Human Rights Violations in Oaxaca

This section uses the illegal detention, torture, and false charging and imprisonment of biologist Ramiro Aragón Pérez and two teachers (Juan Gabriel Ríos and Elionai Santiago Sánchez) as a focus on human rights violations associated with the movement. More than 23 people were assassinated and hundreds were imprisoned as well as many wounded, tortured and illegally detained by Oaxaca state police forces and paramilitary groups. The testimonials of Ramiro, Juan, and Elionai as well as narratives from their family members and a human rights activist who took on their cases are used to highlight the contradiction between rights on paper in the Mexican national and Oaxaca state constitution and the systematic violation of these rights in the course of state repression. The section includes an archive of photographs taken of Ramiro, Juan Gabriel, and Elionai after they were detained in which their torture lesions are clearly visible. It also highlights several reports which document violations of human rights and freedoms of inquiry and expression in Oaxaca. On July 28, 2009, Guzmán and Aragón Pérez received notification from the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that their political asylum application had been accepted. The material here references chapter 4 of the book.