MEXICAN AGENCY, GROUP SEEK PROTECTION FOR JUAREZ ACTIVISTS

A Mexican government agency and Amnesty International have urged
authorities to protect other activists in Juarez after the recent
murder of a woman activist.

The federal Mexican National Commission on Human Rights asked
Chihuahua officials to provide safety for the activists, including
Cipriana Jurado, a longtime labor advocate.

Jurado said federal officers detained her in 2008 while she was
investigating the death of Saulo Becerra Reyes, who was among a group
of men who were picked up by federal authorities on Oct. 21, 2008, on
suspicion of ties to drug-trafficking.

Amnesty International said a death certificate states Becerra died
from a brain hemorrhage a day following his detention. However,
authorities never acknowledged Becerra's detention, and Becerra's
body was not found until March 2009.

Mexican authorities freed Jurado after several nongovernmental groups
came to her aid.

Amnesty International said Jurado also accompanied the late Josefina
Reyes in marches and other protests involving alleged abuses by
soldiers and federal agents, who were sent to Chihuahua state to
battle the drug cartels.

Josefina Reyes, who was shot to death Jan. 3 in her Valle de Juarez
community, was the mother of Miguel Angel Reyes Salazar, one of
several suspects federal authorities detained last September with
Rodolfo "Rikin" Escajeda, a man U.S. and Mexican investigators said
was a dangerous drug dealer.

Mexican authorities presented Escajeda and Reyes Salazar at a press
conference in Mexico City, but Reyes' mother claimed she had no
contact with her son and therefore could not verify he was still
alive. Julio Cesar Reyes, another one of her sons, was killed in 2008
in Valle de Juarez.