2001

8 January 2001: the indigenous Amuzgos who took over the Municipal Offices of Xochistlahuaca to demand that the municipal president resign are violently removed.

February 2001: Peace Brigades International (PBI), a non-governmental organization, begins to accompany threatened human rights defenders in the state. PBI becomes the first international NGO with a permanent presence in Guerrero.

5 March 2001: the Mexican government accepts the recommendation by CIDH to re-open the Aguas Blancas case, and demands a serious, impartial and effective investigation of the facts as well as the revision of the presumed participation of Rubén Figueroa Alcocer and his principal collaborators in it. They had been exonerated in the first investigation.

8 March 2001: The Zapatista march of the Color of the Earth arrived in Iguala. The march is met by 7,000 people.

13 June 2001: various indigenous organizations mobilize to call on the state Congress to reject the “Indigenous Law” proposed by the national Congress. They blockade the congressional building for two days. Warrants are issued for various indigenous leaders for having participated in this blockade.

October 2001: international organizations present the case of the farmer-ecologists before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.

9 November 2001: President Fox, facing serious national and international pressure, orders the release of Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera from prison for “humanitarian reasons.” This amnesty doesn’t recognize their innocence, nor does it clarify who had been responsible for planning and carrying out the incidents.