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IM-Defensoras
Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders
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WHRDs alerts from Mexico
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Feminicide in Chiapas of searching woman defender Yerli Yaritza, member of the Madres Buscadoras de Chiapas collective
Yerli Yaritza searched for her father, Hamilton Pérez Coutiño, who was disappeared on 17 April 2024
[WHRD Alert] TUNISIA / Government temporarily suspends activities of at least 14 human rights organizations and over 600 are under threat of suspension.
The Tunisian League of Human Rights (LTDH) denounced that the Tunisian government has temporarily suspended the activities of at least 14 human rights organizations and that over 600 national, regional, and international organizations working for human rights in the country are under threat of suspension.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Searching woman defender María de los Ángeles Valenzuela is disappeared after armed men deprived her of her liberty in Mazatlán, Sinaloa
María de los Ángeles Valenzuela is a member of the collective Corazones Unidos por una Misma Causa, AC.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Municipal police and public officials violently repress and harass members of the collective Madres en Resistencia Chiapas during a peaceful protest in Tuxtla Gutiérrez
The women defenders had held the protest for two days demanding a meeting with the State Public Prosecutor’s Office and denouncing its policy of lies and deception regarding its obligation to guarantee truth, justice and reparation for victims of murder, femicide and the disappearance of loved ones.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Threat to disappear Mary Haro, water defender in resistance against Sonora’s Water Plan
Mary Haro is a woman defender of territory and water who has emerged as a leading voice denouncing the environmental and social impacts of Sonora’s Water Plan, a project that includes the construction of three dams on the Sonora River.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Campeche state police brutally repress and detain women defenders protesting against appointment of public official accused of gender-based violence
The National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico and IM-Defensoras reject and condemn these intolerable acts perpetrated by the Campeche state police.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Disappearance and killing of woman defender Aida Karina Juárez, searching mother from Zacatecas.
Aida Karina was part of the searching collective “Following your traces with love” in Zacatecas. She searched for her 26 year-old daughter Goretty Guadalupe Juárez Jacobo, who is disappeared since June 2025.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Death threats, online violence and smear campaign against woman journalist Shalma Castillo in Tamaulipas
The National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico and IM-Defensoras denounce these events and demand that the responsible authorities guarantee the woman journalist’s security.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Public authorities in Zacatecas seek to discredit woman defender of territory Sandra Miranda through defamation and leaking personal information
These acts seek to criminalize the woman defender and damage her image and credibility with the community, with the goal of favoring the interests of the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) and imposing the Milpillas hydroelectric dam project.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Killing of trans defender Katia Daniela Medina Rafael in Ciudad Guzmán, Jalisco
Katia was the director of the Zapotlán Trans Collective and was a highly recognized defender of trans people’s rights in the Southern region of Jalisco.
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[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Raid conducted at home of director of Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) in Chiapas
This incident, which occurred just days after Dora Robledo was confirmed as the organization’s director, is the second raid suffered by a member of the organization in less than ten months.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Family Members Walking for Justice Collective denounce theft of suitcase containing items of a traveling exhibit dedicated to the memory of disappeared persons
We make a public call to the persons responsible for the theft, appealing to your humanity and empathy, to return the items stolen from the Family Members Walking for Justice collective.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Death threats, harassment and attacks against woman journalist María Luisa Estrada
We are concerned about the increasing and systematic nature of the attacks and harassment that place María Luisa Estrada’s life at risk.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Concern about escalation of violence against Cherán and other P’urhépecha communities in Michoacán state
We therefore call on the international community to denounce what has happened, to remain vigilant of the situation and to stand in solidarity with Cherán and other rural and indigenous communities in the state of Michoacán.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / No end to the harassment against Zapotec woman defender Silvia Pérez and members of CIARENA A.C.; organization’s office is once again raided in the state of Oaxaca
This is the second raid in the last few months, after the home of the organization’s director, Silvia Pérez Yescas, was raided on 27 February and a computer was taken.
[WHRD Alert] GLOBAL / Stop the repression and criminalization of solidarity and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people! Stop the genocide and the war!
