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Two Years Without Ricardo and Antonio: Global Action Against Impunity!

Writer's picture: Alejandra GonzaAlejandra Gonza

Updated: Jan 15

Global Month of Action for the Enforced Disappearance of Ricardo Lagunes Gasca and Antonio Díaz Valencia


On the second anniversary of the enforced disappearance of Ricardo Lagunes Gasca and Antonio Díaz Valencia on January 15, their families, representatives, civil society organizations, friends, collectives, and academics call for global action to demand their safe return, truth, and justice.


Ricardo, a human rights lawyer, and Antonio, an Indigenous leader, were forcibly disappeared on January 15, 2023, after achieving legal victories that empowered their community to defend Indigenous rights and influence mining development by Ternium in the Aquila mine, Michoacán, Mexico. Since then, their whereabouts remain unknown, and their loved ones continue to demand their immediate search and safe return.


The disappearance of Ricardo and Antonio symbolizes the violence faced by human rights defenders in Mexico. Global Witness's annual report highlights the gravity of enforced disappearances targeting environmental defenders, dedicating the chapter In Limbo to this case. According to the organization, from 2012 to 2023, 203 environmental defenders were killed in Mexico, 26 of them victims of enforced disappearance, with 21 cases in Michoacán. Seventy percent of lethal attacks in 2023 targeted Indigenous people defending their territories from mining industries, with the highest concentration in the Pacific Coast regions of Michoacán, Colima, and Jalisco.


Since Ricardo and Antonio’s disappearance, numerous clandestine graves containing hundreds of unidentified remains have been discovered, compounding the crisis of over 72,000 unidentified bodies in Mexico. The investigation into their disappearance has seen no significant progress in prosecuting intellectual and material perpetrators of this grave crime. Flaws in the investigation, lack of family involvement, and absence of a comprehensive strategy to resolve the case raise serious concerns, encouraging impunity and neglect. Moreover, escalating violence around the case, with witnesses and perpetrators being executed after inexplicable releases from state custody, highlights the need for humanitarian solutions to achieve truth and justice.


Families of Ricardo and Antonio continue urging the State to recognize this crime as an enforced disappearance, investigate all reasonable leads—including potential involvement of state agents and private actors—and collaborate with independent experts. Throughout 2024, they have carried their defenders' images and demands for justice worldwide, but international recommendations from the UN, IACHR, Luxembourg, and the United States remain unheard.


On the second anniversary, aware of the humanitarian, forensic, and justice crises plaguing the country due to disappearances and violence against environmental defenders, we invite you to join the Global Month of Action Against Impunity. Contribute your art, share your act of solidarity, sign our petition, send our postcards to the authorities, and demand that Mexican authorities fulfill their international human rights obligations. Together, let us call for the effective search for Ricardo and Antonio, the clarification of the facts, and the prosecution of those responsible.


The disappearance of Ricardo and Antonio is a stark reminder of the profound dangers faced by those defending the environment and Indigenous rights in Mexico. We stand in solidarity with their families and demand:


  1. Establishing a humanitarian mechanism to ensure the collaboration of all stakeholders, including Ternium, in uncovering the truth, finding Ricardo and Antonio, and returning them to their families.

  2. Appointing a Special Prosecutor and forming a humanitarian search team with the necessary resources and expertise to conduct an independent, impartial review of the case and implement a strategic search plan.

  3. Collaborating with independent experts working alongside the families through the Independent Mechanism for the Humanitarian Recovery of Antonio and Ricardo (MIRHAR).

  4. Leveraging international technical assistance from countries and institutions with advanced search capabilities.

  5. Demanding corporate accountability from Ternium to address severe human rights violations, aid the search process, engage constructively with the families, and adopt a zero-tolerance policy against violence targeting defenders.



Ricardo and Antonio, we want you back alive!



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Signatory Organizations:


Global Rights Advocacy

Colectivo de Derechos Humanos Yopoi

Museo del Hambre

Chiwik Tajsal

H.I.J.O.S. México

ARTICLE 19 – Oficina para México y Centroamérica

Red Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos "Todos los Derechos para Todas, Todos y Todes" (Red TDT)

Organización

Movement for Justice in El New York

Moved for Justice in El Barrio New York

Preparatoria Comunitaria José Martí

Geo-grafías Comunitarias

SAC Consultoría para la Construcción de Paz

PsicoActuando

Mira: Feminismos y democracias

Servicio Internacional para la Paz

Asociación por la Paz y los Derechos Humanos Taula per Mèxic (Catalunya)

Servicios para una Educación Alternativa EDUCA Oaxaca A.C.

