New Death Threats Against Father Alejandro Solalinde

New Death Threats Against Father Alejandro Solalinde - Demand That He Be Protected
 
To add your signature in support of Father Solalinde click here
 
On Sunday 15th April Father Alejandro Solalinde,  Coordinator of the catholic  organisation The Pastoral Dimension of Human Migration and director of a migrants hostel in Ixtepec, Oaxaca was receiving a large group of migrants who arrived by train. While directing them towards the hostel two unknown men intercepted the migrants and began to threaten them verbally; when the priest intervened the men insulted him and threatened to kill him.
 
Two weeks earlier, on the 31st March, the dismembered body of a young local man was found next to a bar close to the train tracks in the town. Members of the Urban Rescue Group, a vigilance association associated with the municipal authorities, publicly blamed migrants for the killing. Father Solalinde spoke to the family of the dead man to refute this unfounded allegation. While the victim’s funeral was taking place two men approached Father Solalinde with the apparent intention of assaulting him, but they were stopped by the victim’s family. The following day Father Solalinde received a report from an associate that an assassin had been contracted to kill him.
 
The InterAmerican Commission of Human Rights has previously issued Protective Measures requiring the Mexican authorities to protect Father Solalinde and his colleagues after they had been the subject of threats and other acts of intimidation as a result of their work in defense of migrants. These new threats occurred while municipal authorities and the hostel team were in discussion as to how to implement the protective measures.
 
Amnesty International calls for letters to the Mexican authorities, to demand:
That the protective measures for Father Alejandro Solalinde and his team are strengthened in line with the ruling of the InterAmerican Commission of Human Rights

That urgent actions are taken to prevent attacks on migrants and those that defend them and in particular that the safety of those working in the Ixtepec hostel is guaranteed.

That an impartial, complete and speedy investigation of the murder that took place on 31 March in Ixtepec is carried out, that the results are made public and that those responsible are brought to justice.
 
Further Information:
 
Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra has been repeatedly threatened for his public condemnation of the ill treatment against migrants crossing Mexico committed by criminal gangs and public officials. These include threats to burn down the hostel that he runs if it is not closed. It has been noted in recent years, local officials and individuals associated with organized crime have been at the front of local protests against migrants and attacks on the hostel.
 
Every year hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants from countries of origin in Central and South America attempt to reach the United States via Mexico. Many are detained by immigration officials and deported. The Research Team at Amnesty International has recorded a large number of kidnappings of migrants by organized crime, in some cases with the complicity of local officials. The impunity witnessed in these cases has allowed abuses against migrants to increase, in spite of promises by the authorities to respect the rights of migrants.
 
Read more here: http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/protect-undocumented-migrants-mexico

ENDS

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