On October 8, Espacio OSC published:
“The Space of Civil Society Organizations for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (Espacio OSC), the Tlachinollan Mountain Rights Center, Peace Brigades International and the Iberoamerican University of Puebla, through its Minerva Calderón Legal Clinic and the Master’s Degree in Human Rights, yesterday presented the campaign to recognize the work of human rights defenders and journalists ‘Protect Dignity’, as well as its microsite on the university’s premises.”
Their article also documented: “According to the figures presented during the meeting, between 2016 and 2025, 184 human rights defenders and 84 journalists were murdered in Mexico, allegedly related to their work.”
Espacio OSC specifies that in the last ten years at least 13 defenders, four journalists and one searcher have been murdered in the state of Puebla, and that as of May 2026 Puebla has registered at least 2,848 missing people.
“The absence of a specific protection law in Puebla”
At the federal level, the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists has been operating in Mexico since 2012.
Puebla does not have its own “autonomous” protection law, rather it has a policy of cooperation with the federal protection mechanism.
The Proteger la Dignidad evaluation of the “Agreement of the Executive, which creates the Commission for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists” established in Puebla in 2017 can be read here. The overall score for compliance is low.
Correlating Canadian FDI and protection laws
The Government of Mexico has noted: “In the period January to December 2024, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from Canada to Mexico is US$3.22B.”
The Mexican government also documents:
“In the same period, the states that received the highest FDI from Canada were Ciudad de México (US$1.57B), Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (US$158M), and Querétaro (US$155M). …The main origins of sales to Canada were Ciudad de México (US$6.46B), Puebla (US$2.33B), and Nuevo León (US$1.39B).”
Of these states, one state has no protection (Nuevo León), two states only have protection for journalists (Veracruz, Querétaro), one state has a policy to cooperate with the federal protection mechanism (Puebla), and one state/federal entity has a protection mechanism for defenders and journalists (Mexico City).
Espacio OSC advocacy in Canada
Espacio OSC visited Canada in September-October 2025 to call on the Government of Canada to help strengthen the protection mechanisms in Mexico for human rights defenders and journalists.
For more on this, please see Photo-journal of PBI-Mexico accompanied Espacio OSC advocacy tour in Canada on Protection Mechanism.
USW demand
The United Steelworkers (USW) recently called for “the construction of a proposal to reform the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists” and specifically for the creation of a National Protocol for the Protection of Trade Unionists and Labour Rights Defenders in Mexico, coordinated by an Inter-institutional Immediate Reaction Table for High-Risk Labour Disputes.
Canadian capital in Mexico
Canadian Direct Investment in Mexico was $66 billion in 2025 (cumulative). Canada is the third largest source of cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) in Mexico, behind the United States and Spain. It has also been reported that the cumulative Canadian FDI figure for Mexico is US$56.847 billion (for the period 1999 to 2024).
Natural Resources Canada has also published that Canadian Mining Assets (CMA) in Mexico total $11,466 million ($11.466 billion) in 2023 and that Canadian Energy Assets Abroad (CEAA) in Mexico totaled $5 billion in 2017.
PBI-Canada asserts that Canada has an obligation to uphold and strengthen protection for human rights defenders, journalists and trade union activists both on principle and because of these high levels of economic involvement in Mexico.
Carney and Sheinbaum “remain in close contact”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on September 18-19, 2025, in Mexico City. The readout from their most recent telephone conversation on August 20, 2026, noted: “Prime Minister Carney and President Sheinbaum agreed to remain in close contact.”
The next Mexico-Canada Dialogue on Human Rights and Multilateral Issues will take place in Mexico, likely in May 2027.
We continue to follow this.
