Video still from Comite Cerezo.
The Cerezo Committee in Mexico has posted on social media: “Rally at #Segob [Secretariat of the Interior] for the 24th meeting of the Special Search Commission for the case of #GabrielyEdmundo #Oaxaca.”
Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez
The Cerezo Committee has previously explained: “On May 25, 2007, in the city of Oaxaca, Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez, members of the Popular Democratic Revolutionary Party-Popular Revolutionary Army (PDR) were arrested and disappeared by various police and military groups.”
Supreme Court decision and formation of Special Search Commission
Proceso has reported: “On May 6, 2019, the Fourth District Court of Amparo in Criminal Matters in Mexico City issued a sentence that recognized ‘the serious violation of human rights’ against Popular Revolutionary Army members ‘by agents of the Mexican State’.” That decision was appealed by the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and the Secretariat of National Defence (Sedena).
The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared notes: “On August 10, 2022, the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation issued the ruling in favor of the victims, Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez and Edmundo Reyes Amaya, detained and disappeared on May 25, 2007.”
A Special Search Commission was established on November 3, 2022. A first objective was to develop a comprehensive search plan.
The ongoing struggle
We have followed this since August 2022.
–PBI-Mexico accompanies Cerezo Committee at sit-in protest at Supreme Court (August 11, 2022)
–PBI-Mexico accompanies the Cerezo Committee at meeting of Special Search Commission on the forced disappearance of Cruz and Reyes (October 28, 2022)
–PBI-Mexico accompanies formation of International Solidarity Committee in disappearance of Edmundo Reyes and Gabriel Cruz (December 10, 2022)
–PBI-Mexico accompanies Cerezo Committee and families in the call to find Edmundo Reyes and Gabriel Cruz (April 6, 2024)
–PBI-Mexico accompanied relatives of Edmundo Reyes and Gabriel Cruz demand progress at 12th meeting of search commission in Mexico City (July 7, 2024)
–PBI-Mexico accompanies reconnaissance activities in Oaxaca in the continuing search for Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez (July 20, 2024).
Accompaniment
Peace Brigades International began to accompany the Cerezo Committee in 2002.
PBI-Mexico advocacy coordinator Manuel Jabonero and PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson met with Francisco Cerezo Contreras of the Cerezo Committee in Mexico City in February 2026.
