The Voices and Faces Project stands in solidarity with the women of Atenco, Mexico

In Spring, 2010, members of The Voices and Faces Project will travel to Atenco, Mexico to meet with the women of Atenco, a courageous community of sexual violence survivors who are standing up and speaking out about the sexual violence that they have endured at the hands of police. Theirs is a case that our allies at Amnesty International have been closely involved in, one that reminds us of the importance of speaking truth to both power and perpetrator.

https://www.voicesandfaces.org/news.asp#news197

* Today the public hearing was held in the case of Alberta Alcántara and Teresa González, indigenous women charged with kidnapping 6 Federal Agents of the former AFI

* The Fourth District Judge in the state of Querétaro has thirty working days from today to issue a sentence

* The Attorney General's Office (PGR) maintains its accusations against the indigenous women for an inexistant crime

Today marked the final public hearing in the proceedings filed against Alberta Alcántara Juan and Teresa González Cornelio, hñahñú indigenous women accused of kidnapping six federalinvestigation agents on 26 March 2006 in the community of Santiago Mexquititlán, Querétaro, where the agents harassed and sought to extort money from some of the local market vendors. Alberta and Teresa, along with Jacinta Francisco Marcial - acquitted last September of the same charges - have been victims of serious human rights violations.

Click here to access press release

Communities in various regions of Mexico are losing their forests, lands, waters and way of life due to logging, mining, and the implementation of other “mega” development projects by the government and multinational companies. In addition to destroying the environment, these projects cause serious health problems, in part due to irreversible pollution of rivers, lakes, wells, lands, and air.