Tag Archives: Mexico

Mexico: Lawyer Óscar Francisco Aguirre Rubio killed in Tijuana

Sem categoria 10/08/2022 Leave a comment

09/08/22

At noon this Monday, August 8, criminal lawyer Óscar Francisco Aguirre Rubio was murdered inside his office located a few meters from Cereso La Mesa in Tijuana.

Information obtained by ZETA indicates that around 12:00 noon detonations by firearms were reported in offices located on Los Charros avenue in the Sandoval neighborhood, where two men were injured.

Elements of the Municipal Police and Red Cross paramedics arrived at the office marked with number 21 interior 1, who saw two men who were in the waiting room, one of them, identified as Oscar Francisco Aguirre Rubio , with a facial injury and no vital signs, and the other with a shrapnel wound, who was taken to a hospital for medical attention.

In recent days, Óscar Aguirre, a member of the Guild of Criminal Lawyers of Mexico, told ZETA that he feared for his life, after the murder of his colleague Evaristo García Memije, riddled with bullets on May 26 on Cerro Colorado Sur street in the neighborhood. Jose Lopez Portillo in Tijuana.

“Here what it is about is denouncing that we are a vulnerable group, Mr. Evaristo was a controversial lawyer, a fighter, obviously many people did not like him, but we do not know who they are. We have to have a protection mechanism because we are vulnerable to being killed by anyone,” said Óscar Aguirre.

And he added that “I fear for my life, for my freedom, because we are battle lawyers, we are not lawyers to have coffee with the Secretary General or with the Municipal President as most Bar Associations do. We want the prosecutor to do his job, to get his salary back.”

Despite the implementation of a security operation, those responsible have not been captured.

They kill a lawyer near Cereso in Tijuana

http://www.afntijuana.info/seguridad/130982_oscar_aguirre_el_abogado_asesinado_en_la_mesa (ESPANOL)

https://www.elimparcial.com/tijuana/tijuana/Abogados-de-Tijuana-exigiran-a-autoridades-esclarecer-asesinato-de-colega-20220809-0034.html

https://www.tvaztecabajacalifornia.com/policiaca/asesinan-abogado-a-cerca-de-la-penitenciaria-de-la-mesa

Asesinan a abogado penalista en Tijuana
https://puntonorte.info/2022/08/08/asesinan-abogado-despacho-tijuana/

International Lawyers Form Alliance to Protect Rule of Law in Mexico and US

Sem categoria 14/07/2022 Leave a comment

14/07/22

Two legal groups—one in Mexico and the other in the United States—have agreed to work together to protect the rule of law in both countries.

The New York City Bar Association’s Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice and the Mexican Bar Foundation have agreed to form a joint committee that will focus on strengthening judicial and democratic institutions in both countries.

“The rule of law is suffering today in Mexico,” said Enrique González Calvillo, chair of the board of trustees at the Mexican Bar Foundation and founding partner at González Calvillo Abogados, a large Mexican law firm. “The Vance Center’s support and experience will be absolutely key to us.”

Inaugural members of the joint committee include Todd Crider, partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Antonia Stolper, of counsel at Shearman & Sterling. Both attorneys have focused on Latin America throughout their careers.

Mexican lawyers are engaged in a delicate dance to preserve the independence of the judiciary under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose six-year term began in late 2018.

The president has labeled Mexican lawyers who defend international companies “traitors” and has accused Mexico’s judicial branch of being at the service of private interests.

Critics say López Obrador has also stacked the Supreme Court with supporters while working to discredit other democratic institutions that provide much-needed checks and balances in a country with a long tradition of authoritarianism.

“Weakened rule of law in Mexico will also affect the United States, as an erosion of our institutions would affect Mexico,” said Simpson Thacher’s Crider.

