Tita Radilla Martinez - AFADEM

Tita Radilla Martinez is vice-president of the Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared and Victims of Human Rights Violations in Mexico (Associación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos, otherwise known as AFADEM). AFADEM is based in Atoyac de Alvarez, in Guerrero State, and works to bring forgotten cases of forced disappearances to court. 

AFADEM is currently involved in 50 cases from Atoyac and the surrounding area and supports a further 73 cases. Since 2005 it has also been participating in the Memory Project (Proyecto de Memorial). This project was set up by students from the Autonomous University of Guerrero (Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero) who interview relatives of the disappeared in order to create a record of experiences during the Dirty War of the 1970s and 1980s. One case is that of Tita’s own father, Rosendo Radilla Pacheco, a social activist and former mayor of Atoyac de Alvarez, who disappeared in 1974. His case has now been accepted for consideration by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. This is the first time that such a case has been declared admissible by the Commission.

Although many of AFADEM's cases are old, some as old as 35 years, there is still a lot of opposition to their work. The organisation has been subjected to harassment and surveillance as well as defamation. AFADDEM believes that individuals associated with the military are responsible for the defamation, which has included allegations of corruption, specifically against Tita. Tita has also been subjected to more direct intimidation. There was particular concern for her safety in November 2003 after the principal witness in one of AFADDEM’s cases (Zacarias Barrientos) as assassinated. For these reasons, PBI has accompanied Tita since August 2003.

AFADEM's workers say that PBI’s presence makes them feel more secure and that they have greater access to authorities. They also feel they get more respect and recognition for their work. So far, AFADEM has succeeded in getting the state to recognise the fact that there were disappearances during the Dirty War and has secured the possibility for exhumations of clandestine graves in Atoyac. The following text is Susi Bascon’s account of the time she spent accompanying Tita Radilla in 2003:

"Towards the end of my service I was sent to the state of Guerrero to work for two months. It was during this period that I had the opportunity to accompany Tita Radilla, a 55-year-old woman of great courage. 

"The situation in Guerrero had been getting more and more tense as a result of AFADEM's work. Tita's colleagues convinced her of the importance of looking after her security and she contacted PBI. "During the times we accompanied her in Atoyac, she described the hardships she had dealt with throughout her life: the assassination of her husband and the disappearance of her father. However, none of this has stopped her from listening, supporting and accompanying hundreds of relatives of disappeared people in their search to find the truth about their loved ones. AFADEM has played a major role in researching, compiling information and denouncing the disappearances of the 1970s, mainly due to the persistence and determination of people like Tita.

"It was during the Christmas period when we were called out on an emergency. Tita was extremely worried as unidentified armed men had been seen in the neighbourhood where she lived. This was at a time when one of the key witnesses to the disappearances had been mysteriously assassinated. We stayed by Tita's side for 72 hours until the situation got safer. Although she had been used to the pressures that went with her work and had never made even her family aware of the risks, for the first time she was very much afraid for her life.

"Accompanying Tita was a very special gift and a very rewarding experience.  By the time we said goodbye to each other I felt a mixture of guilt for leaving her behind and encouragement for having had the opportunity to walk alongside somebody of such humility and strength of character. Accompanying Tita touched me profoundly and made me more aware than ever that her struggle for justice was beyond the fear of losing her own life."