Global Exchange

Observatorio de Seguridad Humana de la Región de Apatzingán

Voces Mesoamericanas, Acción con Pueblos Migrantes

Colectivo Sí a la Vida

Educando en los Derechos y la Solidaridad, EducaDyS

Grupo Ecológico Manglar, AC

Asamblea de pueblos indígenas del istmo en defensa de la tierra y el territorio

Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Francisco de Vitoria OP, A.C.

Espacio de Coordinación de Organizaciones Civiles sobre Derechos Económicos, Sociales, Culturales y Ambientales (Espacio DESCA)

Futuros Indígenas + Milpamérica

Comité Cerezo México

Federación Nacional de Personerías de Colombia- Fenalper

Frente del Pueblo Resistencia Organizada,FPRO.

Fundar. Centro de Análisis e Investigación A

Global Witness

Rebeldias en común

Jóvenes comuneras y comuneros de Milpa Alta.

Coordinadora Regional de Acción Solidaria en Defensa del Territorio (CORASON)

Asamblea Veracruzana de Iniciativas y Defensa Ambiental

Colectivo Cultural San Miguel Totolcingo

Coordinadora de Colonias Unidas

Centro de Derechos Humanos Zeferino Ladrillero

Centro de Justicia para La Paz y el Desarrollo (CEPAD)

RAÍCES Análisis de Género para el Desarrollo

Laboratorio Popular de Medios Libres

Coordinadora de Organizaciones Cafetaleras de Veracruz (CNOC VERACRUZ)

El Rebozo, Cuidado de la Vida y los Territorios, A.C.

Bunko Papalote A C.

Colectiva Guanajuato

Colectivo Rodolfo Reyes Crespo

Academic@s43

Casa de las Muñecas Tiresias AC

Corriente del Pueblo Sol Rojo

Colectiva Acompañamiento Psicosocial Tetlayeni Ican Yolotl

Flacso Cuba

Amo Ximayahue Kan Nin Tlen Nechtlakaita

Kan Nin Tlen Nechtlakaita

ACUDDEH AC

FJC

Comité Cerezo México

DIVERSA UAN

Sembradoras Mujeres Momoxcas

Territorios Diversos para la Vida, A.C.

Proyecto sobre Organización, Desarrollo e Investigación (PODER)

ONPP-PRP

Los Ángeles Press

UNAM

Raíces sin fronteras

Glorieta de las Mujeres que Luchan

Somos Viento, Asociación Civil 

Instituto Cultural Autónomo Rubén Jaramillo Ménez, México

Pastoral Social, Iglesia Anglicana de México

Glorieta de las y los Desaparecidos - CDMX

Colectiva "Rojo Amanecer" JCM

Amnistía Internacional México

Direct Action Everywhere CDMX

CDMX Health Save

Primaria Fernando Montes de Oca

UPMS


Individual signatories:


