Antécédents de l'affaire: Juan Carlos Orozco Matus
Dans la nuit du 28 au 29 octobre, quatre défenseurs des droits humains Juan Carlos Orozco Matus, Othón Nazariega Segura, Efraín Picaso Pérez et Roberto Abel Jiménez García ont été arrêtés.
Trois d'entre eux ont été accusés de crimes fédéraux, y compris d'enlèvement et de vol.
Le 1er août 2016, Juan Carlos a été libéré de prison.
Juan Carlos Orozco Matus est membre de la Sección 22 (Section 22) du Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación – SNTE (Syndicat national des travailleurs de l'éducation). La Sección 22 est un syndicat des travailleurs de l'éducation créé en 1980. La section a organisé plusieurs marches et manifestations dans différentes parties du Mexique, dans le but de protester contre la réforme de l'éducation approuvée en 2013, car elle aurait été adoptée sans consultation préalable. Par ailleurs, la Sección 22 soutient activement les prisonniers politiques au Mexique, parmi d'autres questions relatives aux droits humains.
On the night between 28 and 29 October 2015, the four human rights defenders were arrested in Oaxaca, Mexico. While police had an arrest warrant, they reportedly refused to show it to the human rights defenders. Jiménez García was detained by plain-clothes armed officers who did not wear any identification number. Picaso Perez was taken while travelling on a private vehicle, which would indicate he was being followed. The four human rights defenders were taken from Oaxaca to Mexico City to be presented before the federal prosecutor (Procuraduría General de la República). All four defenders are being held at the Almoloya Prison, which is a maximum security prison near Mexico City, although their cases are being investigated by federal courts based in Oaxaca.
Following detention, and in violation of the procedure required by law, the human rights defenders were kept without communication with their lawyers and without access to medical health. After a writ of Amparo filed on the 29 October and partially granted, it is expected that the defenders have access to their medication.
However, until the 3rd of November, human rights defender's representatives had not been able to communicate directly with the detained and, from the little information available, they believe the defenders themselves still don't know the charges they are facing. The representatives have also filed a complaint before the National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos).
The human rights defenders are facing charges of aggravated robbery, riot, damage to property, acts against the national wealth, amongst others, for peaceful demonstrations that took place in July 2014, August 2014 and June 2015 in different locations of Oaxaca state.
In Mexico there has been increased misuse of the penal system in order to criminalise the defence of human rights, especially in the context of social protest. For example, the use of open, vague and ambiguous charges that criminalise and restrict the work of human rights defenders, which include crimes of ‘deprivation of liberty’, ‘attacks on communication networks’, and ‘attacks on national wealth'. Moreover, the indiscriminate use of preventive detention is used in Mexico against people who carry out peaceful activities to defend human rights.
