Forwarded message:
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 12:51:53 -0800
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Judy Michaud)
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Christian Task Force on Central America)
Subject: Urgent Action Mexico
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre),
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] (America Latina Al Dia),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Merran Smith and Mike Simpson),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Joshua Berson),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (John Anderson),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Ed Schmitt),
[EMAIL PROTECTED]@mindlink.bc.ca (Junior Kunze),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (America Latina Al Dia),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Nancy Hughes),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Julie Graham),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tom Mitchell),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (John Frazer),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (John Gabor),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Larry Kuehn- B.C. Teachers' Federation),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jim MacFarlan- B.C. Teachers' Federation),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Greg Dean), [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Elsie Dean),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Eric & Ann Robinson),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Bob Everton),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dorothy Bartoszewski),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Robert & Katherine Pepper-Smith),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Bridget Rivers-Moore),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (June & Len Lythgoe),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Alex Boronowski),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tom Mitchell),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Junior Kunze),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Ann Kujundzic), [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Fiona Jeffries),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Brad Hornick), [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Claudio Vidal),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Sid Shniad),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Julia MacRae),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Roberta Kirby)
Dear Friends:
We received a request from Amnesty International concerning two international
human rights defenders Vilma Nunez de Escorcia, Nicaraguan national
and Benjamin Cuellar, Salvadorean national, who may be facing imminent and
arbitrary deportation from Mexico where they are currently investigating
human rights violations. Amnesty international is extremely concerned
because it believes that this would establish a very negative precedent
for the international monitoring of human rights in Mexico and represent a
grave setback for human rights protection in that country.
Vilma Nunez de Escorcia and Benjamin Cuellar, members of a delegation of
the Federacion Internacional de Derechos Humanos (FIDH), International
Federation of Human Rights (based in France), had their visas withdrawn by
members of Mexican immigration in Acapulco, state of Guerrero, on 16 April
1997. Vilma Nunez and Benjamin Cuellar, as well as two other delegates of
the FIDH, arrived in Mexico a week earlier, invited by a number of Mexican
human rights non-governmental
organizations to carry out investigations into the human rights situation
in the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas.
The delegation had visited a prison in Acapulco and gathered testimonies
from torture victims on the day that their visas were withdrawn. The other
two members of the delegation, lawyer Gilberte Deboisvieux (f) from France
and Fernando Mejia (no nationality given), did not have their visas
withdrawn.
Vilma Nunez is director of the Centro Nicaraguense de Derechos Humanos
(CENIDH), Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights. Benjamin Cuellar is director
of the Instituto de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Centroamericana
(IDHUCA), Central American University Human Rights Institute, El Salvador.
Under Article 33 of the Mexican Constitution the government may deport
foreign nationals who engage in open political activism in the country.
Although ill-defined, Article 33 is normally interpreted as applying to
foreign nationals involved in Mexican party politics.
Amnesty International is alarmed at the arbitrary use of Article 33
against foreign nationals solely for their peaceful activities on behalf
of victims of violations of human rights.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International has condemned the Mexican Government for similarly
expelling other human rights defenders in the past. On 23 June 1995,
Fathers Rodolfo Izal Erloz (Spanish national), Loren Riebe (USA national)
and Jorge Baron Gutlein (Argentine national), were arbitrarily arrested and
expelled by the Mexican Government. The three were prominent human rights
activists in Chiapas (See UA 148/95, AMR
41/12/95, 23 June 1995 and Further information AMR 41/13/95, 26 June 1995.
See also Central America and Human rights violations in Mexico: A challenge
for the nineties, AMR 41/21/95, November 1995).
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Please send faxes/airmail letters :
- expressing serious concern that Vilma Nunez and Benjamin Cuellar,
Central American human rights defenders, have had their visas withdrawn by
Mexican immigration officials, on 16 April 1997, in Acapulco, state of
Guerrero;
- urging that they be allowed to continue their peaceful activities in
Mexico on behalf of a recognized international human rights organization
and that their access to victims of human rights is not impeded during
their visit.
APPEALS TO:
Minister of the Interior:
Lic. Emilio Chuayffet Chemor
Secretario de Gobernacion
Secretaria de Gobernacion
Bucarelli 99, 1er piso, Col Juarez
06699 Mexico DF, MEXICO
Faxes: + 52 5 546 5350
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Lic. Jose Angel Gurria Trevino
Secretario de Relaciones Exteriores
Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores
Av. Ricardo Flores Magon No.1, Colonia Nonoalco Tlatelolco
06995 Mexico D.F., MEXICO
Faxes: +525 782 4109
COPIES TO:
1. Human rights organizations
Centro de Derechos Humanos
"Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez" A.C.Puebla N. 153 Col. Roma,
06700 Mexico D.F. MEXICO
Instituto de Derechos Humanos
de la Universidad Centroamericana
"Jose Simeon Canas" (IDHUCA)
Final autopista Sur,
Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas
San Salvador, EL SALVADOR
2. Newspaper
Sr. Director
La Jornada
Balderas 68
06050 Mexico D.F., MEXICO
Her Excellency Sandra Fuentes-Berain
Ambassador of Mexico
45 O'Connor Street, Suite 1500
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1A4
Fax: (613) 235-9123
THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE!
