Around 6:45 pm, Tuesday, January 11 of this year, more than 20 soldiers of the Mexican Army commanded by someone called “Carlos” drove up in official vehicle 1006277 and violently broke into the offices of Committee in Defense of the Rights of the People / Committee in Defense of Women’s Rights (CODEP-CODEM) without a search warrant, kicking down the door and destroying it.
During the incursion, they held seven compañeros at gunpoint and roughly interrogated them, demanding information about organized crime and drug trafficking. They clearly intended to link our activities with “organized crime,” in keeping with their rationale of criminalizing the organization and social protest in general.
In spite of demands for them to identify themselves and show a search warrant or a denunciation giving the reasons for the aggression, the so-called “commander Carlos” refused to give the required information. He said he had received a denunciation but didn’t explain what it was.
It’s plain to see that this attack against CODEP-CODEM is part of a strategy of terror against human rights defenders aimed at silencing denunciations of violations that federal troops are committing against innocent, defenseless citizens.
There’s no doubt that the encroaching state terrorism in our country is part of the Plan Mérida and Plan Mesoamericano that PAN and PRI governments have endorsed along with the United States government, thereby reproducing Plan Colombia. The goal is to destroy the human rights groups and social and people’s organizations that represent opposition to the ongoing destruction of our nation and to hand over national sovereignty to foreign interests, as the PAN and PRI governments have done.
We call on all human rights groups and political and people’s organizations to STAY ON THE ALERT because the illegitimate Felipe Calderón is preparing an offensive in the Mexican Southeast to silence, control or destroy all those who oppose his intentions to step up the imposition of the imperialist Plan Mesoamericano in the region.
STOP THE CRIMINALIZATION OF THE ORGANIZATION AND OF SOCIAL PROTEST!
STOP HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN MEXICO!
NO MORE BLOODSHED!
PRI AND PAN CRIMINALS OUT OF THE STATE AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS!
Comité de Defensa de los Derechos del Pueblo-CODEP
Comité de Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer-CODEM
Centro Regional Indígena en Derechos Humanos-CERIDH
January 12, 2011.
