Five human rights defenders, Ms. Sara López González, Mr. Joaquín Aguilar Méndez, Mr. Elmer Castellanos Contreras, Mr. Guadalupe Borja and Ms. Guadalupe Lizcano are currently in detention and facing legal proceedings, following their detention, as a result of their legitimate human rights work on behalf of the Movimiento contra las Altas Tarifas de Energía Eléctrica - MCATE (Movement against High Electrical Energy Charges.

All five human rights defenders are members of the Movimiento contra las Altas Tarifas de Energía Eléctrica - MCATE (Movement against High Electrical Energy Charges), an organisation based in Candelaria, Campeche, which is part of the Red Nacional de Resistencia Civil a las Altas Tarifas de la Energía Eléctrica (National Network of Civil Resistence to High Electrical Energy Charges), a national organisation of 3,000 members from 30 communities which protests against disproportionate and arbitrary electrical charges and the privitisation of electrical energy.

On 10 July 2009, at approximately 5:00 am, groups of men in federal police uniforms simultaneously broke into three homes which are the residences of Sara López González, Joaquín Aguilar Méndez, Elmer Castellanos Contreras, Guadalupe Borja and Guadalupe Lizcano live. The police failed to show arrest warrants, pointed their guns at the family members present and threatened to beat them.

They also refused to tell them where they were taking the five that they detained. At 11:00 am the family members were informed that their relatives were being held at the Office of the Attorney General and that they would be transferred to the “Centre of Social Readaptation - CERESO” in Kóben, Campeche State, where they currently remain in detention.

On 10 July 2009, the human rights defenders began a hunger strike in protest against their detention. On 15 July 2009, at approximately 3:00 a.m, a district judge ordered that the five activists remain in custody to await their trial. Six hours later more than 100 members of civil society organisations held a protest outside the district court, lasting for four hours.

The detention of the five aforementioned human rights defenders came days after the Government of the State of Campeche had promised to promote a resolution to the ongoing dispute between MCATE and the Comisión Federal Electricidad – CFE (Federal Electricity Commission). On 5 July 2009, MCATE announced that they would not permit the instalation of buildings for the federal elections until an end to the penal action from the CFE against MCATE members was reached.

In November 2008, the legal representative of the CFE initiated a number of legal proceedings against members of MCATE, in which they were accused, amongst other charges, of the illegal privation of liberty of a civil servant. Members of MCATE maintain that this charge refers to their voluntary accompaniment of an employee of CFE to reconnect the electrical supply following a serious electricity cut in September 2008.

MCATE believes that these charges form part of a campaign of harassment and intimidation by the CFE and are an attempt to criminalise MCATE´s legitimate demands for affordable electrical energy. On 11 July 2009, the lawyers for the five aforementioned human rights defenders discovered that arrest warrants are pending for 29 other members of MCATE, including those who had offered to act as witnesses for the aforementioned defenders.

Front Line believes that the detention of Ms. Sara López González, Mr. Joaquín Aguilar Méndez, Mr. Elmer Castellanos Contreras, Mr. Guadalupe Borja and Ms. Guadalupe Lizcano is directly related to their legitimate work in the defence of economic and social rights of indigenous peoples. Front Line is seriously concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of all members of MCATE.