By Lizbeth Diaz
MEXICO CITY, April 14 (Reuters) – The U.S. on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a well-known human rights activist in Mexico who has for years levied charges of human rights abuses against the country’s Armed Forces, alleging he worked on behalf of a powerful drug cartel.
The U.S. Treasury Department accused Raymundo Ramos, president of the Committee for Human Rights of Nuevo Laredo, of “posing as a ‘human rights’ activist” for more than a decade in order to fabricate false accusations against the Army and protect members of the powerful Cartel of the Northeast (CDN).
“On the CDN payroll, Ramos engages in these activities with the goal of boosting the public opinion of CDN and discrediting Mexican authorities’ law enforcement initiatives against the cartel,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.
Washington’s move blocks any assets Ramos might have in the United States and bars U.S. persons from working with him.
Ramos did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment about the accusations. Based in Nuevo Laredo, an ultra-violent city in the state of Tamaulipas, bordering the U.S., Ramos has long been one of the most high-profile human rights activists operating in the area.
In 2023, Ramos raised the alarm over alleged extrajudicial killings committed by the Armed Forces and publicized video of Army members shooting and killing five young men in a pickup truck, including one with a shot to the back of the neck. A year earlier, he accused members of the Navy of forcibly disappearing civilians.
In both instances, Mexican authorities detained military officials and carried out investigations. It’s unclear whether the investigations resulted in formal charges or convictions.
The Mexican attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the accusations against Ramos or whether it is independently investigating him.
In 2020, the Mexican government targeted Ramos’ phone with the Pegasus spyware program, according to Mexico’s Digital Rights Defense Network and the Toronto-based digital watchdog Citizen Lab. He was among hundreds of Mexican activists and journalists spied on by the government using the spyware, the groups said.
(Reporting by Lizbeth Díaz; Editing by Raúl Cortés, Emily Green and Sonali Paul)
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