People in the El Paso community rallied around Gustavo De la Rosa Hickerson, a human rights investigator from Chihuahua who said he received death threats that forced him to El Paso. He will return to Juarez tomorrow. Prior to Hickerson’s account of his situation in Mexico, where he said he was threatened at a traffic stop when someone imitated shooting at him, community members spoke in support of him at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, which is one of the organizations supporting Hickerson.

Other organizations who have responded to Hickerson's situation are Annunciation House, Border Network for Human Rights, the Law Offices of Carlos Spector, Paso Del Norte Civil Rights Project, Sin Fronteras, and El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez.

Executive Director of the Border Network for Human Rights Fernando Garcia, Rodriguez and Spector all stood in solidarity with Hickerson, who is the subject of international attention for saying that the Mexican federal army is responsible for some of the deaths in the drug war.

Garcia said that the historical relations between sister cities have been threatened by the violence in Juarez, and that the violence also comes from institutions that are supposed to protect the cities. “The Mexican army, it seems that they are involving practices that are clearly violating human rights,” he said. “If there is a solution in Juarez, if we don’t have a law enforcement, a military that are trusted in the communities, the solution is never going to arrive.”

Garcia continued by talking about the human rights violations that Hickerson spoke out against, which included killings, extortion, disappearances and institutional violence. “Because of his work, his life and security was threatened,” he said. “Therefore, human rights organizations, social organizations [and] individuals in El Paso came together to express that concern.”

He called for Chihuahua state commission to embrace his work, for the Mexican government to provide protection for him, his family and his community, and that law enforcement to be held accountable if he is not protected.

Rodriguez spoke about their 25-year-long friendship and their work for laborers, saying that he can vouch for the work that he does on behalf of workers and the women of Juarez.

“I think it’s important to focus on holding accountable those agencies that are responsible for protecting citizens in Juarez. Not only the Chihuahua human rights commission, but I say the Mexican federal government, particularly Presidente Calderon, who has taken in the media’s views, a very strong stance against the cartel by involving the military.”

Rodriguez talked about the Mexican government’s pledge to use the military to protect the citizens. “It’s simply unacceptable to have a policy whereby the Mexican government uses the Mexican military to provide protection for citizens against the cartel only to find out that there are all these allegations against the military,” he said.

He also mentioned the role of the United States government, which he said supplies $1.4 billion to the federal government under the Merida initiative to fight the cartels, saying: “How can we as a United States government support initiatives that involve individuals that are committing crimes against their own citizens instead of providing protection?”

He called Hickerson a symbol of the effort to address the violence in Mexico. “That needs to be the focus on the United States side. The only thing we can do is to call on these agencies, like the federal government in Mexico, the human rights commission in Chihuahua, the military, and others to respect the rights of individuals like Mr. Hickerson, who is doing his work on behalf of the citizenry of Mexico.”

Spector called Hickerson one of the most dangerous men in Mexico who is “facing death head on.” He said: “He is not targeting the general violence in Mexico. He has 170 cases documented on the Mexican military. The boogeyman is the Mexican military. It’s the Mexican military that wants him dead. It’s the Mexican military that’s put pressure on the commission for human rights to fire him or to let him go back to work, but not to investigate the Mexican military.”

Spector said that as a threat to the military’s continued work, Hickerson has been placed in more danger. He said that his previous two bodyguards were kidnapped and tortured. “We want to send a message to the government in Juarez, Chihuahua and Mexico City is that if anything happens to him, the blood of their government is on Gustavo.”

Spector said that the best defense is to keep Hickerson in the public eye. “He has said, ‘I will not seek asylum; I want to confront my government, I want to seek safety for the people I defend, and for the institution that is supposed to defend these individuals engaged in no other activity other than trying to make an honest living in Mexico.’”

For more on Hickerson's current situation, click here.