Home > Área Internacional > OTROS IDIOMAS > English > Letter to Digna Ochoa y Plácido on the 9th Anniversary of her Death

Letter to Digna Ochoa y Plácido on the 9th Anniversary of her Death

Thursday 21 October 2010, by Comité Cerezo México

All the versions of this article: [English] [Español]

You were a human rights defender with an attitude of commitment with many people and social organizations. You took on their legal cases and denounced violations of their human rights, just as you did with our case and for that we thank you infinitely.

For your bravery you were put on the “black list” of political activists and you were watched, harassed, threatened with death, kidnapped, and ultimately deprived of life.

When we found out that you, along with other lawyers, took on our case, I didn’t know who you were – but one of the Cerezo brothers who did know your trajectory told me that we had hope of clearing up our situation and that we would be quickly released.

I remember when I found out about your death. It hit very hard, given that my hopes vanished. But if you, a brave woman committed to those of us who have suffered torture and imprisonment, had resisted so many state-sponsored aggressions – those of us in jail should have to resist even more and that’s what we did.

I only hope and we have always fought, or rather supported, even if only a little, for the re-opening of your case and that they declare that which we all know – that you were assassinated and that they drop this story that you committed suicide.

In Mexico, now much more than ever, human rights defenders carry out our work within a context of directed violence. We are targets of systematic violence. Harassment, threats, disappearances, extra-judicial executions have increased. As a committee, we have documented that from 2008 to 2010, 31 human rights defenders and social activists have been killed and it seems the number will continue to grow.

Beyond that, one must add the sexual violence, the frivolous prosecutions, the raids or illegal searches of homes and offices of defenders and information theft.

Before this panorama, we believe that we have big challenges and that we should follow the indefatigable example of our attorney Digna Ochoa y Plácido who, on this October 19th, 2010 marks 9 years since her murder.

Sincerely

Pablo Alvarado Flores, ex prisoner of conscience held in the CEFERESO prisons #1 y 4

Alejandro Cerezo, ex prisioner of conscience held in the Cefereso #1

Héctor Cerezo, ex prisioner of conscience held in Cefereso prisons #1, 3 and Atlacholoaya

Antonio Cerezo, ex prisioner of conscience held in Cefereso prisons # 1, 2 and Atlacholoaya

The other members of the Comité Cerezo México

Translation

Any message or comments?

Who are you?
Enter your comment here

This form accepts SPIP shortcuts {{bold}} {italic} -*list [text->url] <quote> <code> and HTML code <q> <del> <ins>. To create paragraphs, just leave empty lines.