 December 2001/ January 2002
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Patrica Watson, Editor Sara Burke, Assistant Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
Digna Ochoa Assassinated From Servicio Internacional para la Paz (SIPAZ), Box 2415, Santa Cruz, CA 95063; 831/425-1257; www.sipaz.org The human rights community around the world was deeply shaken this past October by the news of the assassination in Mexico City of attorney and human rights advocate Digna Ochoa. The outcry in reaction to this crime was immediate and massive: the Mexican government was inundated with messages from governments, international and multilateral organizations, civil society, and the churches of the world. President Fox has expressed his commitment to undertake an exhaustive investigation in order to find and bring to justice the guilty parties in this brutal murder. In addition, provisional measures ordered by the Interamerican Court for Human Rights have been implemented to protect the colleagues of Digna Ochoa who have also been threatened. In a measure undoubtedly related to the international pressure he has received, President Fox has pardoned Teodoro Cabrera and Rodolfo Montiel, peasant ecologists from the state of Guerrero, who had been arrested and tortured by the army in 1999. Cabrera and Montiel were being represented by Digna Ochoa. In fact, the evidence in the investigation into her murder is now pointing towards Guerrero, where the attorney had recently traveled to visit the communities in which rural people are fighting against the logging of the forests in that state. These pardons, made in response to national and international demands, illustrate the effectiveness of such demands. Nevertheless, threats against Mexican defenders of human rights have continued. On October 27 they were extended to several new people: Miguel Sarre, Sergio Aguayo, Edgar Cortez, Juan Antonio Vega and Fernando Ruiz. It is necessary to increase the vigilance of the international community as this situation unfolds in order to prevent these threats from being turned into deeds, and in order to protect these human rights advocates and offer them guarantees to be able to continue with their work.
For contact information, extensive background information, and
an excellent list of talking points for letters to Mexican leaders,
contact the "All Rights for Everyone" Human Rights
Network at comunicacion@redtdt.org.mx 
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