Free Eduardo Mosqueda!

A terrible injustice is unfolding in Mexico.  Eduardo Arturo Mosqueda Sánchez, a young human rights and environmental lawyer, was imprisoned without bail on July 22 while working to defend the Nahua people in Jalisco State.

Eduardo is currently being held in a high security cell at Colima’s Detention Center.

We urge you to write to President Peña Nieto and the Governors of Jalisco and Colima States, asking for Eduardo’s immediate release.

Find contact information below.

Eduardo works for ELAW’s partner organization, Instituto de Derecho Ambiental (IDEA), a grassroots organization in Guadalajara founded by award-winning attorney and long time ELAW partner Raquel Gutiérrez Nájera.

Eduardo’s arrest is tied to IDEA’s work on a lengthy land dispute that the Nahua people, in Ayotitlán, Cuatitlán, have with an iron mining company (Consorcio Minero Benito Juárez Peña Colorada S.A.)

In 2013, the community filed a constitutional petition known as an amparo asking the court to recognize the community’s rights over the land.  An administrative and labor judge from the 4th District issued an injunction, granting community members free access to all of the lands and suspending the mining company’s use of the lands until the case is resolved.

On July 22, Eduardo and hundreds of community members toured the contested lands.  Some community members, including women and children, were assaulted, and 33 community members and Eduardo were detained.

The community members have been released, but Eduardo remains imprisoned on trumped-up, false criminal charges.

ELAW partners around the world stand up to powerful interests who seek to gain from polluting and destroying natural resources.  ELAW U.S.  moves quickly when one of our partners is in danger.

ELAW and IDEA have contacted the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico.

We now ask for your help.  Please post a message to President Peña Nieto, and the Governors of Jalisco and Colima, asking for Eduardo’s immediate release.

President Peña Nieto

Jorge Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz, Governor of Jalisco State
aristoteles.sandoval@jalisco.gob.mx

Mario Anguiano Moreno, Governor of Colima State
gobecol@col.gob.mx

For more information, visit Justicia para Eduardo Mosqueda.

Thank you.

Bern Johnson
Executive Director
Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide