Luis García Villagrán
Luis García Villagrán is a human rights defender from Mexico and founder of the Centre for Human Dignity A.C., an organisation that provides support to migrants. He has fifteen years of experience defending the rights and human dignity of the migrant population. Over the years, the human rights defender has been subjected to threats, stigmatisation and criminalisation for this work, which led to him becoming a beneficiary of the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists in 2019.
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.
