Case History: Rocío Celeste Martínez Gregorio
On 11 October 2015, Ms Rocío Celeste Martínez Gregorio and Mr Fidel Desiderio Martínez were released without charge under the orders of the Sixth Criminal Judge Armando Nunez Lustro.
The human rights defenders had been detained for nine days in the prisons of Etla and Tanivet in the city of Oaxaca.
Rocío Celeste Martínez Gregorio works with the Mixe community in Oaxaca as part of the community feminist movement and also collaborates with the Colectivo Mujer Nueva (New Woman Collective), an organisation which promotes women's rights and their participation in their communities.
On 11 October 2015, Ms Rocío Celeste Martínez Gregorio and Mr Fidel Desiderio Martínez were released without charge under the orders of the Sixth Criminal Judge Armando Nunez Lustro.
The human rights defenders had been detained for nine days in the prisons of Etla and Tanivet in the city of Oaxaca.
In an official communication, the Secretary of Public Security (SPP) declared that 52 people had been arrested on 2 October 2015, including the two human rights defenders, during a march that was being held to commemorate the massacre of students at Tlatelolco on 2 October 1968. Rocío Celeste Martínez Gregorio and Fidel Desiderio Martínez, along with student Irving Pérez Monjaraz and church worker Julio Eder Luria Vásquez, had been due to face charges of “damages”, however all four have been released without charges.
On 9 October 2015, Front Line Defenders issued an urgent appeal regarding the arbitrary detention of Rocío Celeste Martínez Gregorio and Fidel Desiderio Martínez, who were arrested on the day of the march, while they were on their way to a meeting at the Centro de la Defensoría de los Derechos Humanos del Pueblo de Oaxaca (Centre for the Defense of Human Rights of the People of Oaxaca - DDHPO).
Members of the state police took them away in patrol car no. 1704 and brought them to the Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (Secretariat of Public Security – SSP) where they were held for seven hours without being told why they had been arrested. They were then brought to the Fiscalía General del Estado de Oaxaca (Public Prosecutor of the State of Oaxaca), still without any explanation for their detention. The report given by the state police to the public prosecutor stated only the time of detention and listed the belongings of the human rights defenders. Despite this being the only “evidence” presented against the human rights defenders, the public prosecutor declared the detention legal and they were both charged with “damages”.
On 2 October 2015, at approximately 5:30pm, state police arbitrarily detained human rights defenders Ms Rocío Celeste Martínez Gregorio and Mr Fidel Desiderio Martínez.
Police detained the human rights defenders while the pair was walking through the historic centre of Oaxaca City where a march was being held to commemorate the massacre of students at Tlatelolco on 2 October 1968.
Rocío Celeste Martínez Gregorio and Fidel Desiderio Martínez were detained whilst on their way to a meeting at the Centro de la Defensoría de los Derechos Humanos del Pueblo de Oaxaca (Centre for the Defense of Human Rights of the People of Oaxaca - DDHPO). Members of the state police took them away in patrol car no. 1704 and brought them to the Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (Secretariat of Public Security – SSP) where they were held for seven hours without being told why they had been arrested. They were then brought to the Fiscalía General del Estado de Oaxaca (Public Prosecutor of the State of Oaxaca), still without any explanation for their detention. The report given by the state police to the public prosecutor stated only the time of detention and listed the belongings of the human rights defenders. Despite this being the only “evidence” presented against the human rights defenders, the public prosecutor declared the detention legal and they were both charged with “damages”. Only when they were charged were the human rights defenders informed of the details of the report.
In an official communication, the SSP declared that 52 people had been arrested on 2 October 2015, however, only 12 of these have been brought before authorities. Three of these were brought before the municipality for administrative infractions, and nine were brought before the public prosecutor; who released five on the basis of being underage. The four who are now facing charges are Rocío Celeste Martínez Gregorio, Fidel Desiderio Martínez, Irving Pérez Monjaraz and Julio Eder Luria Vásquez. There is no information regarding the other 40 people, or even any proof that they were arrested.
On 7 October 2015, the Red de Mujeres Activistas y Defensoras de Derechos Humanos de Oaxaca (Network of women human rights defenders and activists of Oaxaca) in Oaxaca, Mexico, sent an open letter to Judge Armando Lustre Núñez regarding the ongoing arbitrary detention of human rights defenders Rocío Celeste Martínez Gregorio and Fidel Desiderio Martínez
The criminalisation of social protest is systematic in Mexico, and in Oaxaca in particular. Women human rights defenders are particularly vulnerable to the phenomenon. On 1 May 2013 human rights defender Ms Susana Irais Ramírez Jiménez was arbitrarily detained whilst she documented a march for May Day and released a day later. On 30 June 2015 while protesting against the construction of a Cutural and Convention Centre, along with members of the Frente en Defensa del Cerro del Fortín (Front for the Defense of Fortín Hill), human rights defender, Ms Rocío María Olivera Toro Maya, was injured. No investigation has been opened into the incident.
On 14 June 2006, protests by teachers in Oaxaca City were met with excessive force by the state security forces in events that led to serious unrest in the city for some months. A Commission for Truth, headed up by human rights defender Fr Alejandro Solalinde Guerra recently presented its report which found evidence that over 500 people were tortured during the months that followed, and 26 people were extrajudicially executed.