[…]

https://www.law.com/international-edition/2022/06/14/international-lawyers-form-alliance-to-protect-rule-of-law-in-mexico-and-us/?slreturn=20220614042657

Vance Center and Fundacion Barra Mexicana Launch Rule of Law Initiative
Vance Center Recognized at the Human Rights Council
Home

https://www.nycbar.org/member-and-career-services/committees/vance-center-for-international-justice-committee

Mexico: Asesinada a balazos en Puebla la abogada y activista Cecilia Monzón

Sem categoria 23/05/2022 1 Comment

22/05/22

Cecilia Monzón despertó este sábado recordando uno de los mandamientos del abogado, según el decálogo del jurista uruguayo Eduardo J. Couture. “Tu deber es luchar por el derecho; pero el día en que encuentres en conflicto el derecho con la justicia, lucha por la justicia”, escribió en su cuenta de Twitter antes de añadir: “Buenos días, criaturas del oeste”. Monzón era abogada, activista y feminista. Fue asesinada a balazos poco después, mientras se desplazaba en su camioneta en el municipio de San Pedro Cholula, en el área metropolitana de Puebla. Según la primera reconstrucción policial, se trata de un ataque directo perpetrado por dos sicarios que la estaban siguiendo a bordo de una motocicleta.

La abogada se ocupaba principalmente de casos de violencia machista, llevaba una vida defendiendo a las mujeres y era conocida en Puebla por su proyección pública. Fue candidata municipal del Partido Verde Ecologista y trabajó como responsable de Desarrollo Social durante la gestión de Luis Arriaga, al que denunció por violencia política de género. La prensa local recuerda que había recibido intimidaciones y en 2019 había pedido en vano un esquema de protección por amenazas de muerte. Las investigaciones del crimen quedan ahora en manos de la Fiscalía estatal, que se ha limitado a informar de que “desarrolla diligencias con el objetivo de esclarecer el caso”.

La presidenta municipal de San Pedro Cholula, Paola Angón, ha condenado el feminicidio y ha asegurado que su administración trabajará “para dar con los autores intelectuales y materiales de este atentado”. Monzón llevaba una multitud de litigios defendiendo a mujeres, pero también denunció al exidputado del Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) Jorge Estefan Chidiac por falsificación de firma, según reporta Animal Político.

[…]

https://elpais.com/mexico/2022-05-22/asesinada-a-balazos-en-puebla-la-abogada-y-activista-cecilia-monzon.html

https://www.dw.com/es/m%C3%A9xico-asesinan-a-la-activista-cecilia-monz%C3%B3n-en-puebla/a-61891172

https://www.elsoldemexico.com.mx/republica/sociedad/quien-era-cecilia-monzon-la-activista-feminista-asesinada-en-puebla-8318853.html

https://www.archyde.com/lawyer-and-activist-cecilia-monzon-shot-to-death-in-puebla/
(ENGLISH)
La militante Cecilia Monzón a été assassinée dans l’État de Puebla, au Mexique.
(FRANCAIS)

Indigenous rights activist/lawyer killed in northern Mexico

Sem categoria 22/03/2022 Leave a comment

21/03/22

Armed assailants have killed Mexican lawyer and Indigenous rights activist Patricia Rivera Reyes

Armed assailants killed Mexican lawyer and Indigenous rights activist Patricia Rivera Reyes, authorities announced Monday.

The prosecutors’ office in the northern border state of Baja California said three masked intruders burst into a home in the border city of Tijuana where a festivity was being held Saturday night.

The intruders robbed party-goers of their personal possessions. Rivera Reyes reportedly demanded her cell phone back, when one of the assailants shot her in the head.

Another man at the house was also shot in the head and taken to a local hospital.

Early this year, the government acknowledged that 97 community and rights activists have been killed during the current administration, which took office Dec. 1, 2018. Officials said 90 percent of those crimes have yet to result in convictions.

So far this year, eight journalists have been murdered in Mexico.

[…]

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/inidgenous-rights-activist-killed-northern-mexico-83585697

La Jornada Maya – Activist Patricia Rivera murdered at her home in Tijuana
https://proyectopuente.com.mx/2022/03/21/asesinan-a-la-abogada-y-activista-patricia-rivera-reyes-en-tijuana/

(ESPANOL)

La activista y abogada Patricia Rivera Reyes es asesinada en Tijuana, Baja California

https://www.contrareplica.mx/nota-Asesinan-a-Patricia-Rivera-Reyes-en-Tijuana-defensora-de-derechos-indigenas-202221345

Un militant des droits des autochtones tué dans le nord du Mexique
(FRANCAIS)

Mexico: Fue amenazada la abogada asesinada en Tonalá; luchaba contra el basurero de Matatlán

Sem categoria 05/02/2022 Leave a comment

04/02/22

¿Quién fue Verónica Guerrero, abogada asesinada en Jalisco?

