Case History: Eduardo Arturo Mosqueda
On 11 September 2015, lawyers for the defence of human rights defender Mr Eduardo Arturo Mosqueda attended a hearing on a constitutional petition against his pre-trial detention. The judge in the case postponed the hearing until 30 September 2015 to allow the complainants more time to review the necessary documentation. Thus, Eduardo Arturo Mosqueda remains in pre-trial detention.
On 12 May 2016, a federal appellate court upheld a lower court's ruling that there is no evidence to support the indictment against Eduardo. The federal court nullified the indictment and ordered Eduardo's immediate release.
Eduardo Arturo Mosqueda is a human rights and environmental lawyer who is currently employed by the Instituto de Derecho Ambiental (Institute of Envirnmental Rights – IDEA). IDEA is a partner organisation of Alianza Mundial de Derecho Ambiental (World Alliance of Environmental Law – ELAW) which works in Jalisco and Colima, Mexico.
On 11 September 2015, lawyers for the defence of human rights defender Mr Eduardo Arturo Mosqueda attended a hearing on a constitutional petition against his pre-trial detention. The judge in the case postponed the hearing until 30 September 2015 to allow the complainants more time to review the necessary documentation. Thus, Eduardo Arturo Mosqueda remains in pre-trial detention.
On 22 July 2015, Eduardo Arturo Mosqueda was carrying out work for IDEA in conjunction with the leaders of the Nahua people of Ayotitlán in the state of Colima. In recent years, environmental and indigenous rights organisations in Colima State have been facing continuous threats, attacks, stigmatisation and criminalisation as a result of their ongoing opposition to a mining concession that has been granted in the Indigenous Nahua community of Zacualpan. The Nahua community is resisting displacement from 1,200 hectares of land by the iron mining company Consorcio Minero Benito Juárez Peña Colorada SA.
The human rights defender and community leaders were surveying the lands to which the community has been granted access in a 2013 injunction. Whilst undertaking this work, Eduardo Arturo Mosqueda was detained along with 33 others in an operation carried out by the public prosecutor's office, the state police of Colima and workers of the mining company. The human rights defender attempted to explain his work to the officials, as well as the legitimacy of the Nahua community's movement. However, as a result he was allegedly gagged and beaten. It is further alleged that members of the community, including children, were also assaulted during the operation.
On 24 July 2015, the human rights defender was transferred to the maximum security prison in Colima. A request to change cell was granted and he is now sharing a cell with one other person. He is facing charges of unlawful deprivation of liberty, aggravated theft and dispossession. The complainants in the case are employees of the mining company. The human rights defender is the only member of the group arrested who remains in detention and facing charges. Although the 33 members of the Nahua community who were arrested initially faced the same charges, they were later released on bail, and are now facing charges of dispossession only.
In 2013, the Nahua community of Ayotitlán filed a constitutional petition known as an amparo asking the court to recognise the community’s rights over the land. An administrative and labour judge from the 4th District issued an injunction, granting community members free access to all of the lands and suspending the mining company’s use of the lands until the case is resolved.
