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| Lydia Cacho Photo: Prometeo Lucero |
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives** announced that it will grant the ALBA/Puffin Award to Cacho Ribeiro and U.S. journalist Jeremy Scahill on May 9.
Cacho Ribeiro became the first Mexican journalist and advocate to decry the constant State-sanctioned assaults on the freedom of expression in Mexico to the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Switzerland.
She—with more than 25 years of journalistic experience—faced arbitrary arrest and torture in December 2005 for documenting the links between political power and pedophilia and human trafficking networks in Mexico.
For not remaining silent, she has endured years of harassment and threats that even led to her exile in 2012. Her interest and efforts to keep researching and publishing never wavered in the face of such abuses.
Cacho's humanitarian work has been recognized on other occasions: She received the Yo Dona Prize from the Spanish newspaper El Mundo in 2006 and, in 2008, won an award from Human Rights Watch for defending human rights.
A year later, the author of The Demons of Eden [Los Demonios del Edén] and Slaves of Power [Esclavas del Poder] won the "Hermila Galindo," which is awarded by the Human Rights Commission of Mexico City, and in 2010 she received the PEN Pinter Prize, among other recognitions.
For his work, journalist Jeremy Scahill has documented cases of militarism and the "ghost wars" of the U.S. in the Middle East and Africa.
The ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism is supported by the Puffin Foundation and was founded by philanthropist Perry Rosenstein, who presides over the foundation. Its purpose: To honor the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War and link them to contemporary struggles. Spanish original
*MV Note: Lydia Cacho Ribeiro focuses her reporting on violence against and sexual abuse of women and children. In 2004, her book Los Demonios del Edén (The Demons of Eden) she charged that several prominent businessmen had conspired to protect a pedophilia ring. After the book's release, Cacho was arrested in Cancun by Puebla police and driven to Puebla, 900 miles away. Cacho has stated that the arresting officers verbally abused her and hinted there was a plan to rape her. She was then imprisoned for a short time on defamation charges before being released on bail. In 2006, a tape emerged of a conversation between businessman Kamel Nacif Borge and Mario Plutarco Marín Torres, governor of Puebla, in which they conspired to have Cacho beaten and raped for her reporting. Amnesty International has described Cacho as "perhaps Mexico’s most famous investigative journalist and women’s rights advocate." @lydiacachosi
**MV Note: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) is an educational non-profit dedicated to promoting social activism and the defense of human rights. ALBA’s work is inspired by the American volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Drawing on the ALBA collections in New York University’s Tamiment Library and working to expand such collections, ALBA works to preserve the legacy of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade as an inspiration for present and future generations. http://www.alba-valb.org/