PBI-Mexico accompanies organizations in search of justice in the murder of Indigenous Nahua lawyer Arnulfo Cerón Soriano

On September 24, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project posted on their Facebook page: “Yesterday we accompanied Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre, Red TDT and Fundar México in their displacement to the 10th District Court in the city of Chilpancingo, in pursuit of the case of the disappeared and later murdered defender, Arnulfo Cerón Soriano. The organizations could not be received by the judge.”

PBI-Mexico adds: “PBI continues to monitor the case of the defender Arnulfo Cerón Soriano and the security situation of his family members and the defenders linked to the case. We recall the duty of the authorities to ensure the protection of human rights defenders, including the due investigation of their cases as part of the fight against impunity.”

They also posted on Twitter: “Yesterday we accompanied @Tlachinollan @RedTDT and @FundarMexico, to the 10th district court in the city of Chilpancingo, following up on the case of the disappeared and later murdered defender, Arnulfo Cerón Soriano. The organizations could not be received by the judge.”

Arnulfo Cerón Soriano was a 47-year-old Mexican human rights lawyer and social activist with the Popular Mountain Front and Movement for the Freedom of Political Prisoners of the State of Guerrero (MOLPEG). He had previously worked as a lawyer with Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre in the mid-1990s.

On October 11, 2019, he was disappeared in the city of Tlapa in the state of Guerrero. Forty days later, on November 20, his body was found in a clandestine grave.

During the search for Arnulfo, his wife Gabriela Pablo described his work in this petition: “Arnulfo for several years accompanied social movements, such as the families of the 43 missing students of Ayotzinapa. Recently he was supporting street merchants in the city of Tlapa, who were abused by the municipal president of this town.”

Last year, the Associated Press reported: “Guerrero Attorney General Jorge Zuriel de los Santos Barrila [says] two people detained in recent weeks have been charged, and four others under arrest are being investigated as suspects.”

Amnesty International has posted: “Following the arrest of suspects in Arnulfo´s disappearance, family members began receiving threatening messages, MOPLEG members noted strange persons outside their residences, and the Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre observed unknown subjects watching their offices.”

PBI-Mexico has accompanied Tlachinollan since 2003.

Please also see: Indigenous groups call on Canadian government to return Tomás Zerón to Mexico in Ayotzinapa case.