Amnesty International on Friday accused the Mexican government of unfairly imprisoning two indigenous women for the kidnapping of six police officers in 2006 and demanded their immediate release. The two women, who were sentenced to 21 years in prison, are awaiting the outcome of their retrial. Amnesty International has adopted them as "prisoners of conscience". Alberta Alcántara and Teresa González Cornelio have been held in the Centro de Readaptación...

Fray Bartolome Human Rights Center Feb 16, Tuesday, 9:35 am Saville Theatre San Diego City College Victor Hugo Lopez will speak about how the human rights situation in Mexican state of Chiapas has deteriorated rapidly in recent months, including an attack on a fellow lawyer from the Fray Bartolome Center (frayba.org.mx) in September. As popular organizations wage peaceful struggles against paramilitary violence, tourism projects that will displace campesinos, and illegal land...

The Mexican authorities are failing in their duty to protect human rights activists from killings and life-threatening harassment and attacks, Amnesty International warned on Thursday in a new report. The report Standing up for justice and dignity: Human Rights defenders in Mexico describes more than 15 cases of defenders who have suffered killings, attacks, harassment, threats and imprisonment on fabricated charges between 2007 and 2009 to prevent them from doing their work. ...

Amnesty International has welcomed the release of a Mexican Indigenous man detained for almost 10 years following an unfair trial for murder. Ricardo Ucán Ceca, from Yucatán, was released on 31 December. He had been imprisoned since June 2000. He understood and spoke little Spanish and could not read or write. During his trial, he was not given an interpreter and his state appointed lawyer did not provide him with adequate defence. Ricardo Ucán claimed he shot...

Government harassment and criminal violence are harming press freedom and weakening democracy, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) concludes in a report presented at the closure of its 65th general assembly in Buenos Aires. IAPA expressed dismay over the excessive increase of violence against journalists. Sixteen reporters were killed in the last six months (eight in Mexico, three in Honduras, two each in Guatemala and Colombia and one in El Salvador), "the highest figure in...

Reporters Without Borders today voiced anger at the murder of journalist Vladimir Antuna García, found dead last evening after he was abducted on his way to work, pointing the finger of blame at state prosecutors who knew he was getting death threats but failed to protect him. The journalist, who worked as a security specialist on the daily El Tiempo de Durango, was found to have died of “asphyxia from strangulation” but his body also bore bullet wounds to the head and...

Amnesty International welcomes the release of Mexican prisoner of conscience Jacinta Francisco Marcial, who was held in prison for three years after being falsely accused of kidnapping six federal agents. The mother of six, an Otomí Indigenous woman from Santiago Mexquititlán in the Mexican state of Querétaro, was sentenced to 21 years' imprisonment in December 2006. Amnesty International is calling for a full review into her unfounded prosecution and for her to...

As of 18 August 2009, Amnesty International considers Jacinta Francisco Marcial a prisoner of conscience. This appointment recognizes the innocence of Jacinta while declaring her a person imprisoned only for being an indigenous women with limited access to justice. Thus, the world’s largest movement for the defense and protection of human rights calls on the Mexican authorities to free Jacinta immediately and without conditions. Jacinta, from the Otomi...

El Siglo de Torreon, a newspaper in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, said Tuesday that its offices were the target of a shooting attack that left no casualties. “According to preliminary reports, it was close to 1:00 a.m. in the morning when a burst of gunfire from large-caliber weapons was heard,” the newspaper said on its Web site. The newspaper has its main offices in Torreon, capital of Coahuila. “Broken windows, walls riddled with bullets and damaged...

Terrorist-sponsoring nation Iran is increasing its presence in Latin America, and Hezbollah, a terrorist organization it sponsors, is making inroads in drug trafficking in Colombia, according to Pentagon spokesperson Donna Miles in a press statement to the National Association of Chiefs of Police. During a recent congressional hearing, Navy Admiral James G. Stavridis told the House Armed Services Committee that he shares the concerns of Defense Secretary Robert Gates about Iranian activity...