[…]

La abogada asesinada ayer en el centro de Tonalá, Verónica Guerrero, agredida cuando abordaba su vehículo, era también la representante de la lucha legal de los vecinos de Urbi Quinta contra la empresa Caabsa y la operación del basurero de Matatlán.
Advierten que la abogada había sido amenazada en las últimas semanas, algunas de ellas directas, por parte de pepenadores que se oponen al cierre de este vertedero.
Incluso señalan a un familiar de la lideresa Araceli Batres como responsable de dichos hostigamientos en contra de la litigante.
Los vecinos señalan que las amenazas escalaron en las última dos semanas y la pasada incluso recomendó la abogada tomar precauciones ante el incremento de hostilidades.

https://www.notisistema.com/noticias/fue-amenazada-la-abogada-asesinada-en-tonala-luchaba-contra-el-basurero-de-matatlan/

https://lasillarota.com/estados/quien-fue-veronica-guerrero-abogada-asesinada-en-jalisco/613536

https://www.eloccidental.com.mx/policiaca/abogada-asesinada-en-tonala-recibio-amenazas-por-protestar-contra-basurero-de-matatlan-7824560.html

Asesinan a lideresa de lucha contra el basurero de Matatlán; pidió ayuda al gobernador y al alcalde de Tonalá

Mexico: La SEP pretende criminalizar al reconocido abogado defensor de los derechos humanos, Juan de Dios Hernández

Sem categoria 04/02/2022 Leave a comment

03/02/22

En un video difundido en sus redes sociales, el abogado Juan de Dios Hernández Monge, conocido por su defensa de los derechos humanos y laborales, ha denunciado que la SEP trata de criminalizar su comportamiento como abogado y defensor de derechos humanos.

En el video, que abajo se inserta, el abogado relata que desde el año 2013, un grupo de 21 maestros y maestras, todos adultos mayores, solicitaron su asesoría legal para defender sus legítimos derechos laborales, dado que fueron despedido con motivo de la reforma educativa realizada por el entonces presidente Enrique Peña Nieto. Incluso el abogado relata que las renuncias de maestros y maestras fueron obtenidas (en 2013), bajo presiones y en medio de “armas largas”. Una vez que se desarrolló el juicio, en 2019 lograron que un tribunal ordenara el pago de los salarios caídos e indemnizaciones. Empero, con diferentes artimañas la SEP intentó evadir su responsabilidad, por lo que los demandantes interpusieron denuncias penales; según precisa el abogado, entre los denunciados ante el Ministerio Público se encuentra el actual embajador en Estados Unidos, Esteban Moctezuma Barragán y quien fuera secretario de la SEP.

Según explicó de Dios Hernández en el video, la razón por la que lo pretenden criminalizar es porque tardaron un tiempo en notificar a los tribunales el fallecimiento de dos de las profesoras demandantes y ello fue así porque, como se recordara, el 30 de marzo del 2020 se declaró la emergencia sanitaria y obligó a la suspensión de las actividades en las diferentes instancias de gobierno; por ello, sigue relatando el abogado, en cuanto las condiciones de la emergencia sanitarias lo permitieron, hicieron la notificación respecto de los fallecimientos; no obstante, la SEP pretende “intimidarlo” mediante su criminalización por una causa que “no procede”; según el abogado, se trata de una argucia legal de la SEP para no cumplir con su obligación de pagar los salarios caídos e indemnizaciones.

[…]

La SEP pretende criminalizar al reconocido abogado defensor de los derechos humanos, Juan de Dios Hernández

https://www.change.org/p/delfina-g%C3%B3mez-evitemos-la-criminalizaci%C3%B3n-de-juan-de-dios-reconocido-abogado-de-causas-justas (FIRMA LA PETICION!)

https://www.facebook.com/juandedios.hernandezmonge/videos/1603358576668938

IACHR says Mexican government committed serious errors in the investigation of the murder of lawyer Digna Ochoa

Sem categoria 20/01/2022 Leave a comment

20/01/22

In its 2001 annual review, Peace Brigades International noted: “The situation of human rights defenders [in Mexico] worsened significantly after the 19 October assassination of internationally known human rights defender Digna Ochoa and death threats against other human rights defenders.”

That PBI report further noted: “One of the cases that Digna Ochoa had been working on implicated the army in human rights abuses against environmental activists campaigning against logging in Guerrero.”

