Alert from Mexico

URGENT ALERT: MEXICO
JULY 2010

http://equalitynow.org/english/actions/action_3715_en.html

Take action against the officials who raided a high security women’s shelter in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua State

On 9 June 2010, fourteen men, six of whom were carrying high-powered weapons, arrived at the secret facilities of Sin Violencia A.C. (“Without Violence”), the only high security shelter in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua State, Mexico, for women at extreme risk of violence. Heading the group was court clerk Román García, who presented a copy of an official letter signed by the First Judge of the Bravos Judicial District Family Court, Lic. Guadalupe Manuel de Santiago Aguayo. The letter authorized the use of force and breaking of locks in order to take immediate custody of a minor girl named in the letter. However, the letter was not addressed to the shelter. Accordingly, the shelter staff refused to allow the men to enter and asked for a search warrant, which the men did not have. The staff also informed the men that the girl was not at the shelter, and further explained that it was not possible to allow them to enter since it was a high-risk shelter where the protocols prohibited the entry of men, especially armed men.

The men threatened to send the shelter staff to prison and one of them, while showing his weapon, told the staff, “I invite you all to cooperate, or I will have no other choice but to act.” Another took the shelter director’s identification card saying that now he had more information about who was opposing them and further threatened, “You all are going to regret this, you’re going to get into trouble, it is better that you cooperate, and we’re going to tear down the doors and break the locks.”

Faced with threats of violence, the shelter staff was obliged to open the doors of the facility. The men entered the shelter violently, throwing furniture around, looking under beds and creating a hostile and terrifying situation for the resident women and children who had previously escaped violent situations in their homes. The men did not find the girl as she was not in the shelter.