Mexico: Harassment and intimidation of human rights defender, Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra

Human rights defender Father Solalinde has recently been subjected to harassment and intimidation as a direct result of his activities in defence of human rights. Father Solalinde is the director of the Albergue del Migrante Hermanos en el Camino de la Esperanza (Shelter for Migrant Brothers on the Road of Hope) and co-ordinator of the Catholic Pastoral Care Centre for Migrants.

Further Information

The Shelter provides food, shelter and legal assistance to thousands of migrants who travel through the city of Ixtepec, Oaxaca, on their way to the United States of America. Over the last two years, the Shelter has reported several cases of corruption by state and federal government officials as well as the practice of abduction of migrants.

On 19 January 2010, Father Solalinde went to the prison facility in Juchitan for his weekly visit in order to give spiritual support to the detainees. Whilst there, he was informed that a reward had been offered to the person who kills him and he was asked why he doesn't forgive the three police officers who were involved in the assault of a group of migrants in late December 2009. In the December 2009 incident, members of the Municipal Police of Juchitan allegedly stole approximately two thousand Mexican pesos from a group of seven Central American migrants and threatened them with a gun. The day after the incident, Father Solalinde accompanied two of the migrant victims to the police station to report the incident and they identified the police officers involved. Since then, Father Solalinde has reported incidents of harassment against him.

On 11 January 2010, the migrants who filed the complaint in December and the secretary of the Shelter, Alberto Donis, went to the police station to follow up on the case. Three men followed them on their way home, one entering their bus by the back door and two by the front. The men identified themselves as members of the Judicial Police of the State of Oaxaca and asked the migrants and Alberto Donis for identification. They then tried to take the migrants off the bus. One of the police officials said that he knew the migrants and stated their names and addressees in in their own countries of origin. Father Solalinde arrived at the scene fifteen minutes later and took a photograph of one of the police officers who was later identified as the Chief of the Juchitan Municipal Police Department. The incident was later reported to the State Human Rights Commission and to the Deputy Attorney General of Istmo. The Shelter for Migrant Brothers on the Road of Hope has been the subject of repeated acts of intimidation, harassment and threats over the years. On 11 July 2009, a group of men, supposedly linked to an organised crime syndicate known as “Los Zetas”, broke into the shelter and threatened one of twenty Honduran migrants who sought refuge there, demanding that he hand over six of his fellow migrants once they arrived to the community of Medias Aguas en Sayula, Veracruz or he would be killed. Over the following days, the center was broken into on several occasions by unidentified individuals allegedly linked to “Los Zetas” who searched for migrants with the intention of abducting them.

In June 2008, a group of approximately fifty local people, including 14 municipal police officers, broke into the migrant shelter and allegedly threatened to set the building on fire if it was not shut down within 48 hours. Furthermore, several of the staff members who work at the Shelter have also received death threats over recent years.

The authorities have taken no action to protect the Shelter, the migrants or the staff, and have thus far failed to identify those responsible for the break-ins in 2009 and the death threats received by the shelter's staff.

Front Line believes that Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra is being targeted as a result of his activities in defence of human rights, in particular in defence of the rights of migrants in Mexico. Front Line is deeply concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra and his colleagues at the Shelter for Migrant Brothers on the Road of Hope.