Pablo López Alavez, a Zapotec forest defender from the community of San Isidro Aloapam in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, walked out of prison on 27 March 2026 after 15 years, 7 months and 12 days behind bars. Human rights organizations that campaigned for his freedom welcomed the release in a joint statement issued on 18 August, while pressing Mexican authorities to overturn the conviction that still stands against him and to provide full reparation.
His release came from an appeal ruling by the Superior Court of Justice of Oaxaca. The court reclassified the offence and set a sentence of 15 years and 3 months for simple homicide. Because López Alavez had already spent longer than that in custody since his arrest on 15 August 2010, the court treated the sentence as served and ordered his immediate release. The conviction itself was left intact.
Arrested without a warrant
López Alavez was seized on 15 August 2010 by an armed group acting without an arrest warrant, and was tortured. Over the years that followed he was subjected to further violations, including of his right to a fair trial. His family was forcibly displaced from their community by sustained and serious threats and now holds precautionary protection measures from the Oaxaca state human rights ombudsman.
The campaign for his release was driven for more than 15 years by his wife, the defender Yolanda Pérez Cruz, alongside organizations in Oaxaca and in Mexican and international civil society. The organizations say the detention and the displacement left deep marks on the family, including chronic illness, cultural and community uprooting, and the need to learn Spanish and adapt to an unfamiliar urban environment.
UN findings left unimplemented
The case had drawn repeated attention from United Nations bodies. In opinion 23/2017, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that his imprisonment was arbitrary and motivated by his legitimate work defending the environment. In December 2020, a group of UN special rapporteurs sent a joint communication, UA MEX 14/2020, demanding his release and comprehensive reparation. Neither has been acted on.
The signatory organizations argue that the conviction was handed down without weighing serious inconsistencies and contradictions in the prosecution’s evidence, and without properly assessing defence evidence placing him elsewhere when the acts attributed to him occurred. They are asking the federal judiciary to review the case in full and acquit him, to investigate and sanction the officials responsible for the violations he suffered, to guarantee protection for him, his family and the organizations that accompanied the case, and to stop the use of criminal law against defenders of land and Indigenous rights.
This report was produced by the HuMedia newsroom.
