Human rights defenders Ms Blanca Mesina Nevarez and Ms Silvia Vázquez Camacho are being subjected to a campaign of death threats in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.

Further Information

Blanca Mesina Nevarez is the daughter of a police officer who was subjected to torture and killed while in detention at the 28th Military Battalion in Tijuana between March and May 2009. Silvia Vázquez Camacho is a human rights lawyer who collaborates with the Comisión Ciudadana de Derechos Humanos del Noroeste (The Citizen's Human Rights Commission of the North West) and the Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos (Mexican Commission for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights). Both defenders regularly carry out work in denouncing acts of torture in the region and representing the families of victims thereof.

The latest incident took place at approximately 6pm on 18 May 2010. As Blanca Mesina Nevarez was driving through Tijuana, a black pick-up truck with tinted windows and no registration plates began following her car and began shunting into its rear. Consequently, Blanca Mesina Nevarez pulled her car into the car-park of an OXXO shop, and was followed by the same pick-up truck.

Upon parking, a hooded man described as being tall with a dark, robust complexion, and dressed in black, alighted from the pick-up truck, approached Blanca Mesina Nevarez and said: “this is the last time I'm warning you to stop filing complaints here in Tijuana, there are a lot of contacts and I don't think you want to lose someone close to you. If I don't kill you now, it's because I don't want to provoke a scandal around the elections and because your case is known internationally” (“es la última vez que te aviso que dejen de denunciar aquí en Tijuana, hay muchos contactos y creo que no quieres perder a algún familiar. Si no te mato en este momento, es para no provocar un escándalo por las elecciones y porque tu caso ya está a nivel internacional”). He then came closer to Blanca Mesina Nevarez, kissed her on the cheek, and left. Blanca Mesina Nevarez had been granted protection measures by the authorities following a threat received in February, although it is reported that this protection recently ceased without explanation.

Blanca Mesina Nevarez, along with Silvia Vázquez Camacho – who has also been granted protection measures by the authorities –, have been subjected to numerous previous threats as a result of their work denouncing and publicising the use of torture in Tijuana.

On 5 and 9 November 2010, Blanca Mesina Nevarez was threatened via a telephone call to her mother and harassment of the spouse of another torture victim, in relation to her testimony at a thematic hearing on “Public Security and Human Rights in Tijuana, BC, Mexico” before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in Washington, DC.

On 2 February 2010, the mother of Silvia Vázquez Camacho received a phone call to her house phone in which her interlocutor stated that “the zetas are looking for you to kill you, you complain a lot” (“los zetas te estan buscando para matarte, andas denunciando mucho”). This followed Silvia Vázquez Camacho's appearances before the Unit for Promotion and Defence of Human Rights of the Secretary of Governance and the National Human Rights Commission in Mexico City as an eyewitness in a torture case, in which she had provided her driving licence – upon which the address and phone number of her parents are given – as a form of identification. Furthermore, on 17 February 2010, an unknown man attempted to set fire to the vehicle of Silvia Vázquez Camacho's brother outside her parents' home. On 28 February 2010, Blanca Mesina Nevarez received a threatening phone call in which a woman warned her to “drop the subject of the police, or things will go bad for you”.

On 11 March 2010, the parents of Silvia Vázquez Camacho reported being subjected to harassment by a military convoy as they were driving in the area near their home. A convoy of approximately 25 vehicles, without insignias, reportedly approached their vehicle for some seconds before continuing on their way.

On 12 April 2010, on the occasion of the visit to the area by representatives of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Canadian Embassy and the European Commission Delegation to Mexico, which included interviews with Blanca Mesina Nevarez and Silvia Vázquez Camacho, the two human rights defenders reported that they were subjected to surveillance by two men in a Unit of the Secretary for Public Security of Tijuana which parked outside their office for approximately 15 minutes. Furthermore, over the following two days, 13 and 14 April 2010, Silvia Vázquez Camacho reported being followed and subjected to surveillance by police vehicles which were not operating as part of the precautionary security measures granted to her.

Front Line is concerned regarding the efficacy of the security measures being granted to Blanca Mesina Nevarez and Silvia Vázquez Camacho. On 25 May 2010, as a consequence of the aforementioned threats, the office of the Secretary for Legal Affairs and Human Rights at the Ministry of the Interior provided both human rights defenders with a 24-hour security telephone number to ring in case of emergency. However, when they rang the number to ensure that it was functioning, they discovered that it was in fact a coordination number which functions only during office hours and does not pertain to the police in their region.

Front Line believes the death threats against Blanca Mesina Nevarez and Silvia Vázquez Camacho are directly related to their work in defence of human rights. Front Line is concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Blanca Mesina Nevarez and Silvia Vázquez Camacho.