PBI-Mexico meets with Secretary of Public Security in Chihuahua to raise concerns about insecurity experienced by communities

La Opción de Chihuahua reports:

“The Secretary of Public Security of the State (SSPE), Gilberto Loya Chávez, held a meeting on Monday [August 26] with authorities of the International Peace Brigade (Peace Brigades International or PBI) Mexico project, with the aim of reviewing data on the incidence of crime in the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo. This, as a follow-up to the information issued by the PBI, where they highlighted their concern of the international community regarding the insecurity faced by the inhabitants of nearby communities, such as Baborigame, Santa Tulita, Puerto de Animas and La Sierrita.”

In November 2021, El Diario had reported: “Loya Chávez, reported that they are waiting for the diagnoses made by national and international observers of the Undersecretariat of Human Rights of the Federal Government and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, on the review and evolution that has had the protection of communities that at some point were displaced by crime in the Sierra Tarahumara.”

That article added: “Communities such as Choreachi, Santa Rita and San Jerónimo de Guadalupe y Calvo, El Manzano in Uruachi and Monterde in the municipality of Guazapares, have presented problems of forced displacement in recent years.”

Internally displaced persons

As of December 2020, there were approximately 357,000 internally displaced persons in Mexico, up from 8,000 people in 2009.

While some have been displaced by climate change and natural disasters, the majority have been displaced by organized crime groups fighting for control of territory rich in natural resources, including timber.

Social movements have called on the López Obrador administration to implement the necessary protection frameworks in this regard.

PBI-Mexico has also noted that the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights has highlighted that Chihuahua is one of the states with most episodes of internal forced displacement in the country.

PBI-Canada webinars on Chihuahua

The issue of internal displacement in the state of Chihuahua has been raised on PBI-Canada-organized webinars by Diana Villalobos Diaz of the Community Technical Consulting (CONTEC) in April 2022, and by Isela Gonzalez of the Sierra Madre Alliance (ASMAC) in March 2021.

PBI accompaniment in Chihuahua

As noted on the PBI-Mexico website here, PBI-Mexico accompanies the Community Technical Consultancy, A.C. (CONTEC) and the Paso del Norte Human Rights Centre in the state of Chihuahua in the northwestern part of Mexico.

The full article about the meeting between PBI-Mexico and the Secretary can be read at Sostiene reunión Seguridad Estatal con representantes del PBI México.