We are witnessing not only the perpetration of genocide in plain sight and in real time, but the use of State force and institutions, and those of other de facto powers such as economic and media powers, to silence protests and support for the Palestinian people.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Harassment and criminalization of the Eloxochitlán Mazatec community, defender of the Xangá Ndá Ge river in Oaxaca
There are 200 arrest warrants against members of the Mazatec community of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón in Oaxaca, including 8 women defenders who face five charges each.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Raid at offices of feminist organization Equis - Justice for Women and theft of computer equipment with sensitive information
This attack is a serious violation of the significant and widely recognized work carried out by EQUIS - Justice for Women in defense of women’s rights and access to justice.
[WHRD Alert] UNITED STATES / Stop the persecution, police repression and racist and classist criminalization of migrants, the Latino community and those who fight for their rights!
We demand an immediate end to the militarization and repression in Los Angeles and in all other cities in the country, and the release of all detainees and guarantees that they will not be criminalized.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Chiapas state penitenciary authority discredits and defames Cereza Collective and its coordinator, who may be prosecuted
The Cereza Collective is a leading organization for women prisoners, providing legal and psychological accompaniment in addition to carrying out other actions to improve the conditions in which they are incarcerated.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Queretaro state police arbitarily detain and physically and sexually assault Otomí Indigenous woman defender Estela Hernández
Estela Hernández is a renowned woman defender of territory, water and the language and culture of Indigenous Peoples in Mexico, particularly the Otomí Peoples.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Karina Ruíz, woman defender of right to water in Jalisco, is disappeared and killed
Karina was part of the organization La Cima Nuestra Prioridad and she defended the right to water in the La Cima subdivision in El Arenal, where she lived.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Ayuujk woman defender Sandra Domínguez, disappeared since October 2024, is murdered dead in Veracruz
Sandra was a woman lawyer and tireless defender of the rights of Ayuujk communities and women in Oaxaca.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Triqui woman defender Emelia Ortiz García has her home raided and belongings stolen, and faces constant persecution and harassment.
The National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico and IM-Defensoras demand urgent guarantees of protection for Emelia Ortiz García, a diligent investigation of the facts and an end to the impunity with which her assailants operate.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / After murder of Teresa González in Jalisco, concern grows over risk faced by searching women defenders and their collectives
The murder of Teresa González brings to 15 the number of women defenders of the right to truth, justice and reparation murdered in different states of the Mexican Republic since 2019.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Zapotec woman defender Silvia Pérez has her home raided and computer equipment stolen, and faces constant harassment and threats.
The National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico and IM-Defensoras demand urgent guarantees of protection for Silvia Pérez Yescas and all CIARENA members.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / On 8M, we registered repression, attacks and arbitrary detentions of demonstrators in at least eleven states in the Republic.
On 8 March, we received reports of attacks perpetrated by public authorities against women who attended the marches for International Women’s Day in different states throughout the Mexican Republic. Attacks by anti-rights groups were also registered.
[WHRD ALERT] MEXICO / Killing of Triqui Indigenous women defenders Adriana and Virginia Ortiz García in Oaxaca
Triqui Indigenous women defenders Adriana and Virginia Ortiz García were killed on the night of Tuesday 5 November in the center of Oaxaca City.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Armed assailants intercept, threaten, and steal car of searching woman defender Araceli Salcedo, of the Orizaba-Cordoba Disappeared Families Collective.
This incident is the latest in a series of security incidents that the woman defender has experienced as part of her work, which she conducts in a context of insecurity that increases the risks to her life and personal integrity.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Código DH temporarily closes office in Oaxaca after repeated attacks, searches, and robberies that place its members at high risk and jeopardize its human rights work.
After experiencing situations of search and seizure, the Committee for the Comprehensive Defense of Human Rights (CÓDIGO DH) announced the closure of its offices until state and national authorities guarantee the security conditions necessary for its ongoing work.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / SEIDO and FGR maintain criminalization against Marcela Turati, Ana Lorena Delgadillo and Mercedes Doretti.
