César Arellano and Daniel González
La Jornada newspaper
Monday, August 11, 2025, p. 17
Civil Society Organizations, collective, academics and human rights defenders demanded that the due process be guaranteed to the human rights defender Luis García Villagrán at the hearing that will be held today, in which they will be charged with the crime of crime organized in the modality of traffic of persons.
They also requested the immediate cessation of their criminalization, respect for the principle of presumption of innocence, avoid narratives and declines that condemn it before any judicial ruling. That the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and the Judiciary act independently, professionalism and strict attachment to law.
They demanded the immediate freedom of García Villagrán if there is no clear evidence that justifies his arrest, as well as the protection of his physical and moral integrity and that his work as a human rights defender is guaranteed.
The activist was arrested last week by elements of the Secretariats of Citizen Security and Protection, Defense, Marina, National Guard and the FGR, which completed an arrest warrant for organized crime.
In a statement, more than 100 associations and human rights defenders expressed their deep concern
before the process of process linking that the migrant defender will face. They denounced that after his arrest, Luis He was criminalized from the presidential gallery
which seriously violates the constitutional principle of presumption of innocence and exerts improper and irregular pressure in its judicial process.
Luis is an activist who, after facing a criminal process in 2007 in which he was a victim of torture and violations of procedural guarantees were committed, and from which he was released through a friendly solution before the Inter -American Commission on Human Rights, has dedicated his life to the defense of rights at the southern border of Mexico. We want to highlight that Luis is a beneficiary of the protection mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists since 2019, due to the threats and risks he has faced as a consequence of his work as a defender.
They indicated that the arrest occurred in a sensitive political context of pressures and negotiations with the United States government to contain migratory flows and one day before a migrant caravan in Tapachula with a view to visible the lack of instinct responses so that people in transit access a migratory regularization that allows them to improve their living conditions.
