Human Rights Defenders Ramping Up in Chiapas, Mexico
By Viviana Garcia-BlancoHuman Rights Defenders Ramping Up in Chiapas, Mexico
By Viviana Garcia-Blanco
WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information.
Sign up for our newsletters
to stay up to date on the stories that matter.
The indigenous communities of Chiapas, Mexico have long struggled against human rights violations. The local government and large corporations often exploit the region’s natural resources often disregarding the ancient community’s property rights. Many are detained or disappear for resisting the land grabs. To discuss, we’re joined Tom Hansen from the Mexico Solidarity Network and Thomas Zapf from the Fray Bartolome (FrayBa) de Las Casas Human Rights Center. Every year, Hansen’s organization brings students from Chicago to Chiapas to observe and document human rights abuses. Hansen and Zapf are raising money for the Chiapas human rights defenders so that they can remain independent from foreign nonprofits.