The then Attorney General’s Office (PGR) investigated journalist Marcela Turati, defender Anla Lorena Delgadillo, and anthropologist Mercedes Doretti, who were investigating the massacre of 196 victims found in clandestine graves in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, according to court documents obtained by The Washington Post.
According to the US newspaper, authorities obtained records of his phone calls and text messages, as well as a mapping of his communications.
The outlet also reported that Delgadillo, director of the justice foundation, filed a lawsuit demanding that authorities close the investigation.
Read more | 10 years of impunity in San Fernando: there is not a single sentence and there are 66 unidentified bodies
He also published that the undersecretary of human rights of the Ministry of the Interior, Alejandro Encinas, said that it is a “clear example of the arbitrariness that reigned under the old regime that criminalized journalists and human rights defenders.”
Instead of looking at those responsible for the massacre of 196 people, including migrants, whose remains were found in “Clandestine Graves” (2011), the then PGR investigated @analorenadp, director of @FJEDD https://t.co/H71YyYOiaR
— Justice Foundation (@FJEDD) November 23, 2021
In a position, the project adondevanlosdesaparecidos.org it reproved the investigation against the journalist, the defender and the anthropologist and demanded that the FGR desist from the investigation, if it remains open, as well as demarcate responsibilities.
“The siege and possible espionage under the pretext of investigations against journalists and human rights defenders must stop,” he said.
Position of those who integrate Where the disappeared go before a report published today in The Washington Post on the investigation of the then PGR against the journalists and coordinator of this media @marcelaturati, the defender @analorenadp and the anthropologist Mercedes Doretti pic.twitter.com/f2k3fTl9Oz
— adondevanlosdesaparecidos.org (@DesaparecerEnMx) November 23, 2021
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) also condemned the incident.
“No state institution should be used to persecute or criminalize human rights defenders and journalists,” he said.
Between April and May 2011, 196 bodies were found in 48 clandestine graves in San Fernando, Tamaulipas. These were mostly migrants and workers trying to reach the U.S. border.
The incident was preceded by the massacre of the 72 migrants, also perpetrated in San Fernando in 2010.
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