Alberta Cariño
Encyclopedia
Alberta "Bety" Cariño Trujillo was the director of CACTUS (Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos) a community organization in Oaxaca
, Mexico. On April 27, 2010, she was killed when paramilitaries ambushed a caravan on its way to the indigenous autonomous community of San Juan Copala
. The caravan, including local and international human rights
observers, was delivering food to the community which has been under a blockade from paramilitaries allied with the state government. In the attack died also Jyri Jaakkola
, a Finnish human rights activist, and more than ten people were wounded.
Cariño was Mixtec
and an advocate for food sovereignty, community water management, soil conservation and the right to autonomy for indigenous peoples in Mexico. As part of her work with CACTUS, she worked to organize women's collectives in northern Oaxaca. She was one of the leaders of CACTUS forced to temporarily flee Oaxaca in December 2006 after government repression in response to the 2006 Oaxaca protests
.
Oaxaca
Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
, Mexico. On April 27, 2010, she was killed when paramilitaries ambushed a caravan on its way to the indigenous autonomous community of San Juan Copala
San Juan Copala
San Juan Copala is a little town in the municipality of Santiago Juxtlahuaca in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, inhabited by Trique Indians. Its inhabitants have declared themselves autonomous of the Mexican state and founded the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala in 2006.It has been the...
. The caravan, including local and international human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
observers, was delivering food to the community which has been under a blockade from paramilitaries allied with the state government. In the attack died also Jyri Jaakkola
Jyri Jaakkola
Jyri Antero Jaakkola was a Finnish human rights activist. He was on his way to San Juan Copala, a village of Trique indigenous people that has declared itself autonomous, as a human rights observer when he was shot dead by UBISORT, a paramilitary organization connected to Institutional...
, a Finnish human rights activist, and more than ten people were wounded.
Cariño was Mixtec
Mixtec
The Mixtec are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples inhabiting the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Puebla in a region known as La Mixteca. The Mixtecan languages form an important branch of the Otomanguean language family....
and an advocate for food sovereignty, community water management, soil conservation and the right to autonomy for indigenous peoples in Mexico. As part of her work with CACTUS, she worked to organize women's collectives in northern Oaxaca. She was one of the leaders of CACTUS forced to temporarily flee Oaxaca in December 2006 after government repression in response to the 2006 Oaxaca protests
2006 Oaxaca protests
The Mexican state of Oaxaca was embroiled in a conflict that lasted more than seven months and resulted in at least seventeen deaths and the occupation of the capital city of Oaxaca by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca . The conflict emerged in May 2006 with the police responding to a...
.