Virginia Garay Cazares
Virginia Garay Cazares is a searching mother and woman human rights defender from Nayarit, Mexico. She is the spokesperson and founder of the Guerreras en Busca de Nuestros Tesoros A.C. (Women Warriors in Search of Our Treasures) collective, a group of mostly mothers in search of their disappeared family members in the State of Nayarit. She is an honorary member of the Citizen Council of the Human Rights Defence Commission for the State of Nayarit and the Advisory Assembly of the Executive Commission of Integral Attention to Victims. She used to be a member of the National Citizens’ Council of the National Search System. Since the disappearance of her son Bryan Eduardo Arias Garay in February 2018, Virginia Garay Cazares has worked in the search of disappeared family members and in defence of justice, truth, and reparation in such cases.
Human rights defenders (HRDs) and journalists in Mexico are subject to intimidation, legal harassment, arbitrary detention, death threats, acts of physical aggression, enforced disappearances and killings as a result of their activities in defence of human rights and the exercise of freedom of expression and journalism.
Disappearances are endemic in Mexico, often happening with collusion from the state. HRDs working on the issue face serious risk, up to and including death. HRDs working in the defence of territory, particularly indigenous territory, face a similar level of risk. They are criminalised, imprisoned, defamed, and often killed. Journalists working on any of these issues, or issues related to the drugs trade and the government's complicity in this, also run the risk of losing their lives.
