By: Elio Henríquez, Correspondent

San Cristóbal De las Casas, Chiapas

Dora Roblero, the new director of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba), took office yesterday, in a ceremony in which she reaffirmed her “commitment to walk together with the peoples who struggle and defend land and territory, those who exercise autonomy and self-determination in spite of adversities, omission and acquiescence of the governments, which in addition to administering the conflicts don’t carry out effective actions to stop and duly address the serious human rights violations that we experience in Chiapas.”

She assured that: “a common pattern persists in the federal and state governments: they murder, criminalize, threaten and torture those who defend human rights and life, in the midst of structural racism and discrimination.

“The generalized violence emanating from the dispute between organized crime groups for the control of territories and from the capture and complicity of institutions is intense, as well as the proliferation of different hardline actors who act with impunity.”

Added to the foregoing are: “the unresolved internal armed conflict, the renewed military presence, the exercise of self-government impelled from different community proposals and the constant attacks on Zapatista autonomy in the midst of an ominous silence of the Mexican government, as well as the impulse of megaprojects and social programs imposed on the communities, which favor community division and territorial dispossession.”

She stated that within the state “a humanitarian crisis exists around the phenomenon of internal forced displacement; around 14, 893 people have experienced this situation due to the generalized violence and constant impunity because of the ineffectiveness and omission of the Mexican State. Torture is also a generalized and systemic practice that remains installed as a mechanism for simulating justice and fabricating culprits, leaving a grave impact on the victims, their families and society.”

Roblero’s taking the oath of office, in substitution for Pedro Faro, was held in the Frayba offices with the presence of its president, Raúl Vera, bishop emeritus of Saltillo, Coahuila, and of members of the Board of Directors, as well as the head of the Diocese of San Cristóbal, Rodrigo Aguilar, and representatives of different civil society groupings.

Upon taking office for the next three years, the new director of the organization founded by the late Bishop Samuel Ruiz García in March 1989 said that “it will be a challenge” to lead the Frayba, where she has been working for 14 years, and although “I know that it’s not easy, I have a great team and many people who are accompanying me.”

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, https://www.jornada.com.mx/2022/05/24/estados/024n2est, Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee