Mexico Government Violates Migrants' Human Rights - Brother Tomas Gonzalez Castillo Yetlaneci Alcaraz - Proceso
go to original December 23, 2013

The message was straightforward: “Tonight we are going to enter the shelter and the first head we cut off will be yours.” The intended recipient was also clear: Brother Tomás González Castillo, the Franciscan founder of The 72, the shelter in Tenosique, Tabasco [near the Guatemala border] that for nearly three years has provided support, protection and company to thousands of Central American immigrants who arrive on Mexican soil on their way north.

Eight months after this macabre threat, what should make Brother Tomás feel safe in reality causes distrust, suspicion and other opposing feelings. It is the federal police, belonging to the same group that the priest himself has denounced for extorting Central American immigrants, the Federal Police who were assigned to protect him from the death threats he received in March of this year from organized criminals.

“In Mexico there is a structural and institutional violation of human rights,” stated the Franciscan, bluntly, in an interview with Proceso.

And he argues: In the spiraling violence against immigrants in Tabasco, other than organized crime, another actor has appeared: the Mexican State, through the National Immigration Institute and the federal and state procedures, which are part of system which bribes and systematically violates the human rights of undocumented immigrants.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Translated by Roxy Thompson

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!