Federal Police Raid Human Rights Center in Ciudad Juárez

The Human Rights Center of Paso del Norte in Juárez Was Actively Involved in Javier Sicilia’s Caravan for Peace

By Candice Vallantin
Special to the Narco News Bulletin

June 7, 2011

On Sunday night, June 5, around 8 p.m., five federal police officers raided the Human Rights Center in Paseo del Norte, Ciudad Juárez.

Oscar Enríquez, the center’s director, says the officers broke the locks on two doors to enter the building and searched the organization’s documents and computers with no judicial order.

The five officers who conducted the raid were identified with the following badge numbers: 12427, 13972, 13943, 13748, and 10573.

The Human Rights Center has been actively involved in organizing the last leg of Javier Sicilia’s Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity. The Caravan will arrive in Juárez on Thursday night, June 9, and leave on Saturday morning.

Sicilia spoke about the incident on Monday morning in the town of Cerro San Pedro, in the state of San Luis Potosí: “I have a direct message for President Calderón: I ask him to tell me, and through me, to tell all citizens, what is happening? Will he listen to us or won’t he? Does he want this dialogue or not? Do we have an authoritarian government who wants to militarize the country, or do we have a government who works with his citizens to serve his democracy?”

“We’re going to Juárez with dignity. We are asking for respect, that they listen to our struggle. We want a dialogue. We’re not asking for anything absurd. We’re asking to rethink our country’s political ethics and they’re responding with violence,” says Sicilia.

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