Felipe Arreaga, Mexican Human Rigts Defender detained since November 2004; 14 Fellow Members of OCESP, March 2005

Front Line is concerned for the safety of human rights defenders from the Organisation of Rural Ecologists of Sierra de Petetlán (OCESP), Guerrero state, Mexico. Felipe Arreaga, one of the founding members of the organisation has been detained since November 2004, while 14 other members of the organisation, including Rodolfo Montiel, Albertano Peñaloza and Celso Figueroa, remain under threat of arrest.

Felipe Arreaga was arrested on 3rd November 2004 by the judicial police in the town of Petetlan, Guerrero state. He has been charged in connection with a murder, which was carried out in 1998 against the son of large ‘cacique’ (landowner) Bernadino Bautisto. Front Line is also equally concerned for the safety of his wife Celsa Valdovinos and other members of the Organization de Mujeres Ecologistas, Women’s Environmentalist Organization.

Arrest warrants against Felipe Areaga and the 14-other members of the OCESP were issued in May 2004 in connection with the murder and ‘membership of a criminal organisation’. The arrest warrants against the other 14 members are still pending and they could face arrest at any point in connection with the murder. Felipe Arreaga has been charged despite the fact that he provided three witnesses at the time of his trial proving that he was at a different location at the time of the murder, as he was receiving medical treatment for back problems. Also, one of the key witnesses has admitted in court that he was pressurized into testifying against Felipe Arreaga.

Front Line fears that the case was re-opened in May 2004 in order to target the human rights defenders of OCESP and is calling for the immediate release of Felipe Arreaga and the unconditional dropping of all charges and against the other 14 OCESP members.

The OCESP and the Women’s Environmentalist Organization was set up to mobilise communities in the mountains of Petetlán municipality in order to campaign peacefully against deforestation which is being carried out by illegal logging operations run by local ‘caciques’. These operations are reportedly linked to senior officials in the state government. ‘caciques’ and members of the state government have made repeated unfounded allegations against the OCESP, accusing them of links to criminal and armed groups. In 1999, two OCESP members, Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, were reportedly detained by the military and tortured in order to force them to confess to firearms and drugs offences. They were convicted and adopted as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International. In 2001, President Vincent Fox ordered their release and their cases are before the Intern-American Commission on Human Rights. Rodolfo Montiel is one of the 14 people who have arrest warrants pending.