During the final week of October were reactivated 40 arrest-orders against social leaders of the Guerrero teacher’s movement, and five of them were in fact detained. In a 29 October press-release, the State Coordination of Educational Workers in Guerrero (CETEG), the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights, the Revolutionary Popular Front, and the National Network of Citizens and Organizations for Democracy (RENACID) stressed that these events demonstrate the criminalization of social protest that Governor Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo has undertaken in place of listening and attending to the demands of civil society. Furthermore, the press-release requested the cessation of arbitrary repression against members of social movements as well as respect for freedom of assembly.
On 28 October, in Mexico City, there was held before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) an audience in whcih social organizations denounced the violation on the part of the Mexican State of the right to consultation and participation in matters related to the public interest, in light of the construction of megaprojects such as for example the hydroelectric dam La Parota. The Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA), the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to the La Parota Dam (CECOP), and Tlachinollan, among others, demonstrated that the authorities of different levels of government have violated the Constitution, especially article 2, which demands that the State implement and carry out consultation processes regarding legislative measures, development-programs, or the implementation of works or infrastructure on territory and natural resources belonging to indigenous communities. They related that, with regard to the hydroelectric dam La Parota, it was not informed that 17,300 hectares would be flooded, that 25000 campesinos would be displaced, and that it would affect 75000 others who live downstream. No one was consulted as to whether s/he would consent to being displaced.
In the case of Inés Fernández and Valentina Rosendo, indigenous Me’phaa women who were raped by soldiers in 2002, the lawyers Miguel Pulido Jiménez, director of the Center for Analysis and Investigation; Guadalupe Barrera, from the Center for Economic Investigation and Teaching A.C.; and Daphne Cuevas, from the Parliamentary Consortium and Equity A.C. denounced that the Mexican State is not observing the sentence handed down by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACHR). In a 7 November press-conference, they denounced that, while the Mexican State first was incapable of guaranteeing the rights of the indigenous women, it later refused to recognize their condition as victims, and when the IACHR condemned it, it failed to make available the necessary resources for reparations. Guadalupe Barrera and Daphne Cuevas stated that, while the federal government assures that it does not have money for compensation, it enjoys a large budget for the financing of publicity and image.
On 4 November in Chilpancingo, moreover, social organizations held a commemoration on the first anniversary of the death of Omar Guerrero Solís, also known as Commander Ramiro, member of the Revolutionary Army of Insurgent Peoples (ERPI), who was killed in the sierra of Coyuca de Catalán on 4 November of last year. The Workshop of Communal Development (TADECO), the Guerrero Network of Civil Human-Rights Organizations (Guerrero Network), the mining union of Taxco, and CETEG, among others, celebrated a mass in the church of San Mateo and later carried out an event in the zócalo. Javier Monroy, member of TADECO, stressed that “Ramiro gave his life for his people, to give them a dignified life, and to build a better world. For that reason he is a model to follow for the youth.”
For more information (in Spanish):
NGO criticizes harassment of professors (La Jornada, 29 October)
Guerrero, Mexico: Reactivation of arrest-orders against teachers and criminalization of protest (Kaos en la Red, 29 October)
Organizations expose violations of the right to consultation before the IACHR (CENCOS, 28 October)
IACHR sentence is ignored, it is accused (La Jornada, 8 November)
Organizations hold homage for Commander Ramiro, killed in 2009(La Jornada, 4 November)
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