Librado Baños Rodríguez
Librado Baños Rodríguez is a lawyer, community advisor and indigenous rights defender who founded the Unión Cívica Democrática de Barrios Colonias y Comunidades - UCIDEBACC (Democratic Civic Union of Neighborhoods, Colonies and Communities) in Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca, México. He has been active in the defence of the rights of indigenous and afro-descendant peoples in the region, particularly their rights to education, health, food and housing. He is currently arbitrarily detained at the Ixcotel prison in Oaxaca, since August 2013, allegedly for the crimes of illegal deprivation of liberty in the form of kidnapping and possession of arms of exclusive use of the army. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the UN has requested his release in 2015, after concluding that he was illegally detained. Librado is currently blind due to torture, ill-treatment and lack of medical assistance faced while in detention. Librado is the husband of WHRD Eva Lucero Rivero, spokesperson for UCIDEBACC.
Disappearances are endemic in Mexico, often happening with collusion from the state. HRDs working on the issue face serious risk, up to and including death. HRDs working in the defence of territory, particularly indigenous territory, face a similar level of risk. They are criminalised, imprisoned, defamed, and often killed. Journalists working on any of these issues, or issues related to the drugs trade and the government's complicity in this, also run the risk of losing their lives.
