Mexico: Human Rights Organisation At Risk

Chiapas is among the states facing the most serious challenges for the Mexican State. It ranks among the highest in poverty, violence, and internal conflicts. 

Human rights defenders working in Chiapas are also at serious risk. The Mexican Center for Enviromental Law (CEMDA, acronym in Spanish), in its 2025 report, noted that Chiapas ranks third in terms of attacks against environmental rights defenders. In the last five years, the organization documented 587 incidents of aggression, 1,428 specific attacks, and 112 lethal attacks in Mexico. The federal entities that recorded the most incidents of aggressions during those years are Oaxaca with 97 incidents of aggression, Mexico City with 56, Chiapas with 50, Jalisco with 48, and Chihuahua with 38. 

In 2024 and 2025 to date, the Observatory for Human Rights Defenders in Chiapas has documented 156 attacks against human rights defenders. 

The work carried out by CDH Frayba since 1989 has been crucial in documenting and exposing serious human rights violations in the state. Due to the high risk they have been facing, in 2010, the IACHR granted to members of the human rights organisation precautionary measures. Considering the most recent attacks reported by members of CDH Frayba, the security measures implemented by Mexican authorities so far, are not sufficient to guarantee their safety.  

On 26 April 2025, Amnesty International, as well as other civil society organizations have already spoke out against stigmatizing statements made by the former President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador against CDH FrayBa