An unidentified man attacked Mexican human rights activist Norma Esther Andrade [2] with a knife on the morning of Feb. 3 as she was leaving her current residence in the Coyoacán delegación (borough) of Mexico City. She was cut on one cheek by the attacker, who then fled without speaking. Andrade, a founder of the organization Our Daughters Return Home [3], has been a leader in denouncing the unsolved murders of hundreds of women in Ciudad Juárez [4] in the northern state of Chihuahua. She has been staying in Mexico City since she was wounded by gunfire from unknown attackers in Ciudad Juárez on Dec. 2; local authorities claimed the attack might be a carjacking or robbery attempt.
After the latest instance of the authorities' failure to provide adequate protection—despite repeated threats and an order from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR [5], or CIDH in Spanish)—Andrade and her family are considering the possibility of seeking asylum outside Mexico. (La Jornada [6], Mexico, Feb. 4, Feb. 5)
In other news, on Feb. 2 the federal Chamber of Deputies called on the federal government and the Guerrero [7] state government to intensify their efforts to find environmental activists Eva Alarcón Ortiz and Marcial Bautista Valle [8], leaders in the Organization of Ecologist Campesinos of the Sierra de Petatlán and Coyuca de Catalán (OCESP) in Guerrero. The two were kidnapped on Dec. 7 while traveling by bus to the state capital, Chilpancingo, and are still missing. A local police commander, Cesario Espinoza Palma, was arrested in connection with the kidnapping in December, but it is not clear whether any progress has been made in the case since then. (Notimex, Feb. 2, via La Crónica de Hoy [9], Mexico)
From Weekly News Update on the Americas [10], Feb. 5.
