3
d) The offices of OPIT were monitored by strangers. Military squads are common
in the communities where the members of the OPIT live and on these occasions, the
people are commonly harassed. Furthermore, some members of said organization,
who would have been imprisoned, mentioned being afraid for their lives. According
to what the Commission informed “in the community where they live, El Camalote, it
is rumored that there are people who […] ‘are waiting to kill them’”;
e) The situation of vulnerability of Inés Fernández Ortega and her family is evident
after the harassment acts of the military officers in the community; specially, if
serious consideration is given to the fact that her case before the Commission, in
which it was alleged she was sexually assaulted by members of the Mexican Army, is
at a very late procedural phase. The Commission mentioned that on February 3,
2009 Fortunato Prisciliano Sierra, husband of Inés Fernández Ortega, saw almost
fifty military offices, carrying long weapons, looking for something in a plot of land of
his property. He then decided, together with this family, to shut themselves in their
house during that day, for fear they could be arrested or questioned by the military
officers. On the next day, Fortunato Prisciliano verified that the military officers had
caused some damage to the property and stole part of the crop. The Commission
pointed out that, according to the representatives, the presence of the military
officers in the area represents an act of intimidation for Inés Fernández Ortega and
her husband, as well as for other members and leaders of indigenous organizations;
f) On February 13, 2009, two Mixteco indigenous leaders of the state of Guerrero,
Raúl Lucas Lucía and Manuel Ponce Rosas, were arrested by three people who said to
be police officers and on February 20, that same year, their bodies were found with
alleged marks of torture. Mr. Raúl Lucas Lucía and Manuel Ponce Rosas were leaders
of OFPM, through which they worked in activities together with the beneficiaries of
the precautionary measures ordered by the Commission. After their disappearances,
their next-of-kin would have been harassed and had received threatens in person
and via telephone calls by state agents and strangers in order to stop searching for
justice. The state government has not conducted a serious, independent and
effective investigation into the facts of the disappearance and execution of Raúl
Lucas Lucía and Manuel Ponce Rosas; therefore, this fact places the next-of-kin and
the other defenders in a situation of extreme vulnerability. According to the
statements made by the representatives, the Commission pointed out that the
defects in the investigation had been so evident that even the National Congress
urged the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic to take up the case and
carry out an autonomous investigation to allow the next-of-kin having access to
justice, and
g) The Tlachinollan organization, co petitioner in the case of Inés Fernández
Ortega before the Inter-American Commission, would have been subjected to public
defamatory remarks made by civil and military authorities in the state of Guerrero. It
is even more serious that between January 16 and March 20, 2009, some members
of the Tlachinollan would have been threatened; specially, when Obtilia Eugenio
Manuel had had some contact with them; and that their telephones were intercepted.
On another occasion, on February 15, 2009, the husband of Inés Fernández Ortega
was questioned about the members of Tlachinollan. Moreover, Obtilia Eugenio
Manuel would have received telephone calls in which she was questioned, in an
intimidating way, about the names of the attorneys of said organization. In addition,
within the framework of the facts related to the disappearance and execution of Raúl
Lucas Lucía and Manuel Ponce Rosas, Tlachinollan became the representative of their