Carlos Mendoza Ramos disappeared
On 22 January 2019, Carlos Mendoza Ramos was found lightly wounded due to an attack and persecution he was submitted to, of which he managed to escape.
On 20 January 2019, a local armed group violently abducted indigenous leader and human rights defender Carlos Mendoza Ramos from his home in the Cerro Caliente community, Oaxaca, by a local armed group. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Carlos Mendoza Ramos is one of the leaders of the Unión Campesina e Indígena Nacional (National Peasant and Indigenous Union, NICU) and a human rights defender in the Chinanteca region, in Oaxaca. He assumed the leadership of NICU in 2015, after his brother Jeremías Mendoza Ramos was killed, and played a key role in demanding justice for the case.
On 22 January 2019, Carlos Mendoza Ramos was found lightly wounded due to the killing attempt and persecution he was submitted to, of which he managed to escape. However, the human rights defender and his family members continue to face an elevated risk of further attacks. Front Line Defenders remains extremely concerned about the safety of Carlos Mendoza Ramos.
On 20 January 2019, indigenous leader and human rights defender Carlos Mendoza Ramos was violently abducted from his home in the Cerro Caliente community, Oaxaca, by a local armed group. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Carlos Mendoza Ramos is one of the leaders of the Unión Campesina e Indígena Nacional (National Peasant and Indigenous Union, NICU) and a human rights defender in the Chinanteca region, in Oaxaca. He assumed the leadership of NICU in 2015, after his brother Jeremías Mendoza Ramos was killed, and played a key role in demanding justice for the case.
During the evening of 20 January 2019, Carlos Mendoza Ramos was abducted from his home in the Cerro Caliente community, in Santiago Jocotepec, Chaoapam, Oaxaca, by members of an armed group locally known for performing robberies and killings with overall impunity. The armed group members arrived at the defender’s house, where they verbally and physically aggressed his family members and demanded information on the whereabouts of Carlos Mendoza Ramos and his brother Gargonio Mendoza Ramos, who is also a local leader at NICU.
During the attack, Carlos Mendoza Ramos’s mother screamed to warn him that he was being targeted, giving him time to run out of the house. However, one of the attackers hit his mother and held her at gunpoint while others chased the defender. Several shots were fired on the direction of Carlos Mendoza Ramos during this pursuit.
Minutes later, the same group invaded the home of Gustavo Cruz, another human rights defender in the region, member of the Ricardo Flores Magón Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca (Consejo Indígena Popular de Oaxaca Ricardo Flores Magón, CIPO RFM). Gustavo Cruz was shot in front of his wife and children, and later died of his gunshot wounds on that same evening of 20 January.
Human rights defender Carlos Mendoza Ramos started receiving threats since 2015, when he took over the social leadership within his community after the killing of his brother Jeremías Mendoza Ramos. The armed group involved in this abduction was also responisble for th killing of Jeremías Mendoza Ramos.
The disappearance of Carlos Mendoza Ramos has been reported to the authorities, including before the Fiscalía General del Estado of Oaxaca, which was informed on the same night of the facts. Up to date, the whereabouts of the defender are unknown.
Cases of gross human rights violations such as killings, disappearances and torture have increased in the region of Oaxaca, where an endemic situation of impunity remains unaddressed by local and national authorities. Since 2010, the state of Oaxaca has been one of the three most dangerous places for human rights defenders in Mexico. In 2018, Oaxaca registered similar cases of human rights defenders disappeared, such as Agustín Silva Vázquez and Ernesto Sernas García.
The work of human rights defenders in Mexico is particularly dangerous, due to the constant killings and abductions to which they are subjected. On 20 January 2019, human rights defender and journalist Rafael Murúa Manriquez was killed after being abducted on the previous day in the state of Baja California Sur, after a number of threats and attacks against him.
Front Line Defenders is concerned about the abduction of Carlos Mendoza Ramos, as it believes it is linked to his legitimate human rights activities. Front Line Defenders expresses further concern at the climate of impunity and the lack of a safe environment for human rights defenders in Mexico.
Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Mexico to:
1. Carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the disappearance of human rights defender Carlos Mendoza Ramos, with a view to ensuring his protection and release alive, publishing the results and bringing those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards;
2. Strongly condemn the killing of Gustavo Cruz;
3. Carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the killings of Gustavo Cruz, with a view to publishing the results and bringing those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards;
4. Take all necessary measures to ensure the protection of the family members of Carlos Mendoza and Gustavo Cruz, guaranteeing their physical and psychological security and integrity;
5. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in Mexico are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions.