Marcos Ezequiel Filardi

Lauren Kimball

Gabriel F. Bicinskas

Paola HT

Greiss Lizeth Sarmiento Barrera

Maria Gabriela Lagunes Gasca

Carmen Gimenez

Anabel Ojeda Universidad Veracruzana

Adriana Salto Domínguez

Marcos Gasca

Carlos Iván Pacheco Sánchez

Guillermo Silva Lopez

Yahel

Camila Abagaro

Margarita González

Tania Ramírez Hernández

Silvia Gavilanes

Stephanie Chantal Segura Espinosa

Lorena Roffé

Yaneli Cruz Guillén

Liliana Souza

Cynthia Astudillo Ventura

Luis Valdivia

María Isabel Ramírez

Fernando Ortega

Manuel Antyonio Ruiz

David Jiménez

Víctor Hugo Guzmán Cuevas

Alberto Solís Castro

Yaneli Cruz

Salma Valdez

Laura Carlsen

Clara Jusidman

Marco Castillo

Julio César Franco Gutiérrez

Mario Rechy Montieñ

Violeta Y. Medina Trinidad  

Académicxs de Monterrey

Michelle Monter Arauz

Juan ganboa maldonado

José Luis García Valero

Sonua Torres Hernández

Liz Sánchez Reyna

Eva Vázquez

Mónica Yerena

Carlos Mendoza Alvarez

Bettina Cruz Velázquez

Areli Sandoval Terán

Mariana Bermúdez

María Teresa Villarreal Martínez

Raúl Ángel Cruz Fiscal

Alejandra Leyva

Marcos Gasca

Regina A. Barba Pirez

Jesualdo Arzuaga Ramírez

Abril Rodríguez

Carla Garibi

Mariana Cruz Marín

Ignacio López Moreno

Miguel Darío Hidalgo Castro

Francisco Ayala Gabilondo

Yuteita Valeria Hoyos Ramos

León Mayorga

Mónica Paola Leyva Hurtado

Karla Yanin Rivera Flores

Verónica Briseño

Mauricio González González

Luz Verónica Gallegos Cantú

Emilio Rodriguez Almazan

Lesly Lizbeth Jiménez Flores

Carlos A. Ventura Callejas

Juan Carlos Flores Solís

Ana Mayela De Velazquez

Julia Escalante De Haro

Giuliana Martínez

Armando Gomez

Mercedes Mata Boyer

Cirio Ruiz González

Nancy Nájera Albarrán

Carlos Guadalupe Heiras Rodríguez

Gialuanna Ayora Vázquez

Rocío Servín Jiménez, Universidad de Guanajuato

Julio Mata Montiel

Antonio Orozco Michel

R. Patricia Rodríguez R.

Anne Fouquet

Diva Cassandra

Kay Nicté Nava Nasupcialy

Rosalba Vázquez Valenzuela

Max Emiliano Negrete González

Maria Gabriela Lagunes Gasca

Gabriele Borinelli

Lydiette Carrión, periodista

Arlen Turcott Flores

Raquel Camacho Lagunez

Yuri Escalante

Elsa Morejón Sánchez

Catalina Rocha OKelard

Isaura Pérez Hernández

Cynthia Astudillo Ventura

Angélica Ayala Galván

Livia R. González Ángeles

Kan Nin Tlen Nechtlakaita

Brenda Hernández Sánchez

Alejandro Cerezo Contreras

Stephanie Elizabeth Medina Ponce

Pedro Mendiola Anda

Luz Karime Ramon Boyer

Héctor Ic Rodríguez

Elizabeth Ayesha Borja Domínguez

Rosa Lucas

Alejandro Meléndez Ortiz

Héctor Cerezo Contreras

Flor Emilia García Monreal

Marcos Vizcarra

Antonio Sánchez

Yarenia Jiménez Pastrana 

Beatriz Briones

Pamela Romero

Silvia Soler Casellas

Limbania Vázquez Nava

Ana Sevilla

Gorki Cuauhtemoc Buentello Pastrana

Magda Coss

José Santos

Manuel Cabrera

Leticia Silva I.

Cristina Kleinert

Guadalupe Lizárraga

Matilde Belem Huerta Lastra 

Sebastian

Pedro Luis del Ángel Rodríguez

Begoña Arretxe Irigoien

María de los Ángeles Muñoz González

Jesús Romo

Valeria Castro

Ramón Flores Ordóñez

Gerardo Alatorre

Ángel Hernández Alba

María Laura Serrano Santos

Dara Asalia Vilchis Avilés

Efraín Rojas Bruschetta

Vicente Para Sosa

Rodrigo Uribe Cevallos

Trinidad Cevallos Rodríguez

Mónica Aguado García de Alba

Mónica Esquivel Santillán

Arturo Carrasco Gómez, sacerdote anglicano

Jorge Verástegui González

José Luis J. M.

Regina Paulina Brito Gómez

J. Ricardo Robles

Miguel Gómez Beltrán

Rocío Ruiz Lagier

Lia Nikol Macias Sandoval

Alejandro Reyes

Maria Isabel Dado Ortiz

María Elena Aguayo Hernández



Contact:

Alejandra Gonza, Global Rights Advocacy – agonza@globalrightsadvocacy.org

Thomas Antkowiak, Seattle University International Human Rights Clinic – antkowiak@seattleu.edu

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