Abel Barrera Hernández

Abel Barrera Hernández is a Mexican anthropologist and human rights activist. In 1994, he founded the Center for Human Rights of the Mountain of Tlachinollan in Guerrero, for which he was awarded by Amnesty International and given the 2010 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.

Life and career Barrera was born in Tlapa de Comonfort, Guerrero. He later spent twelve years studying theology and anthropology.

By 2010, the staff included more than twenty people, handling 1,500 human rights complaints a year.

Recognition In 2007, Tlachinollan won the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which came with a cash prize of US$500,000. Amnesty International's German branch recognized Barrera's work in March 2011 with its Sixth Annual Human Rights Award, given for his struggles "at great personal risk for the rights of the indigenous population in the state of Guerrero". In 2010, Barrera was given the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for "his courageous defense of the rights of rural and indigenous peoples living in Guerrero State in southern Mexico."