Mexico: Second meeting of the MPJD with the executive

Castle of Chapultepec (@MPJD)

On 14 October, three months after the first meeting, President Felipe Calderón and members of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD) held a second dialogue in the Castle of Chapultepec in Mexico City. It lasted 6 hours, twice as long as expected. The meeting resulted contentious even before beginning, when photos of the victims were shown to the MPJD committee and when Javier Sicilia rejected submitting to the revision that the presidential Major State requested of him so as to access the Castle.

The first intervention was made by Emilio Álvarez Icaza, ex-ombudsman of Mexico City, who set the tone by qualifying the governmental responses to the movement’s demands as “painfully poor” and demanding that the government redouble its efforts to work in favor of the victims of insecurity. Furthermore, he asked that a minute of silence be had in memory of the victims, among them Pedro Leyva, a member of the MPJD, who was killed in Santa María Ostula, Michoacán, on 6 October.

The priest Miguel Concha challenged the present military strategy that “may have caused irreparable damage to the country. One of the phenomena that this militarized vision has created that we do not want is the rise of paramilitary groups that engage in social cleansing. These groups are at least tolerated by the federal, state, and municipal governments; we hope they are not directly promoted by them.”

Javier Sicilia challenged for his part “this militarization [which] has left more dead than all the totalitarian regimes […]. We do not know if you want truthfully to begin the path of peace.” He stressed the nonexistent response that his proposals have met with. He requested that the executive revise the creation of the Special Prosecutorial Office for Attention to Victims of Violence, which has no budget at all, nor structure or resources; he also demanded a map of route to see how much time the Army will be deployed in the streets. He stressed that the government has not attended to the demands of the citizenry nor of the migrants who are victimized by the National Institute for Migration. Furthermore, he reiterated the necessity of creating a Commission of Truth to make justice for the thousands of victims. Before finishing his speech, Sicilia made a call to the citizenry to carry out acts of peaceful civil resistance, and he called for a national mobilization on 31 October to demonstrate the will for peace. This mobilization is also to include photos and names in plazas and cemeteries, such that those who have died will not be forgotten.

Felipe Calderón accompanied by his cabinet insisted that it was the people who requested the presence of the Army in the streets. He rejected the idea that there is an authoritarian state: “It is not the State that kills and systematically represses and mutilates victims.” He recognized regardless that “it is true that [the State] has not observed its function of protecting the people.” He pronounced himself in favor of a law for victims, recognizing that the victims suffer the violence of criminals and also “the inefficiency of the State at all levels.”

Regarding the demilitarization of public security, Calderón insisted that until there are trustworthy and strong police the Army will continue to be in the streets: “Only when there are trustworthy and human police, public ministers, and judges will we have a secure Mexico. If these institutions of security do not exist, we will never have the security or justice to which we aspire.” He rejected the idea that there exist paramilitary groups.

Thanking the assembled for the possibility of this second meeting, Calderón recognized the gap between the citizens and their governors. He noted that “it is the task of all” to close this gap by means of dialogue, and that it is important to “speak with each other, listen to each other, and attempt to understand each other.” Regardless, the meeting concluded without the likelihood that there be a next one.

For more information (in Spanish):

La tentación fascista amenaza la civilidad, alerta Sicilia a Calderón (La Jornada, 15 October)

Está fracturado el Estado por decisiones erróneas de políticos: Sicilia(Proceso, 14 October)

FCH: el gobierno no reprime ni asesina (El Universal, 15 October)

Una jornada de diálogo sin acuerdos (El Universal, 15 October)

Acusa Sicilia disensos con Gobierno (La Reforma, ‎14 October)

Mi gobierno no es represor ni autoritario: el Presidente (Milenio, 15 October)

Los desacuerdos marcan la reunión entre Sicilia y el presidente Calderón (CNN México, 15 October)

Discurso de Javier Sicilia en el 2do encuentro del MPJD con el Poder Ejecutivo en el Castillo de Chapultepec (14 October)

Discurso de Emilio Álvarez Icaza en el 2do encuentro del MPJD con el Poder Ejecutivo en el Castillo de Chapultepec (14 October)

Discursos en audio del 2do encuentro del MPJD con el Poder Ejecutivo en el Castillo de Chapultepec

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):