February 16, 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n On 3 February, environmental lawyer Ver\u00f3nica Guerrero was murdered in the centre of Tonal\u00e1 (Jalisco state). According to reports, the lawyer had received threats because of her fight against several companies that were using the illegal Matatl\u00e1n landfill, causing environmental damage to neighbours in the area.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Environmental lawyer Ver\u00f3nica Guerrero represented the neighbourhood collective Urbi Quinta in its legal battle against several companies for the irregular operation of the Matatl\u00e1n landfill. Since the end of 2021, the company Caabsa Eagle has been accused of irregularly using land to dispose of waste in the Matatl\u00e1n landfill, which has been closed for over 10 years.<\/p>\n The lawyer and environmental human rights activist was at the forefront of the protests. Specifically, on 12 December, she publicly called on the authorities to address the problem, denouncing the conditions in which those affected by the irregular\u00a0operation live\u00a0(1).\u00a0Prior to her murder, Veronica received several threats, some of them direct, from waste collectors opposed to the closure of the landfill, and these threats escalated in the two weeks before her death. Her murder is presumed to be directly related to her legitimate activities as an environmental lawyer.<\/p>\n On 9 February, the Jalisco State Prosecutor\u2019s Office indicated that the investigation was focusing on Ms Guerrero\u2019s activities as a lawyer, effectively ruling out her activities as a human rights and environmental activist as a possible cause of her murder<\/p>\n Based on the information gathered in this case, the prosecutor\u2019s statement is insufficient and inadequate. Ms. Guerrero combined her work as a lawyer with her work as an environmental human rights defender, which was particularly related to her involvement in the Matatl\u00e1n landfill issue, for which she had been threatened.<\/p>\n In this sense, the Observatory recalls the requirements of the recent condemnation of the Mexican State by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the\u00a0case of the murder of the lawyer Digna Ochoa. Specifically, the obligation to develop\u00a0\u201ca specific and specialised protocol for the investigation of attacks against human rights defenders, taking into account the risks inherent to their work, which requires an exhaustive examination of the possibility that the attack was motivated by or related to the promotion of human rights by the victim, with a gender and ethnic perspective\u201d<\/p>\n The Observatory condemns the murder of Ver\u00f3nica Guerrero and expresses its solidarity with the family and friends of the victim.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Observatory calls on the Mexican authorities to ensure an effective, diligent and thorough investigation into the situation of Ms. Guerrero.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Observatory reminds the Mexican authorities that the independence of the legal profession is one of the essential elements of the rule of law.\u00a0This is in line with the United Nations Principles on the Role of Lawyers (1990):\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cGovernments shall ensure that lawyers (a) are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference;\u201d (Principle 16).<\/p>\n \u201c\u00a0Where the security of lawyers is threatened as a result of discharging their functions, they shall be adequately safeguarded by the authorities.\u00a0\u201c(Principle 17)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"listing_category":[65],"event_category":[],"service_category":[],"rental_category":[],"classifieds_category":[],"listing_feature":[],"region":[83,1754],"class_list":["post-12195","listing","type-listing","status-publish","hentry","listing_category-deceased","region-america-en","region-mexico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/12195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/listing"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/12195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21361,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/12195\/revisions\/21361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"listing_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing_category?post=12195"},{"taxonomy":"event_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event_category?post=12195"},{"taxonomy":"service_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/service_category?post=12195"},{"taxonomy":"rental_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rental_category?post=12195"},{"taxonomy":"classifieds_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/classifieds_category?post=12195"},{"taxonomy":"listing_feature","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing_feature?post=12195"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=12195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}