Case History: Juan Carlos Flores Solís

On 11 May 2018, the Second Judge of the Puebla State Federal Criminal District ruled in favour of human rights defender Juan Carlos Flores Solís by concluding that there was no sufficient evidence to prove his guilt and that there were indicators of witness manipulation by the prosecution. This brings the case against the human rights defender to an end after four years of judicial persecution.

Juan Carlos Flores Solís is a member of Frente de Pueblos en Defensa del Agua y de la Tierra de Morelos, Puebla y Tlaxcala – FPDATMPT (The People's Front in Defence of the Water and Earth of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala). FPDATMPT works together with Nahua communities to protect the rights of 22 communities potentially affected by various large-scale developments in the area, including the proposed construction of a gas pipeline through their community (Proyecto Integral Morelos), implemented by Italian company Bonatti SPA.

The criminalisation campaign against human rights defender Juan Carlos Flores Solís began on 6 May 2014, when an arrest warrant was issued against him and nine other human rights defenders and activists, on charges of “illegal deprivation of freedom of a public employee” and “gang membership”. The defenders implicated in this criminal process were opposing the Proyecto Integral Morelos and the associated violation of the indigenous populations’ right to free, prior and informed consent to the construction and operation of a thermoelectric gas and water pipeline complex in their communities.

The arrest warrant against Juan Carlos Flores Solís was overturned on appeal on 11 May 2018. The defence contested the legality of the warrant based on the lack of evidence that proved the human rights defender’s guilt. The appeal ruling concluded that the statements of the alleged victims of the “illegal deprivation of freedom of a public employee”, who were all workers of the Bonatti SPA company, could have been interfered with to incriminate the human rights defenders. Other evidence was discarded due to lack of consistency or contradiction.

Front Line Defenders welcomes the Court’s decision but remains deeply concerned about the the intensification of criminalisation processes against human rights defenders in Mexico, especially regarding the rights of indigenous populations to free, prior and informed consent. Front Line Defenders urges the authorities of Mexico to immediately adopt all the necessary measures to ensure the safety of the Nahua communities and members of FPDATMPT.

On 18 September 2015, human rights defenders from the organisation Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra y Agua de Morelos Puebla y Tlaxcala– FPDATMPT (The People's Front in Defence of the Water and Earth of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala) attended an audience at the Fifth Criminal Court of Puebla (Juzgado Quinto de los Penal) regarding the seizure of the premises of community radio station Radio Zacatepec on fabricated drug-related charges. However, the lawyer for Radio Zacatepec was not allowed to attend the proceedings and there has been no progress in the case.

The FPDATMPT works together with Nahua communities in the states of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala to protect the rights of 22 communities likely to be affected by various large-scale developments in the area, including the proposed construction of a gas pipeline through their community (Proyecto Integral Morelos). The developments are supported by the Italian company Bonatti and the Spanish companies Abengoa, Elecnor and Enegas. FPDATMPT opposes the pipeline as it is to be constructed in the vicinity of the volcano Popocatépetl, which could pose a serious risk to the inhabitants of the region.

On 18 September 2015, the lawyer for Radio Zacatepec was not permitted to attend the above-mentioned court proceedings, while the human rights defenders were instructed not to involve lawyers as this would only delay the process. The next hearings in the proceedings are scheduled for 12 and 13 October 2015.

Members of the FPDATMPT, Ms Miryam Vargas and Mr Juan Carlos Flores Solís are co-founders of the community radio stations Axocotzin, Zacatepec and Amiltzinko, founded in 2009, 2013 and 2013, respectively. The stations Axocotzin and Zacatepec were closed by the state and federal governments on 4 August 2014 due to their opposition to the Proyecto Integral Morelos. Some months later Radio Zacatepec resumed transmission and was instrumental in organising a demonstration on 27 May 2015 in which 800 people closed a federal route in protest against alleged corruption by the Mayor of Juan C. Bonilla, Puebla. On 30 May 2015, the offices of Radio Zacatepec were raided by police and later taken over by the public prosecutor. The public prosecutor's office subsequently informed the human rights organisation that there had been an anonymous tip-off regarding the selling of drugs out of the radio station's offices.

