Sign the Petition

On September 18, members of the paramilitary group OPDDIC (Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights) attacked Ricardo Lagunes Gasca, a human rights lawyer from the Fray Bartolome Human Rights Center, and wounding Tseltal youth Carmen Aguilar Gomez in Jotola, in the municipality of Chilon. Sign our petition to denounce this violence.

Full Petition Text

"We petition the Mexican authorities to investigate the attack on human rights attorney Ricardo Lagunes Gasca and the shooting of the Tseltal Maya youth Carmen Aguilar Gómez, and bring to justice those responsible, including members of the paramilitary group OPDDIC."

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Complete Information

On Friday September 18, members of the paramilitary group OPDDIC (Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights) attacked and attempted to kidnap Ricardo Lagunes Gasca, a human rights lawyer from the Fray Bartolomé Human Rights Center of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. 

At least 60 heavily armed members of OPDDIC attacked Mr. Lagunes Gasca in the Ejido Jotolá, in the municipality of Chilón, forcing him from his car and beating him before trying to kidnap him.  Members of the Otra Campaña (the Other Campaign, an indigenous rights movement) from Jotolá and San Sebastián Bachajón foiled the kidnapping, at which point OPDDIC gunmen opened fire, wounding a Tseltal youth from San Sebastián Bachajón, Carmen Aguilar Gómez. 

Members of OPDDIC were seen meeting with the State Preventative Police earlier in the day at which point the paramilitaries were overheard informing the police that their members would attack members of the Other Campaign later in the day.  Police were absent during the conflict but arrived several hours later.

FULL TEXT OF OUR PETITION:

"We petition the Mexican Government and the authorities in the State of Chiapas to:

1. investigate the attack on and attempted kidnapping of human rights attorney Ricardo Lagunes Gasca and the shooting of Carmen Aguilar Gómez in the Ejido Jotolá, bring to justice those responsible, including members of the paramilitary group OPDDIC (Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights), and establish why the police in the area did not intervene in a timely fashion to avoid the violence;

2. protect the inhabitants of the Ejido Jotolá and San Sebastián Bachajón, and surrounding communities, as well as followers of the Otra Campaña and human rights defenders working in the area, in accordance with their wishes;

A compiled petition with your individual comment will be presented to Mexican Government Officials. Copies of the petition will also be sent to the Mexican Office of the United Nations High Command for Human Rights as well as the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Center for Human Rights.