Brave Lydia Cacho

Lydia Cacho is a Mexican journalist who writes and campaigns for women and children's rights. She founded the shelter CIAM and cofounded a national network of shelters for women fleeing violence. Cacho is also the founder and editor of This Mouth is Mine: Notes of Equity and Kind magazine. She has authored several books dealing with themes of sexual violence against women and children. Her most recent work—Slaves of Power—was based on her interviews with women and girls who had been trafficked and forced into prostitution. Cacho is a recipient of the Amnesty International Ginetta Sagan Fund award.

Unfortunately not everyone has appreciated this activist's tireless efforts to free people from abuse; she has been repeatedly attacked for her work and suffered a severe sexual and physical assault in 1999. This did not stop Cacho from publishing Demons of Eden, her book detailing how important Mexican politicians and businessmen had protected a ring of child pornographers and pedophiles led by a hotel magnate in Cancun.

When Demons was published, Mario Marin—the former governor of the Mexican state of Puebla among those implicated in the book—organized a campaign against Cacho, which resulted in her brief imprisonment in 2006. Although the case against her could not stand and she was eventually freed, authorities took no action against Marin. Upon release Cacho filed charges against Marin, a district attorney and a judge for corruption and attempted rape in prison. She took the case to the supreme court in Mexico, but without success.

In 2009 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asked the Mexican government to take precautionary measures to protect the journalist; but she continues to face intimidation, particularly since the publication of Slaves of Power, her 2010 book naming prominent politicians involved in the trafficking of women in Mexico. In 2011 Cacho reported receiving death threats in her home. By 2012 the continuous threats and intimidation forced Cacho to close her women’s shelter in Cancun.

For protection Cacho now carries a hand held transceiver for use in emergencies. In July the device received the following message: “We have already warned you not to mess with us, bitch. We see that you did not learn from the small jolt we gave you. Next time we touch you, you will go home in pieces, asshole!”

The latest threat prompt Cacho to leave Mexico temporarily while law enforcement organizes a new protection plan for her. In August she explained on Twitter that she was not willing to be “a martyr” and for that reason she was “taking very good care” of herself. However, the same day she wrote that she had left Mexico to devise a security plan, but nothing would keep her from Cancun.

Evidently the death threats against Cacho are designed to intimidate and silence her. She knows that the Mexican government is unable or unwilling to protect those who speak in favor of human rights. Eighty-three reporters have been murdered in Mexico since 2002. Moreover, as I have reported, numerous human rights defenders have been attacked with impunity in recent years. It takes immense courage to continue to campaign in these circumstances. For this reason Cacho deserves our admiration and respect.

Cath Andrews is a professor of Mexican history.