Ochoa is also mentioned in the PBI publication Dignas – Voices of Women.

In it, Emiliana Cerezo Contreras says: “In 2001 my brothers were accused of putting bombs in several offices of the National Bank of Mexico, Banamex. Through some friends, my brother Alejandro got in contact with Pilar Noriega and Digna Ochoa, two lawyers who took on their cases. That is how the Cerezo Committee was created.”

Democracy Now! has also reported: “Ochoa worked on behalf of peasant ecologists in the state of Guerrero, Zapatista guerrillas in Chiapas and indigenous peoples in her home state of Veracruz. At the time of her death, she was defending three men charged with bombing banks in Mexico City to protest against globalization.”

Lawyer’s Rights Watch Canada adds: “She represented many cases involving allegations of torture or murder by Mexico’s military and security forces, including the widows of the Aguas Blancas massacre and the campesino ecologists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera. Montiel and Cabrera, who received the Goldman award for their work in forcing Boise Cascade to stop clear-cutting in the southern state of Guerrero, were sentenced to imprisonment on drug and weapons charges that Ochoa claimed were fabricated. Digna exposed the use of torture by the army to extract confessions from the environmentalists.”

IACHR ruling

Now, La Jornada reports: “The Inter-American Court of Human Rights [IACHR] found Mexico responsible for serious failures in the investigation into the death of human rights defender Digna Ochoa on 19 October 2001.”

That article adds: “Therefore, it ordered the Mexican state to reopen the investigations of the case in pertinent terms; investigate and eventually prosecute those possibly responsible for his death; carry out a public act of international responsibility and create a recognition in the defense of human rights that will bear the name ‘Digna Ochoa y Plácido’.”

Reuters also reports: “The Mexican government committed serious errors in the investigation of the death of the activist Digna Ochoa two decades ago and must continue with the probe, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) said on Wednesday [January 19].”

“Ochoa, who received death threats before her body was found with gunshot wounds in October 2001, was a lawyer who defended cases of human rights violations allegedly committed by civilian and military security forces.”

[…]

https://pbicanada.org/2022/01/20/iachr-says-mexican-government-committed-serious-errors-in-the-investigation-of-the-murder-of-lawyer-digna-ochoa/
Mexico committed serious errors in investigation of activist death-rights court
https://cejil.org/en/case/digna-ochoa-2/

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-5-2003-0572_EN.html?redirect

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digna_Ochoa

two-deaths-of-digna-ochoaDownload

https://www.diariodemexico.com/mi-nacion/resuelve-corteidh-mexico-no-garantizo-derecho-la-vida-de-defensora-digna-ochoa (ESPANOL)

Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos ordena reabrir el caso Digna Ochoa

https://www.cndh.org.mx/noticia/asesinato-de-digna-ochoa-abogada-mexicana-y-defensora-de-los-derechos-humanos

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digna_Ochoa (FRANCAIS)

Mexico: Mexicali attorney murdered in her own office

Sem categoria 08/12/2021 Leave a comment

07/12/21

despacho Gómez-Torres & Asociados

A young lawyer is dead in Mexicali, the latest victim in a disturbing trend across Baja California.

37-year-old Pamela Pizarro Herrera was found dead in her office. Someone shot her in the head.

Witnesses report seeing two men in the area before the shooting. At this point it’s unclear if Herrera was the intended victim.

“We know that she was not threatened or had problems with other people, she was simply there when the attack happened. It is outrageous because she is a woman, she is a mother of 3 kids. It’s not worth that we’ve already reach this level of insecurity. We demand results from the government, but we also need true crime prevention programs from our authorities. We are close to taking justice into our own hands, because the violence is getting worse,” said Elias Flores Gallegos, the president of Mexicali’s Bar Association.

In the last two years, 28 Baja California attorneys have been attacked. This is the second incident in Mexicali this year.