Following the raid, police began searching for human rights defenders Messrs Miguel López Vega and Alejandro Torres Chocolatl, also members of the FPDATMPT, who were forced to flee from their communities to avoid detention. The FPDATMPT filed a constitutional petition seeking information on the arrest warrants against the human rights defenders, and discovered that there were none. They filed a further petition regarding the raid, thanks to which they discovered that no evidence was found on the premises to support the public prosecutor's claims. However the premises remains in the hands of the public prosecutor's office and the investigation is still officially open.

Juan Carlos Flores Solís, a nominee for the 2015 Front Line Defenders award, was released from prison on 23 January 2015. Nonetheless, on 16 June 2015 a court in Tlaxcala rescinded the suspended sentences against Juan Carlos Flores Solís and human rights defender Ms Adela Ramos Villalba, as such revalidating the arrest warrants against them. It is of note that on 16 June 2015, Juan Carlos Flores Solís and Adela Ramos Villalba presented a key piece of evidence for their defence which suggested that officials from the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (Federal Commission of Electricity - CFE) had fabricated the charges against the human rights defenders due to their interest in allowing the gas pipeline to go ahead. Human rights defenders and FPDATMPT members Messrs Eusebio Torres Aguilar y Alejandro Torres Chocolatl also had their suspended sentences rescinded on 24 March 2015. The FPDATMPT wrote to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights regarding these matters on 26 June 2015, however to date they have not received a response. All four human rights defenders are now in danger of being arrested at any moment.

Additionally, human rights defenders Ms Teresa Castellanos and Mr Samir Flores Soberanes, both members of the FPDATMPT in its Morelos section, have been subjected to constant intimidation due to their human rights work. Representatives of the CFE have called to Teresa Castellanos' home, taken photographs of it and made enquiries about her, whilst implying that anyone who continues to oppose the thermo-electric plant under construction in the area could be made to disappear. Meanwhile, Samir Flores Soberanes has been the subject of defamatory leaflets, blaming him for the shooting of a young man which took place outside his home on 31 December 2014. The human rights defenders allege that the young man who was shot was in fact shot by a member of a group who are supposedly paid by the government and working to discredit the work of FPDATMPT.

Two of the three criminal proceedings against human rights defender Mr Juan Carlo Flores Solís have been dropped, while one case remains pending. The human rights defender has been held in detention since his arrest in Puebla on 7 April 2014. He now awaits trial on charges of 'aggravated theft'.

Juan Carlos Flores Solís was acquitted of 'crimes against hydraulic infrastructure', 'mutiny', 'looting' and 'extortion' by the Seventh judge of the District of Cholula in Puebla state in case 127/2012, in light of evidence of violations of due process. Moreover, the First judge of Tlaxcala granted the human rights defender a definitive suspension in relation to charges of 'illegal deprivation of liberty' of workers from the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (Federal Commission of Electricity).

One case remains pending against Juan Carlos Flores Solís in the First Instance Court of the District of Atlixco in Puebla state. In case 121/2014, the human rights defender is charged with 'aggravated theft' of a worker from Italian company BONATI SPA.

Juan Carlos Flores Solís' arrest on 7 April 2014 occurred shortly after he submitted a complaint to the Puebla State Commission on Human Rights regarding the detention of another human rights defender, Ms Enedina Rosas Veleza, arrested on 6 April 2014. In her case, witnesses report that the police failed to show an arrest warrant or to identify themselves, and used firearms to threaten those nearby. Enedina Rosas Veleza is in detention pending a hearing on charges of 'aggravated robbery' and 'obstruction of public works'. She faces a possible sentence of nine years.