Human rights defender, Mr Ricardo Lagunes Gasca, has been ambushed by armed paramilitaries while working in the Tila area of Chiapas on 18 September 2009. Ricardo Lagunes Gasca is a lawyer with the Human Rights Centre Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas (Frayba).

Further Information

Frayba is an independent organisation working in the defence and promotion of human rights, especially for the indigenous villages and communities in the state of Chiapas. Front Line has issued appeals concerning acts of intimidation and surveillance of Frayba on 30 August and 17 June 2009.

On 18 September 2009, Ricardo Lagunes Gasca attended a meeting, in his capacity as a lawyer with Frayba, in the cooperative Ejido Jotola, in the municipality of Chilon. The meeting related to a legal action to defend residents of San Sebastian Bachajon who have been jailed.

At approximately 12.00 pm, Ricardo Lagunes Gasca left the meeting in one of Frayba´s vehicles, however approximately 40 metres ahead the road was closed off with large rocks and a tree trunk, forcing him to stop. Ricardo Lagunes Gasca and the vehicle were then ambushed by a group of approximately sixty people armed with sticks, rocks, machetes and guns.

The attackers are allegedly members of the pro-government paramilitary group, Organización para la Defensa de los Derechos Indígenas y Campesinos – OPDDIC (Organization for the Defense of the Rights of Indigenous and Campesinos). The group succeeded in forcing Ricardo Lagunes Gasca out of the Frayba van, beat him and took the keys to the vehicle.

Seeing that Ricardo Lagunes Gasca was being attacked, residents of Jotola and San Sebastian Bachajon came to his aid and distracted the attackers. Ricardo Lagunes Gasca managed to flee, leaving all his belongings in the Frayba van.

After the intervention of the residents of Jotola and San Sebastian Bachajon, it is alleged that the armed group fired their guns, resulting in a resident of San Sebastian Bachajon receiving a bullet wound in the thigh of his left leg. After the gun attack, the residents of Jotola and San Sebastian Bachajon fled the OPDDIC group. The OPDDIC group then reportedly surrounded the residents’ homes and threatened to enter them. They also temporarily took over the main meeting hall of San Sebastian Bachajon.

Front Line is deeply concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Ricardo Lagunes Gasca and all human rights defenders in Chiapas. Front Line believes that this latest attack by pro-government paramilitary forces on a member of Frayba forms part of a sustained strategy of repression of human rights defenders in this region of Mexico.