Mexicali attorney murdered in her own office

https://www.elimparcial.com/mexicali/policiaca/Matan-a-disparos-a-licenciada-en-la-colonia-Alamitos-20211206-0029.html (ESPANOL)

https://www.lavozdelafrontera.com.mx/local/exigen-justicia-por-la-muerte-de-abogada-en-mexicali-la-asesinaron-en-su-oficina-7579081.html

https://zetatijuana.com/2021/12/asesinan-a-la-abogada-tania-pizarro-dentro-de-su-despacho-en-mexicali/

https://puntonorte.info/2021/12/06/asesinan-a-disparos-a-abogada-dentro-de-su-despacho-en-mexicali/

A lawyer fought for justice after a Mexican massacre. Then the government made her a suspect

Sem categoria 28/11/2021 Leave a comment

23/11/21

For a decade, Ana Lorena Delgadillo pursued justice in one of Mexico’s most notorious atrocities. The San Fernando massacre stunned the nation with its barbarity: Gunmen yanked at least 193 people — some of them Central American migrants — off buses, bludgeoned them to death and dumped their bodies in clandestine graves. No one has ever been convicted.

Delgadillo fought all the way to the Supreme Court to force the government to divulge details on the 2011 massacre, widely blamed on the Zetas cartel. Finally, she won. This year, authorities turned over the 271 volumes of their investigation to her human rights group. And there, in Volume 221, the 48-year-old lawyer found something startling.

The Zetas, it turned out, weren’t the only suspects in the case.

She was one, too.

Mexican authorities secretly opened an organized-crime investigation into Delgadillo and two other women trying to unravel what happened in San Fernando, according to more than 200 pages of court documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

Opening the investigation gave prosecutors special powers to surveil the women. Theyobtained records of their phone calls and texts. Federal police then mapped their communications.

The three women are among the leading figures documenting Mexico’s crisis of the disappeared, in which more than 94,000 people have vanished. One is an award-winning journalist, Marcela Turati. Another is an acclaimed anthropologist, Mercedes “Mimi” Doretti.

[…]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/11/23/mexico-disappeared-organized-crime/

https://www.wral.com/3-in-mexico-who-investigated-killings-were-themselves-probed/20000318/

https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/2021/11/25/onu-dh-condena-persecucion-de-estado-contra-marcela-turati-ana-lorena-delgadillo-mercedes-doretti-276460.html (ESPANOL)

https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/411484-gobierno-mexico-espiar-ilegalmente-mujeres-masacre

https://noticias.uol.com.br/ultimas-noticias/afp/2021/11/24/investigadoras-de-desaparecimentos-forcados-denunciam-espionagem-oficial-no-mexico.htm (PORTUGUES)

Mexico: Lawyer kidnapped at 12 noon in front of Tijuana court

Sem categoria 17/11/2021 Leave a comment

15/11/21

Abogada fue secuestrada en un juzgado en México, todo quedó grabado

The entire action was filmed by witnesses who thought it was a family dispute

On November 3 at 12 noon, two armed men in a SUV with California plates broke into Tijuana’s Civil Courts and kidnapped a lawyer in front of the building. The courts are guarded by armed security men from a private company. The two men easily reached the building’s entrance, grabbed the woman by the arm, and pushed her out towards their car.

The entire action was filmed by witnesses who thought it was a family dispute, but after watching the violence against the female lawyer they tried to intervene. Then the suspects showed their guns to threaten witnesses and lawyers there.

The city courts are located in 20 de Noviembre neighborhood right next to La Via Rapida, the main highway in the city. The scene is two miles from the financial zone, considered Tijuana’s golden area of security. No public authority showed up in front of the courts, but the police department began a search of the area to find her.

Two hours after the abduction, the lawyer – identified as Monserrat Alvarez – was found by state security agents and escorted to the Prosecutors Office, which took control of the case.

The next day, the president of the Tijuana Bar Association, Catalina Salas Bravo, pointed out during a press conference the seriousness this event represents. It took place in the Civil Courts, where citizens should be getting justice.

“We got information that confirms the existence of metal detectors in the court that don’t work. There’s disarmed security guards… where is our safety there?”

[…]

https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2021/nov/15/stringers-lawyer-kidnapped-12-noon-tijuana/

https://laverdadnoticias.com/crimen/Abogada-fue-secuestrada-en-un-juzgado-en-Baja-California-todo-quedo-grabado–20211104-0109.html (ESPANOL)

https://www.jornada.com.mx/notas/2021/11/04/estados/tijuana-secuestran-a-abogada-en-juzgado-luego-la-liberan/

http://www.afntijuana.info/informacion_general/122883_liberan_a_abogada_por_el_mercado_de_abastos