Throughout the month of May, as the coronavirus pandemic was peaking in Mexico, Susana Prieto, a top Mexican labor attorney who has been defending workers’ rights for over three decades, was making her voice heard.

During a series of public demonstrations in the state of Chihuahua, Prieto denounced the U.S. pressure on Mexico’s government to ease the lockdowns of the country’s manufacturing and assembly plants, or maquiladoras, saying that any attempts to reopen the plants were a direct threat to worker safety.

Apparently, these straightforward comments were too much of a threat, because on June 8, authorities in the state of Tamaulipas arrested Prieto in the city of Matamoros, and charged her with inciting riots, threats and coercion. She could face several years in prison if found guilty, according to the Tamaulipas penal code. “This is a message not just for the activists but for all the working class in Mexico,” says Prieto’s daughter, Fernanda Peña.

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