Breathe
By Desirée Navarro
In Mexico, defending human rights is paid with life. Mexico ranks as the second most lethal country for activists worldwide, according to the Global Analysis 2023/24 of Front Line Defenders. However, these horrific figures barely manage to disturb a society that, far from being shaken, has become accustomed to these tragedies. The murder of criminal lawyer Oralia Pérez Garduño, in broad daylight and on one of Mexico City's busiest avenues, is evidence of this macabre normalization.
Oralia, who requested protection from the Attorney General's Office and denounced the machismo in her profession, ended up shot ten times on the Viaducto Miguel Alemán. Her appeals were ignored; her life was taken away by the same violence she insisted on confronting. In this country, justice is paid in bullets, and Oralia is the most recent link in a chain that seems to have no end.
Another emblematic case for the Mexican State was the murder of Veracruz human rights defender Digna Ochoa. On January 21, 2022, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned Mexico for the simulation of Digna Ochoa's suicide, and pointed out with evidence that it was a murder, as well as a violation of her human rights, to life, honor and dignity. This case is full of corruption, opacity and complicity of the authorities at the highest levels of the Mexican State, where officials and members of the now defunct Attorney General's Office, police, experts, public prosecutors and armed forces were involved. In addition to murdering her, she was kidnapped and tortured beforehand.
How can we forget the case of Cecilia Monzón Pérez, who was shot dead on May 21, 2022? She was in her car when hired assassins shot her from a motorcycle in the municipality of San Pedro Cholula, in the state of Puebla. Monzón was a criminal lawyer and women's rights activist. "Your duty is to fight for the right; but the day you find in conflict the right with justice, fight for justice," were some of her last posts on social networks. Her murder inspired a unique law in Mexico that contemplates taking away the parental rights of femicides: the Monzon Law.
Another courageous and valuable woman activist who exposed impunity in the country was Marisela Escobedo. The three deaths of Marisela Escobedo reflect the struggle of a mother for justice for the murder of her daughter. What do her three deaths refer to? The first, when her daughter died in 2008; the second, a year later, when the judges of the Judiciary, despite the confession of the perpetrator, let her daughter's murderer go free; the third, in 2010, when a hitman killed her in cold blood while she was demonstrating in front of the Chihuahua government palace.
One of the most controversial cases of violence against activists is that of Pedro Carrizales, El Mijis, who jumped into the political arena as a deputy in the Congress of San Luis Potosi and lost his life in an alleged car accident in Tamaulipas, arousing all kinds of suspicions. The authorities refused at all times to investigate the death of El Mijis as a homicide, despite the expert evidence that indicated that the activist was found tied up inside the vehicle in which he lost his life.
Violence and murders against activists and human rights defenders in Mexico have increased exponentially. Institutions such as Amnesty International, Global Witness and the Mexican Center for Environmental Law have counted 108 murders.
Mexico continues to fail to protect its activists. In memory of all those women who dared to raise their voices, the Mexican State still does not guarantee the free exercise of activism.
A democracy is not built with words. Our country cries out for true freedom of expression, where dissenting voices are not silenced by violence and fear. The violence is proof that the government continues to fail in its duty to protect defenders of justice, allowing impunity to reign. Fractured security and the absence of justice allow criminal groups to act with total impunity, silencing social fighters, almost always without consequences.
* Activist, writer, defender of women's and children's human rights. She has a master's degree in Corporate Social Responsibility and a bachelor's degree in Advertising and Marketing. She was a columnist for 11 years in the newspaper El Universal. She currently has her blog Es Posible Morir de Amor in which she interviews women victims of violence. President of the One Heart Foundation Mexico and founder of Fundaciones Unidas.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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