The functions of the CNDH include “formulating public recommendations” as well as “developing and executing preventive programs in the field of human rights.”
The commission is also to “formulate programs and propose actions in coordination with the competent agencies that promote compliance within the national territory with the international treaties, conventions, and agreements signed and ratified by Mexico in the field of human rights.”
Uriel Esqueda and Hugo Rico, who came to the CNDH headquarters in Mexico City on behalf of Actívate, demanded “that the authorities get their act together.”
“We want the autonomous agencies, the institutions, the government on all levels, to get their act together to guarantee that any citizen and religious leader of whatever religion they may be can worship as they choose or exercise their ministry without fear,” a statement from the platform explains.
According to a report by the Multimedia Catholic Center, between 1990 and 2022, 63 priests were murdered in Mexico, including the archbishop of Guadalajara, Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo, who was gunned down in broad daylight in the parking lot of the Guadalajara International Airport in 1993.
During the current six-year term of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in the midst of historic homicide figures for the country, nine priests have been murdered.