Photo by @Amapola.

On May 18, PBI-Mexico posted:

“PBI accompanies the First National Meeting of Victims of Forced Displacement in Guerrero on May 14 and 15.

Groups from Chihuahua, Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacán, Quintana Roo and the organizations Center for the Defense of Human Rights “Jose Maria Morelos y Pavón”, Serapaz Mexico, Aluna Psychosocial Accompaniment, Contec – Community Technical Consulting AC, participated in the meeting. Women’s Human Rights Center.

The groups expressed their common goals of “creating new ties of friendship and brotherhood” and “overcoming the culture of silence, the main ally of all injustice.””

S!Paz further reports:

“On May 14 and 15, the first national meeting of displaced persons was held in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, where victims of forced displacement from Chiapas, Guerrero, Chihuahua, Michoacán, Quintana Roo and Mexico City participated. With their testimonies, the people evidenced the suffering they have experienced and assured that neither the previous federal governments nor the current one “have resolved our situation and we continue to live the same, far from our towns because if we return they kill us,” said one of the displaced people from Chihuahua.

This meeting was an opportunity for the different groups to reach several agreements, including the one to unite their demands so that the Mexican State guarantees material and psychological stability for women and children victims of forced displacement. They also mentioned the importance of addressing the deeper causes of forced displacement and drawing a work route for this year that integrates several lines of strengthening and visibility.

During the event, they called on human rights organizations and collectives to stay united and bring together others who want to join the movement, with the intention of giving greater visibility to the problem of internal forced displacement and achieving a higher level of incidence in the authorities. These agreements were established in a press release from the Morelos Center, host of the event in the capital of Guerrero.

Teodomira Rosales Sierra, general director of the José María Morelos y Pavón Human Rights Center (Morelos Center) explained that “the law that we are promoting and that is stuck in the Senate contemplates everything, social and legal justice for the victims of forced displacement that are often ignored by the authorities.” They denounced that despite the fact that Guerrero has a law on forced displacement, “families (…) they are not taken care of and the security conditions have not been created for them to return to their places of origin.””