Cristobal Sánchez detained on fabricated charges
On 12 June 2019, after a 13-hour long hearing of Cristobal Sánchez Sánchez’s case and an eight-hour long hearing of Irineo Mujica’s case, the human rights defenders were released due to lack of evidence. They had been detained without a warrant and held on fabricated charges from 5 June 2019.
On 5 June 2019, migrant rights defenders Cristóbal Sánchez Sánchez and Irineo Mujica were unfairly detained in Mexico City and Sonora, respectively, on fabricated charges of human smuggling.
Cristóbal Sánchez Sánchez is a Mexican human rights defender who has worked on migration issues for the past 15 years. He founded the Migrant Culture Collective, where he assists the passing migrant caravans in accessing humanitarian aid such as shelters. He has also collaborated with the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City and the University of Columbia in New York on academic research projects related to migration.
On 12 June 2019, after a 13-hour long hearing of Cristobal Sánchez Sánchez’s case and an eight-hour long hearing of Irineo Mujica’s case, the human rights defenders were released due to lack of evidence. They had been detained without a warrant and held on fabricated charges from 5 June 2019.
The charges against the human rights defenders have not been dropped. On 19 June 2019, the General Prosecutor’s Office filed an appeal against the decision of judge Héctor Manuel Cervantes Martínez to release Irineo Mujica due to lack of evidence. The General Prosecutor's Office can now present further evidence, and if found guilty in a future trial, the human rights defenders could face up to 24 years in prison.
On 5 June 2019, migrant rights defenders Cristóbal Sánchez Sánchez and Irineo Mujica were unfairly detained in Mexico City and Sonora, respectively, on fabricated charges of human smuggling.
Cristóbal Sánchez Sánchez is a Mexican human rights defender who has worked on migration issues for the past 15 years. He founded the Migrant Culture Collective, where he assists the passing migrant caravans in accessing humanitarian aid such as shelters. He has also collaborated with the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City and the University of Columbia in New York on academic research projects related to migration.
Irineo Mujica has defended human rights for more than fifteen years, promoting migrants’ rights and immigration reforms in both Mexico and the United States. He is the director of Pueblo Sin Fronteras in Mexico, an organisation working in Mexico and the US to promote and protect the rights of migrants. He has also founded seven migrant shelters in Mexico, documented human rights abuses committed against migrants by the authorities and organised crime, and accompanied a number of migrant caravans.
On 5 June 2019, around 3pm, Cristóbal Sánchez Sánchez was detained at gunpoint by six men in plain clothes who identified themselves as members of the Judicial Police. He was not presented with an arrest warrant. The detention took place outside his house in Xochimilco, Mexico City. This is not the first time Cristóbal Sánchez Sánchez has been detained due to his human rights work. In 2011, he was detained in Tapachula when documenting human rights violations against migrants, and in February 2019, when assisting a migrants caravan in Mexico City.
On the same day, around 2pm, Irineo Mujica was also detained when leaving his family business near the Mexican border with the United States in Sonoyta, Sonora. He was handcuffed by three police officers in plain clothes, who forced him to walk around the block restrained. The human rights defender was later taken to Hermosillo, Sonora, which is nearly 430 kilometres away.
Cristóbal Sánchez Sánchez and Irineo Mujica are expected to be transported anytime to a detention center in Tapachula, Chiapas, close to the Southern border of Mexico with Guatemala, to be tried by the Federal Criminal Justice Center of the State of Chiapas, where charges were made against them. Their arbitrary detention and fabricated charges of human smuggling are closely linked to a smear campaign against the work of human rights defenders who provide humanitarian assistance to migrants.
On recent occasions, Irineo Mujica and members of Pueblo Sin Fronteras have received a number of death threats via phone calls, text messages and social media. Irineo Mujica has also suffered an attempted arson attack on his house and vehicle, and has been unjustly arrested and detained while denouncing police abuse and participating in peaceful protests. He has been the target of death threats and intense criminalisation campaigns by both Mexican and United States authorities, including being listed in a secret database forming part of a joint surveillance effort by the United States and Mexican authorities against journalists and human rights defenders working on migration issues. As a result of the harassment he has been facing, Irineo Mujica has been admitted into Mexico’s Mechanism of Protection for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists.
Front Line Defenders remains extremely concerned about the detention, criminalisation and harassment of Cristóbal Sánchez Sánchez and Irineo Mujica, as they are believed to be solely motivated by their peaceful human rights work. Front Line Defenders also condemns the increased targeting of human rights defenders and organisations assisting migrants in Mexico.
