLh88jqN

— Comité Cerezo México (@comitecerezo) January 4, 2022

Defenders were extrajudicially executed in 2021

In total, according to the report, 25 defenders were extrajudicially executed. These figures, the Cerezo Committee explains, correspond to cases that meet the elements of extrajudicial execution.

According to the committee, the authors were agents of the State “under the modality of commission or acquiescence”, for political reasons, as a form of punishment for the activity of defense or exercise of any human right that the human rights defenders were doing.

Of these states, Chiapas, Campeche, and Veracruz have a state government headed by Morena; in Oaxaca, Guerrero, Sonora, Hidalgo, and Colima the PRI governs; while in Jalisco the Citizen Movement governs and in Morelos, the Social Encounter Party.

Of those executed, 12 defended the right to territory, five defended human rights related to a dignified life, four of the victims defended rights related to the environment.

While there were two victims of extrajudicial execution who were dedicated to defending human rights and a case of a person who defended freedom of expression and labor rights.

Regarding the percentage of extrajudicial executions against human rights defenders by sex, women represent 12% with three victims, while the rest, 22 male victims, were 88% of the total victims.

In nine cases, 32%, it is known that the victims of extrajudicial execution were human rights defenders who belonged to an indigenous people; and in 68% they were mestizo (19 cases).

“It is important to say that in four cases we were unable to determine, based on the investigation, whether or not the victims belonged to an indigenous people,” said the human rights defense committee.

“It should be noted that the number of victims of extrajudicial execution belonging to an indigenous people has always represented a high percentage if viewed from a perspective proportional to the number of indigenous inhabitants with respect to the general population in Mexico,” the report states.

Source: Sipse