We of the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico and the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders (IM-Defensoras) demand the immediate closure of the prosecution’s investigatory file against Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez, Marcela Turati Muñoz y Mercedes Doretti, and an end to their criminalization.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / National Human Rights Commission denies that illegal investigation of Marcela Turati, Ana Lorena Delgadillo and Mercedes Doretti violates their rights
From 2015 to 2016, the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico conducted an investigation of Marcela Turati, Ana Lorena Delgadillo and Mercedes Doretti and their work of communication, defense and investigation of the San Fernando Massacre.
[WHRD ALERT] MEXICO/ Human rights defender Ana Enamorado at risk for her work in searching for disappeared persons
For 13 years, rights defender Ana Enamorado has searched for her son, Oscar Antonio López Enamorado, a Honduran youth who was disappeared in Jalisco, Mexico, on January 19, 2010. In order to engage in the search and to demand justice for her son, the defender had to leave her home country and settle in Mexico.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Assailants in Guanajuato shoot and kill defender and searching mother Carmela Vázquez, of the Disappeared Persons in Pénjamo Collective
On Sunday, November 6, the searching defender María Carmela Vázquez Ramírez was assassinated in Abasolo, Guanajuato.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / In Sinaloa assailants kill defender Rosario Lilian Rodríguez, a searching mother of the ‘Hearts without Justice’ collective
Rosario Lilian Rodríguez had been searching for her son, Fernando Abixahy Ramírez Rodríguez, who was forcibly disappeared on October 16, 2019.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Assailants Kill Defender Brenda Jazmín Beltrán of Women Warrior Searchers in Cajeme, Sonora.
Brenda Jazmín Beltrán Jaime, had been searching for her brother Luis Heraldo Beltrán Jaime, disappeared since November 1, 2018. She was a member of the Women Warrior Searchers Collective in Cajeme, Sonora, and collaborated in the accompaniment of family members of disappeared persons.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Activist Luz Raquel Padilla Gutiérrez dies after being attacked and burned in Zapopan, Jalisco.
In posts on social networks, the defender had denounced constant death threats made against her. Several weeks ago she survived an attack with industrial use chlorine on and around her thorax.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Defender attorney Cecilia Monzón López assassinated in San Pedro Cholula, Puebla.
We of the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico and IM-Defensoras condemn the murder of attorney activist Cecilia Monzón and join in the call for justice in her case as we demand that the responsible authorities guarantee a prompt, exhaustive, gender-based investigation.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Defender Angélica Armentera Quintero disappeared since March 10th after searching for her son
Members of the collective “Mothers Searching in Sonora” report that this is the third time family members of victims of forced disappearance have received phone calls regarding the whereabouts of their disappeared family members, and then they themselves have disappeared.
[WHRD Alert] MÉXICO / Assailants kill human rights defender Patricia Susana Rivera Reyes in Tijuana, Baja California.
Patricia Rivera Reyes began her work as a rights defender in indigenous communities and became an assessor at the Office of the Ombudsman in the state of Baja California in a Trial Chamber established at the national level.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Local and state police forces repress women and girls during the 8M march in Morelia, Michoacán.
On March 8, 2022 at least 13 women, including 5 underage girls were arbitrarily arrested in Morelia, Michoacán. The aggression was reported by local news media, journalists, and demonstrators and documented by the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Human rights defender Ana Luisa Garduño killed in Temixco, Morelos.
Ana Luisa Garduño was 51 years old, and since 2012, had been engaged in a tireless quest for justice for the feminicide of her underage daughter, Ana Karen Huicochea.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Death threats, harassment, and intimidation against Greace Lugo.
Defender Greace Ivonne Lugo Vargas has been the victim of death threats, harassment, and intimidation due to her active participation in the Attention to Disabled Persons Act consultation process, which took place in San Luis Potosí, in November of 2021.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Assailants kill journalist María de Lourdes Maldonado López in Tijuana, Baja California.
The journalist covered issues of politics and corruption in Tijuana.
