Mexico Struggles to Protect Human Rights Advocates from Harassment, Death Mayela Sanchez - Global Press Journal
go to original January 24, 2016

On this episode of Inside The America's, teleSUR examines the current human rights crisis aggravated by free trade and the war on drugs. How are citizens resisting these dynamics? (teleSUR English)

Mexico is among the most dangerous places in the world for journalists and human rights advocates, according to a 2015 report by Peace Brigades International and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a U.S-based research and advocacy group.

The Mexican government in 2012 established the Mechanism to Protect Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. Since then, 464 people have used the program for protection, says Mara Celia Surez Pacheco, director of evaluation and risk for the Unit for the Defense of Human Rights, the government office in charge of coordinating the mechanism. Of those, 194 were women.

The program is designed to provide various types of protection, including bodyguards, surveillance cameras, special locks, panic buttons, satellite phones or vehicles for at-risk people.

But the program has suffered from serious financial and staff shortages since it began, the 2015 PBI/WOLA report states. Theres a backlog of cases, according to the report, and there are delays in risk assessments. Some people have waited more than a year after contacting the program to receive a response.

Patricia Colchero Aragons, who is in charge of monitoring prevention and analysis for the unit, says the unit doesnt have an analysis of the conditions faced by the people who have been given protective measures. She says they plan to conduct the analysis this year.

While the program struggles to improve, human rights defenders put their lives at risk every day.

Read the rest at Mexico News.Net

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