In the context of December 10, International Human Rights Day, around 70 social organizations from Mexico and the United States expressed their concern about the situation faced by the most vulnerable sectors in both countries.
Migrants, victims of armed violence, Afro-descendants and indigenous communities reported that there are more than 11,000 missing people in Mexico, more than 35,000 people have been murdered in the United States, and that authorities in both countries have unleashed violence against migrants, who are detained in xenophobic raids in Tapachula, Mexico City or New York.
The organizations, grouped together in the People's Movement for Peace and Justice (MPPJ), an organization that was created in Mexico City during the Peace Summit held in February 2023, denounced that Human Rights and those who defend them seem to have become the target of the State.
“In the face of these overwhelming facts, we at the People's Movement for Peace and Justice say that the path is not greater militarization, and we call on the broadest sectors of society to promote solutions that put peace, justice, and human rights at the center of the relationship between Mexico and the United States,” said Camilo Pérez Bustillo, president of the San Francisco, United States chapter of the Bar Association, during a joint press conference.
In addition, the MPPJ, which also brings together organizations from Honduras, Colombia, Guatemala and Canada, reiterated the 10 proposals for joint actions to be carried out between the governments of Mexico and the United States with the aim of improving the binational situation around problems such as armed violence, racism and discrimination.
The points include, among other things, the creation of a binational mechanism to control the sale of arms from the United States to Mexico, binational campaigns to change the punitive paradigm on drugs to put life, rights and health at the center, regional monitoring of the human rights situation and the creation of a Latin American and Caribbean citizenship to improve the immigration and labor situation of the Latino community.
A few months before the presidential elections in Mexico and the United States, the MPPJ issued a broad call for the presidential candidates of both countries to take into account and incorporate the demands of these sectors in their government programs to ensure that, regardless of who ends up in the National Palace and the White House, Human Rights are guaranteed.
Present at the press conference were Marco Castillo, co-director of Global Exchange; Norma Mendieta from the Center for Assistance to the Migrant and Indigenous Family; Mildred Malud from the Center for Afro-Mexican Studies Temebmé and from the Black Co-Networks for Peace and Justice; Grisel Bello from Cultures of the Past from Voices of the Present and part of the Platform of Indigenous Peoples and Native Americans; José Ugalde from the Disappeared Justice of Querétaro and part of the Mexico-US Group against Armed Violence; and María Elena Valdivia from the Migrant and Minorities Alliance and member of the Regional Roundtable on Migration and Human Rights.
Also present were Camilo Pérez Bustillo, from the National Lawyers Guild, San Francisco chapter and member of the Regional Migration and Human Rights Roundtable; Jorge Lule from the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights and the Mexico-US Group against Armed Violence; Kathleen Murrain, member of the Black Co-Networks for Peace and Justice; Gabriela Hernández, director of the Tochan Shelter and member of the Regional Migration and Human Rights Roundtable; and Patricia de la Cruz, member of the Black Co-Networks for Peace and Justice.
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