[PEN-L:2386] E;G.E.:Urgent Action-HR Worker Threatened, Jan 16 (fwd)

[D Shniad <shniad@xxxxxx>]

> Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 17:45:47 -0800
> From: Global Exchange <globalexch@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: hmcleave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Global Exch Urgent Action-Rocio Culebro Threatened
>
> January 16, 1996
>
> REQUEST FOR URGENT ACTION.
>
> ROCIO CULEBRO, TECHNICAL SECRETARY OF THE
> NATIONAL NETWORK OF CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS ON
> HUMAN RIGHTS, IS THREATENED.
>
> The afternoon of January 12, 1996, Rocio Culebro Bahena,
> Technical Secretary of the National Network of Civic
> Organizations on Human Rights Todos los Derechos para
> Todos or All Rights for Everyone, received a series of calls at
> her home.  When she answered the phone, no one responded
> from the other end.  Around 8pm she received a call from
> someone who didnUt identify himself, but who, with a
> threatening and intimidating voice, after giving her an exact
> description of her home and of the persons who were with her
> at the time, threatened to arrive at her house immediately to
> harm her.
>
> Global Exchange joins the coordinating team of  Todos los
> Derechos para Todos in adamantly repudiating this act, which
> is a culmination of a series of assaults against defenders of
> human rights in Mexico.
>
> We believe that this call is in response to the denunciations that
> Rocio, as the Technical Secretary of the Network, has recently
> made, demanding that those who were truly responsible for the
> massacre at Aguas Blancas in Guerrero last summer be identified
> and punished.  We also believe that the call to Rocio was meant
> to serve as an intimidation to impede the trip to the United
> States that she had planned for the next day to appear before the
> Interamerican Commission of Human Rights of the
> Organization of American States, where the NetworkUs Third
> Report on the Aguas Blancas case would be presented.
>
> We call on national and international civic organizations to
> denounce these acts which seek to inhibit the work that the
> Network has developed in favor of human rights, and to conceal
> the perpetrators of social and political violence that is suffered in
> this country.
>
> We demand that these offenses cease as well as the harrassement
> that defenders of human rights in Mexico are subject to.
>
> In particular, we demand a thorough investigation about the
> origin of the intimidation that our co-worker Rocio Culebro was
> subjected to and the proper punishment of those responsible.
>
> Please send letters to:
>
> Lic. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon
> Presidente de la Republica
> Fax # (from the U.S.):  011-525-271-1764
>
> Lic. Emilio Chuayffet Chemor
> Secretario de la Gobernacion
> (Minister of the Interior)
> Fax #: 011-525-546-5350 or 011-525-546-7380
>
> Lic. Jose Antonio Gonzalez Fernandez
> Procurador General de Justicia del Distrito Federal
> (Attorney General of the Federal District)
> Fax #: 011-525-625-8699
>
> Lic. Jorge Madrazo Cuellar
> Presidente de la Comision Nacional de Derechos Humanos
> (President of the National Human Rights Commission)
> Fax #: 011-525-681-7199
>
> We would also appreciate a courtesy copy to be sent to the
> Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Augustin Pro Juarez,
> A.C. (PRO DH),
> either by Fax: 011-52-208-7547 or by e-mail to:
> prodh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
> BACKGROUND:
>
> Immediately after the bloody incidents in Coyuca de Benitez on
> June 28, 1995, a day in which 17 campesinos were riddled with
> bullets at a river crossing in the community of Aguas Blancas,
> the network Todos los Derechos para Todos from the very
> beginning dedicated itself to the work of documenting this case
> by means of visits to the scene, taping of testimonies from the
> victims and interviews with different social actors and local
> authorities in Guerrero.  As a result of this labor, developed by
> different members of the Network, three reports have been
> presented to the public about what happened in Aguas Blancas
> and about the wave of violence and impunity that is experienced
> in that state.
>
> The Network Todos los Derechos para Todos has denounced
> by all available means the human rights violations which have
> occurred in this case, which impacted national and international
> public opinion and has emitted a series of demands and
> recommendations to break with the violence-impunity-more
> violence cycle that prevails in that state.
>
> In that process, the role played by Rocio Culebro, who has shown
> courage and firmess as wll as a great professionalism in her role
> as Technical Secretary, has been outstanding.
>
> Signed,
>
> The Coordinating Team of the National Network of Civil
> Organizations on Human Rights, Todos los Derechos para
> Todos
>
> Rafael Alvarez
> Centro de Derechos Humanos
> Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez
>
> Pablo Romo
> Centro de Derechos Humanos
> Fr. Bartolome de las Casas, Chiapas
>
> Emma Maza
> Centro Potosino de Derechos Humanos
>
> Consuelo Morales
> Ciudadanos en Apoyo a los Derechos Humanos
> Monterrey, Nuevo Leon
>
>
> GLOBAL EXCHANGE URGES YOU TO ACT ON THIS MATTER
> PROMPTLY.