Mexico: Alleged enforced disappearance of indigenous rights defenders, Mr Manuel Ponce Rosas and Mr Raúl Lucas Lucía

Front Line is deeply concerned following reports of the alleged enforced disappearance of human rights defenders, Mr Manuel Ponce Rosas and Mr Raúl Lucas Lucía, on 13 February 2009. Manuel Ponce Rosas and Raúl Lucas Lucía are Secretary and President respectively of the Organisation for the Future of the Mixteco People (OFPM), an organisation which is derived from the Organización Independiente de Pueblos Mixtecos y Tlapanecos – OIPMT (Independent Organisation of Mixteco and Tlapaneco Peoples).

Further Information

The OFPM is based in the municipal capital of Ayutla de los Libres and defends the rights of the indigenous peoples of the region by reporting on human rights violations as well as elaborating and managing projects to improve the quality of life for indigenous groups.

On 13 February 2009, at approximately 1.35 p.m., Manuel Ponce Rosas and Raúl Lucas Lucía were arbitrarily detained by three armed men who identified themselves as police officers. At the time of the incident, Manuel Ponce Rosas and Raúl Lucas Lucía were at an office opening event in Plan de Ayutla, a federal secondary school located on El Boulevard on the Ayutla-Tecoanapa road, Ayutla de los Libres, Guerrero state.

Representatives of the municipal authorities were among the 35 people who attended the event. The Director of Public Security of Ayutla, Captain Luis José Sánchez Hernández and approximately 25 Federal Preventative Police officers were there to guard the area. However, at approximately 1 p.m., Captain Luis José Sánchez Hernández received a call on his mobile telephone and left immediately, heading in the direction of Ayutla town centre.

At approximately 1.15 p.m. a well-built man of approximately 1.60 metres in height arrived at the event. He had a military-style shaved haircut and wore a blue chequered shirt, blue jeans and dark glasses. He threatened Manuel Ponce Rosas with a gun, before Raúl Lucas Lucía intervened and was hit on the head with the gun by the armed man. Manuel Ponce Rosas and Raúl Lucas Lucía were forced out of the event by two armed men. A third armed man was waiting for them at the exit where Manuel Ponce Rosas and Raúl Lucas Lucía were forced into a black Domsan vehicle with tinted windows and no registration plates.

At approximately 2.30 p.m., Mrs Guadalupe Castro Morales, the wife of Raúl Lucas Lucía, received a telephone call from the mobile number of Manuel Ponce Rosas. On answering, she heard a male voice say “Don’t start fucking around, keep quiet or your husband will get it, this is what you get for defending Indians”. The caller hung up when Guadalupe Castro Morales asked him to let the men go and not to hurt them.

The same day, Guadalupe Castro Morales went to the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Department of Justice of Guerrero state in Ayutla to report the disappearances. The staff there reportedly refused to open an investigation and only opened ministerial act number ALLE/SC/03/A/W015/2009 to establish a legal antecedent. Together with Mrs Margarita Martin de las Nieves, the wife of Manuel Ponce Rosas, Guadalupe Castro Morales also registered an appeal for incommunicado arrests with the Seventh District Court in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, requesting a search for the disappeared men in buildings belonging to the police and the armed forces. However, the whereabouts of Manuel Ponce Rosas and Raúl Lucas Lucía remain unknown.

Between the afternoon of 13 February and 14 February 2009, Guadalupe Castro Morales reportedly saw unknown men stop on the corner opposite her house on two occasions. Due to the fear that her movements are also under surveillance, she has left her home temporarily.

Raúl Lucas Lucía has previously suffered harassment as a result of his work in highlighting cases of violations of human rights by members of the Mexican Army, including break-ins, illegal detentions, and illegal interrogations. On 18 October 2006, he was illegally detained by members of the Mexican Army. On 15 February 2007, he was ambushed by unknown individuals who left him with a bullet wound in the neck which nearly killed him.

Front Line believes that the alleged enforced disappearance of Manuel Ponce Rosas and Raúl Lucas Lucía is directly related to their legitimate and peaceful work in defence of the rights of indigenous groups in Guerrero. Front Line is seriously concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Manuel Ponce Rosas and Raúl Lucas Lucía, as well as that of their families. Furthermore, Front Line believes that the disappearance of Manuel Ponce Rosas and Raúl Lucas Lucía forms part of an ongoing pattern of harassment against human rights defenders in Mexico.