Jorge Hernández Castro
Testimony by Jorge Luis Hernández Castro
The work of human rights defenders becomes uncomfortable and frustrating, as those in power use all the tools at their disposal to injure, kill, detain, delegitimise and criminalise the work of those of us who dedicate ourselves to defending hope.
Jorge Luis Hernández Castro is the Director of Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico. For more than 20 years the organisation has worked for the defense and promotion of human rights, particularly of indigenous peoples in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. It documents and denounces human rights violations, with an emphasis on the issues of arbitrary deprivation of life, torture, arbitrary deprivation of freedom, forced disappearances, internal displacement, attacks against defenders of human rights and criminalization of social protest. The organisation promotes the right to autonomy of indigenous peoples from defending their right to land and territory and promotes national and international solidarity to communities that are vulnerable to become victims of human rights violations
HRDs working in the defence of territory, particularly indigenous territory, face a similar level of risk. They are criminalised, imprisoned, defamed, and often killed.
