Remarks of Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders to the Faculty of Law of the Autonomous University of Chiapas, 19 January 2026
“Many people want peace, but they’re paralysed by fear. So we need to work harder. Fear is the greatest enemy of peace, we have to overcome it to keep moving forward, to keep weaving closer together.”
These are the words of Fr. Marcelo Pérez Pérez, from an interview he gave in September 2021.
At the time, I had already met him once online, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was one of the first meetings he had with human rights defenders after taking office in 2020. I remember that the father was sitting at the end of a long table, speaking through a computer thousands of miles away, and yet you could still hear the conviction in his voice. At that time, he told us about the defamation he faced in retaliation for his work in favor of peace, about surveillance in the streets, and about the physical attacks and death threats he was suffering.
Those threats started to increase after the killing of Simón Pedro Pérez López in July 2021. I didn’t have the opportunity to meet Simon Pedro, but I have heard a lot about him during my time here in Chiapas, and I regret not having met him. At that time, I sent an official communication to the federal authorities about Father Marcelo’s safety and the pressure he was facing. The government told me that they were constantly monitoring his situation, but the threats did not stop.
When I met him again in 2024, he was different. He chose to give the other participants in the call time to speak, rather than focusing on his own situation. It was the behavior of a humble man, and I have remembered it repeatedly since he was murdered, as well as what he shared at that meeting about the structural injustice present throughout Chiapas and the role of economic interests in the growing insecurity of communities and human rights defenders.
At that time, I wrote to the government again about the father’s situation, asking why an unfounded arrest warrant had been issued against him and expressing concern for his safety. In the government’s response, they said they could not share any information about the arrest warrant. By the time I received the response, he was already dead, shot down in an act of cruel cowardice.
Father Marcelo is not the only human rights defender in Chiapas whose case I have brought to the attention of the authorities, but his is an emblematic case. When human rights defenders are attacked in this way, in broad daylight and in public, it is done to send a message.
As many of you know, the murders of human rights defenders are like stabs in the back for their communities. They create wounds that cannot be healed, but that perhaps, one day, may have some meaning thanks to the struggle for justice and respect for human rights. Fear, as Father Marcelo said, gets in the way. But fear can be overcome with solidarity, and the solidarity I have seen while in Chiapas has been incredible.
There are many concerns. The government is painting a picture of peace, but it is only a simulation. Militarization, organized crime, corruption, megaprojects, and economic interests are wreaking havoc on human rights and seriously endangering those who defend them.
Our conclusion is clear: there is no safe environment for the defense of human rights in Chiapas.
The testimonies we have received here have been shocking.
We will closely monitor the situation of women human rights defenders and indigenous peoples who defend human rights in the state. The murders, arbitrary detentions, and forced displacement of human rights defenders are unacceptable. But we must believe that we can put an end to violence and discrimination, that we will see freedom for those who are arbitrarily detained, such as Versaín Velasco García, that there will be justice for those who have been murdered and tortured, and for displaced and disappeared persons and those who search for them.
I have learned a lot in the short time I have been here, and I will follow up after the visit, using the tools of my position to help in any way I can during the time I have left in office.
There is a bright future ahead, based on dignity and respect for the human rights of all people, on equality, true democracy, and an end to poverty. That is the foundation of a just society. It isn’t a utopia. There might be many obstacles in the way, but it can be made a reality.
Because justice moves like the flow of a river. Rocks and boulders might fall in and block the way, but the water will keep pushing on, finding a way around. And where it can’t, where it looks like there isn’t a passage, it will wear the boulders down, until a path appears.
Original text published by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders on January 27th, 2026.
Translation edited by Schools for Chiapas.