Photo by Noticias Oaxaca NVI.
This media release highlights: “The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared Until They Are Found, together with their legal representation and the accompaniment of the Cerezo Mexico Committee and Peace Brigades International, carried out this week reconnaissance activities in different spaces of the city of Oaxaca with the National Search Commission (CNB), as part of the work of the Special Search Commission (CEB), an institution created by judicial order of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to find the fate and whereabouts of Gabriel and Edmundo.”
It adds: “From July 16 to 18, reconnaissance activities were carried out at some points that are important to delimit in order to carry out, in future days, search procedures in order to find the fate and whereabouts of Gabriel and Edmundo. …Today there are more and more clues that can lead us not only to their location but also, possibly, to find the whereabouts of other victims who are in this same circumstance.”
Among the demands made: “We believe it is of the utmost importance to call on other relatives of victims of forced disappearance in the state of Oaxaca who have not given their testimonies or who want to provide new information to do so within the framework of the work of the Special Search Commission.”
The full media release can be read on the Cerezo Committee website at Boletín de prensa: Informe sobre Comisión Especial de Búsqueda caso desaparición forzada de Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez y Edmundo Reyes Amaya.
The 18-minute video of the press conference can be seen here.
A Noticias Oaxaca NVI news article on this can be read here.
Background
Edmundo and Gabriel, members of the Popular Democratic Revolutionary Party (PDPR) – Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), were forcibly disappeared by the Mexican police and military on May 25, 2007, in Oaxaca.
The EPR made its first public appearance on June 28, 1996, at a memorial service in the state of Guerrero commemorating the massacre of 17 campesinos by state police the year before. About 70 armed men reportedly fired 17 shots into the air, one for each campesino killed. The armed leftist guerilla movement has also conducted operations in Chiapas, Guanajuato, Tlaxcala and Veracruz. In September 2007, it claimed responsibility for bomb attacks on six pipelines demanding the return of their comrades Edmundo and Gabriel.
Nadín Reyes Maldonado (daughter of Edmundo) and Margarita Cruz Sánchez (sister of Gabriel) have continued the search for their family members.
Commenting on the case of Edmundo and Gabriel in July 2019, Amnesty International stated: “Enforced disappearances involving State agents and disappearances perpetrated by non-State agents remain commonplace in Mexico.”
Timeline of PBI accompaniment
Proceso has reported: “On May 6, 2019, the Fourth District Court of Amparo in Criminal Matters in Mexico City issued a sentence that recognized ‘the serious violation of human rights’ against Popular Revolutionary Army members ‘by agents of the Mexican State’.” That decision was appealed by the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and the Secretariat of National Defence (Sedena). The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared notes: “On August 10, 2022, the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation issued the ruling in favor of the victims, Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez and Edmundo Reyes Amaya.”
Photo: PBI-Mexico at the August 10, 2022, ruling.
Photo: PBI-Mexico accompanies the Cerezo Committee who will be part of the Special Search Commission, October 26, 2022.
A Special Search Commission was then established on November 3, 2022. A first objective was to develop a comprehensive search plan.
Photo: PBI-Mexico at the formation of the International Solidarity Committee with the families and accompanying organizations, December 8, 2022.
In September 2023, La Jornada reported that the relatives went to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and demanded that the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (FGJ) comply with the decision of the Supreme Court (SCJN) and draw up a comprehensive plan that includes the review of all military installations where Edmundo and Gabriel are presumed to have been illegally detained and then deprived of their lives.
Photo: PBI-Mexico at the 10th session of the Special Search Commission (CEB), April 4, 2024.
Photo: On July 3, 2024 PBI-Mexico accompanied relatives of Edmundo Reyes and Gabriel Cruz demand progress at 12th meeting of search commission in Mexico City.
We continue to follow this.
Published by Brent Patterson on