[WHRD Alert ] MEXICO / Co-Director of Oaxaca Consortium among 109 rights defenders spied on by Pegasus.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Assailants in Sonora murder Aranza Ramos, who searched for her disappeared husband.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / 74 young women students, mainly indigenous, were attacked, detained for five days, and criminalized for defending the right to education in Chiapas.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Veracruz government disseminates private information about activists obtained through police surveillance and infiltration of feminist movement.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Women human rights defenders in Puebla smeared in news media and criminalized by government after March 8th.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Raid on private residence of journalist and rights defender Jackie Campbell in Coahuila.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Anti-rights aggressors break car window, paint slogans and throw eggs and fire bomb at the home of Ariadne Song in state of Quintana Roo.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Intimidation, threats to run over demonstrators, and incitement to violence against participants in the March of the Catrinas last October 31 in San Cristóbal de las Casas.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Ivette Saavedra criminalized, harassed and threatened for defending protected natural area in State of Mexico
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Persecution, threats, physical and virtual aggression, and property damage against feminist activists in state of Sonora.
[WHRDAlert] MEXICO / Assailants send death threat and seek to intimidate environmentalist Teresa Roldán by setting fires next to her family home in Querétaro
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Cancún municipal police use firearms to repress feminist protest demanding justice for the feminicide of young Bianca Alejandrina Lorenzana Alvarado, and to repress journalists covering the protest
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Rights defender Laura María Orozco Medina subjected to surveillance, intimidation, and constant harassment in the state of Michoacán.
[Urgent Alert] MEXICO / UPDATE: Kenia Hernández granted release, then arrested anew and confined in federal prison in state of Morelos
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Defamation and disparagement campaign against Isela González Díaz, defender of the rights of Rarámuri communities in Chihuahua
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Ongoing campaign of slander, disparagement, threats and criminalization against women defenders of territory and indigenous rights in the state of Querétaro
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Environmentalist Diana Bobadilla subjected to death threats, harassment, defamation and attempted physical attack in Metepec, state of Mexico
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Chihuahuan police close seamstress workshop and detain more than 50 people, mainly women and children of the Bosques de San Elías Repechique community, along with women human rights defenders.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Transgender defender Jeanine Huerta killed and re-victimized in Baja California
[WHRDAlert] MEXICO / Guards outside Sonoran Legislature illegally retain and assault Frida Gómez for protesting distortion of law for the digital protection of women
[WHRD Alert - UPDATE] MEXICO / Criminalization process continues against defenders of the “A tu encuentro” Collective, arrested for protesting last July 10 in Guanajuato.
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Constant aggression, threats and harassment against families of feminicide victims in Mexico City encampment
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Intimidation of Claudia Zenteno and shut down of her home in Xochimilco, Mexico City
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / Defender Claudia Hernández was illegally arrested, tortured and criminalized in San Luís Potosí for participating in a protest against the murder of Giovanni López
[WHRD Alert] MEXICO / With slander and false accusations, a smear campaign is launched against Anaís Palacios in the state of Veracruz.
[WHRD Alert] MÉXICO / We demand freedom for Kenia Hernández, arrested and imprisoned on Saturday night, June 6th.
[WHRDAlert] MEXICO / Yucatan authorities and police harass feminist defender Dr. Sandra Peniche Quintal
#WHRDAlert MEXICO / Attempt on the life of Guadalupe Michel Lima, daughter of defender Irinea Buendía
#WHRDAlert MEXICO / Guerrero state police commit physical, sexual and patrimonial violence against indigenous defender Teodomira Rosales
WHRDAlert MEXICO / Assailants kill Zenaida Pulido, defender of the right to truth, justice and reparations in the state of Michoacan
#WHRDAlert MEXICO / Obtilia Eugenio, defender of indigenous peoples in Guerrero, reportedly disappeared
#WHRDAlert MEXICO / Arbitrary arrest and criminalization of Elsa Ángeles Vera and Leyla Chávez Arteaga
#WHRDAlert MEXICO / Guadalupe Campanur ––defender of the environment and indigenous peoples–– killed in Cherán
#WHRDAlert MEXICO-Tamaulipas / Murder of Miriam Elizabeth Rodriguez Martínez of the Community in Search of the Disappeared in Tamaulipas (CBDT)
#WHRDAlert MESOAMERICA / Inter-American Comission on Human Rights (IACHR) in danger of shutting downf for lack of funds.