By Barbara Dolman | Project Leader
Within the project Safety and Human Dignity for Migrants, the Human Rights Center Frayba accompanied Roberto Carlos Ruiz, a migrant from Honduras. Roberto is a victim of torture and was wrongfully detained for over five years.
The first time Roberto left Honduras due to the conditions of poverty in which he lived, was in 1994 when he was twelve years old. On his third journey he decided to stay in Chiapas, Mexico, where he formed a family. He has a son of 10 and a daughter of 5 years old. To provide for his family he worked as a fisherman. In May 2013 though, due to the difficult economic conditions his family faced, he decided to leave once again to the United States. He was waiting to travel on the rooftop of a train northwards, when people dressed in civilian clothes and armed with machine guns, arrested him, along with 60 other migrants. He was taken to a safe house where he was tortured and charged with theft. Later that day he was transferred to the Arriaga Municipal Police station, where he was tortured again. He remained there for four days; due to the beatings he received, he could not eat and vomited blood. In these conditions he was imprisoned and later sentenced to seven years of prison.
Ever since Roberto has maintained a constant struggle to obtain his freedom; through legal mechanisms and two hunger strikes, three times he stitched his lips while on hunger strike. His Mexican wife, Patricia Díaz Moreno, who works collecting iron and other materials in a garbage dump to support their two children, has also repeatedly demanded Roberto´s release.
Frayba has sought his immediate release, working together with other organizations, denouncing that the sentence of Roberto ignored the acts of torture, as well as violations of due process and the lack of consular assistance. During his hunger strikes we denounced the risk to Roberto's health and physical and psychological integrity.
Roberto was finally released after serving 5 years as an unjust prisoner in Chiapas. The struggle to grant him a humanitarian visa to allow him to be in Mexico with his wife and two minor children of Mexican nationality continues.
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