Amid death threats Dr Mierles appeals to Human Rights Commission

Borderland Beat

"We are no longer afraid of being murdered by the Templarios. We're afraid of being murdered by the state because we are affecting their interests. ..."

I recently was sent information, a video (other than the video featured on this post), email addys, Paypal, wire transfer info to send donations.  I actually translated the video but before I posted I attempted to send a test paypal donation and the account was closed. I have not tried the bank wire, yet.  I have to determine how to do so without revealing personal information.  I did however researched and found his office address, two personal email addys and his office phone.  I plan to contact him directly and ask the best way to send donations from interested parties, I will keep you posted.....Paz, Chivis

Translated by J. Lopez

Rather than a detailed transcription, here is a more detailed summary of Dr. Mireles' words:

"We don't want to keep on burying innocent people. Just yesterday, some farm laborers were hung in an avocado farm that belonged to the Rangel brothers. Day before yesterday, the Templarios came to the farm and ran them off and took their 80 hectare farm where they were growing avocados, but they kept the laborers. Then yesterday, they killed and hung 6 workers who had never been involved in the self defense forces. They were simple workers .

We need help from the international community to get justice. We are not criminals and we don't want to be criminalized. We are simply civilian citizens who are defending our families, our lives, our rights.

Death threats

We want the nation to understand that we cannot go on with our eyes blindfolded, and that's the real tragedy, that we have opened our eyes.

That's the tragedy for this government. They have already warned me to keep my mouth shut or they will come and pick me up, the system itself, the government itself. They want to disarm me. I don't use firearms. You've seen me in videos. The only weapons I have are justice, truth and reason. Those are the only weapons and they have given orders to take them from me.

They've ordered a seal placed over my mouth, but I cannot live my life with my head buried in the sand, watching them kill my neighbors, who were born right in front of my house. It's impossible for a rational human being to accept those conditions: 'If you don't shut up, we're going to go there and pick you up and murder you."

And I want to make it very clear: the threats are not coming from the Templarios, and there will be more evidence coming out. That's why we need your help to disseminate the truth. Those are the only weapons I can use; defend the truth, defend justice and defend reason. Those are the only weapons. But with them, I have annoyed a lot of people in very high places. We need your support, please help us.

To the Commission on Human Rights in Mexico: I hope you listen to me. I called the Mexican Human Rights Commission and they responded four months after I called them for help. I hope the International Commission on Human Rights will be more effective, I hope they have people with the ideals to help us, because, after we're dead, why would we need human rights? When none of the ones standing here to fight survives, why would we need defense that only exists on paper?

The human rights of Mexicans are enshrined in the Constitution. We also know about human rights in the Hague, in Colombia, in the U.N, and we hope they will listen.

We demand intervention by the International Human Rights Commission. This is something that cannot be denied us.

All we are doing is to keep on burying our dead, and sometimes we just bury their heads, because we don't even have the right to look for the bodies of our friends, of our neighbors.

We urgently need international help. We know that the Secretary of the Interior does want to help put a stop to all of this. But obviously, they have to rely on the state government even if they won't get another cent. I hope they won't (?kill?) more people. But we need the federal government to help us.

And if these people want to keep on killing innocent people, let them come after us men, we have weapons, don't kill people who are working the fields, picking lemons or avocados, whose only weapons are the boxes they use to collect what they harvest.

That's why we remain barricaded in our towns, why we don't allow people through, although we are attacked every day. But it's necessary for the federal government to help us, to pressure the state government so it will not be so vicious, so brazen.

They keep picking up innocent people and killing them, saying, "These are the men who murdered the congressman," when the people who were with him saw their faces because they were not even covered.

You cannot hide the sun with a finger, even if you have total control of the mass media. Because we who live here, under fire, have opened our eyes. They cannot deceive us with the lies they spread through the media.

Help us, please, so our message gets to the Secretary of Interior. We have a lot of trust in that gentleman because when the state government tried to lie about what happened in Michoacán, he told them he did not agree with them. The federal government needs to come here and do its job. We cannot do the job of the federal government. We are only civilians defending our families.

You know that after this, they're going to come after me, but it's worth it, worth the lives of all of us [his voice breaks here] if justice is done.

We urgently need protection and support of the International Commission on Human Rights and the U.N. Because the self-defense groups are being executed one by one, and our families, who have never been involved with the self-defense forces, are being decapitated in any ranch where the Templarios find them.

It is urgent that you listen to us. We need it. The massacre has begun. Mr. Nazario threatened to execute 300 people this month. He has already killed more than 50. And to this day, we have not seen any response by the state to defend the people.

We need for the International Human Rights Commission to give us any help it can, to defend us.

I'm just a civilian citizen who is defending my family. We need help from the International Human Rights Commission. We are no longer afraid of being murdered by the Templarios. We're afraid of being murdered by the state because we are affecting their interests.

We are productive, hard-working people, not criminals, so don't try to portray us as criminals. To the International Human Rights Commission, our lives and those of our families are in your hands. Thank you."