On December 31, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances issued five urgent actions in favor of five disappeared people in the communities of Guerrero Grande and Mier and Terán, Oaxaca.
With them, it asks Mexico to implement measures to locate Miguel Bautista Avendaño, Donato Bautista Avendaño, Marco Quiroz Riaño, Mayolo Quiroz Barrios and Irma Galindo Barrios. All of them disappeared in Oaxaca in the context of violent aggressions against the Mixtec indigenous communities of San Esteban Atatlahuca, except for Galindo Barrios, an activist who was last seen in Mexico City when she was going to hold a meeting with the Protection Mechanism.
In the document, the Committee recalls that violence has been recorded in the area since 1999, when the authorities of San Esteban Atatlahuca allied with timber entrepreneurs and the conflict in the communities increased.
The first disappearance occurred on October 10, when Mayolo Quiroz Barrios went to check his cattle and was not seen again. Two weeks later, on 22 and 23 October, there was an armed attack on various communities in which at least 100 homes were burned. The UN committee, in its account, points out as possible perpetrators a “group of armed persons accompanied by Mr. Rogelio Bautista Barrios, municipal president (of San Esteban Atatlahuca) and Ms. Maribel Velasco García, Municipal Trustee.”
After these events there was the disappearance of Miguel Bautista Avendaño, Donato Bautista Avendaño and Marco Quiroz Riaño.
Through the Urgent Action, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances requests Mexico “a comprehensive strategy that includes a plan of action and a timetable for the exhaustive search” of the disappeared, “and for the thorough and impartial investigation of their alleged disappearance, which takes into account all available information, including the context in which his alleged disappearance occurred, in accordance with his treaty obligations”. In addition, it must report to the committee on the implementation of the plan and the progress made.
On the other hand, the committee calls for actions to be taken to find the identity of the perpetrators.
Finally, it requests that the families of the disappeared participate in this process and receive protection to avoid possible reprisals.
As recalled by the Center for Human Rights and Advice to Indigenous Peoples, which accompanies the victims, “the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation determined in amparo that compliance with the urgent measures and actions issued by the UN Committee against Forced Disappearance is mandatory for the authorities of the Mexican State in their different competences.” In addition, “such compliance must be judicially and constitutionally supervised.”
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