Guerrero: Impunity continues in the Ayotzinapa case; students arrested and then released

Photo @SIPAZ

At the beginning of May, Amnesty International (AI) called on the state government of Guerrero to take all necessary actions to avoid the eventuality that the murder of two students from the rural normal school “Isidro Burgos” of Ayotzinapa continue in impunity, so as to assure that those who are found responsible be prosecuted.  In a communique, AI joined the call carried out by different Mexican civil-society organizations and international organizations to put an end to the impunity that has prevailed in the case of the murder of two students from the rural normal school of Ayotzinapa in 2011.  The organizations which signed the public letter to Guerrero’s governor, Ángel Aguirre Rivero, include among others the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights and the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Center for Human Rights.  In the letter, they emphasize that  “The obligation to diligently investigate these types of acts finds its basis not only in the law of Guerrero, but also in the political Constitution and the international accords [signed by Mexico] in terms of human rights.”

In other news, during the afternoon of 7 May, 25 students from the rural normal school of Ayotzinapa were arrested by state police using violence and beatings, and even firearms, according to witness testimony, on the federal highway between Chilpancingo and Iguala.  The students were transferred to the State Attorney General’s Office (PGJE), where they were surrounded by anti-riot police.  The arrest catalyzed a mobilization undertaken by teachers from the State Coordination of Educational Workers from Guerrero (CETEG) during the evening, who carried out a sit-in before the principal entrance to the PGJE office.  Following several hours of protest, the students were released on the morning of the 8th.

For more information (in Spanish):

Carta Pública al gobernador Ángel Aguirre (2 de mayo de 2013)

AI pide a Guerrero poner fin a impunidad en caso Ayotzinapa (El Universal, 5 de mayo de 2013)

Llama AI a dar fin a la impunidad en Caso Ayotzinapa (Novedades Acapulco, 5 de mayo de 2013)

Liberan a comunitarios y detienen ahora a 25 alumnos de Ayotzinapa (El Sur de Acapulco, 7 de mayo de 2013)

Liberan esta madrugada a los 25 normalistas de Ayotzinapa (La Jornada, 8 de mayo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: Release of police charged for the murder of students from the Rural Normal of Ayotzinapa (29 April 2013)

Guerrero: normalists commemorate first anniversary of repression in Ayotzinapa (21 December 2013)

Guerrero: New aggressions against students in Ayotzinapa (26 November 2012)

Guerrero: “The Ayotzinapa case cannot remain in impunity” – OMCT (16 August 2012)

Guerrero: Ayotzinapa denounces impunity six months after the deaths of two students (17 June 2012)

Guerrero: CNDH confirms serious rights-violations against students of Ayotzinapa (16 January 2012)

Guerrero: Extrajudicial execution of students from the Rural Normal of Ayotzinapa (21 December 2011)

Guerrero: Release of 6 members of Communal Police who were detained on 6 May

Meeting in San Luis Acatlán, 17 February 2013. Photo @SIPAZ

Members of the Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities (CRAC) were released after having paid bail of 62,000 pesos, as reports Vidulfo Rosales, defense counsel and representative of the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights.  He explained that six communal police had been released after having been arrested for 24 hours in Acapulco by the Subdelegate of the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) for the crime of carrying firearms.  Raúl de Jesús, coordinator of the Communal Police in San Luis Acatlán, declared to the media that the crime was of carrying firearms of 9mm caliber, which are supposedly used for defense, taken from arrested persons.

The CRAC released a bulletin on 6 May declaring that “IT IS CLEAR THAT THERE EXISTS AN INTENTION AND OBJECTIVE TO DISMANTLE OUR COMMUNAL INSTITUTION BY REPRESSING IT, HARASSING IT, AND LEADING OUR PEOPLES TO ASSUME DEFENSIVE POSTURES.  IN LIGHT OF ALL THIS, THE GOVERNMENT DENIES THE WORK OF OUR COMMUNAL POLICE AND THE CRAC, WHICH DURING THE PAST 17 YEARS HAVE EFFICIENTLY RESOLVED THE PROBLEMS OF INSECURITY AND JUSTICE IN THE REGION OF THE MOUNTAIN AND LA COSTA CHICA.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Boletin CRAC 6 DE MAYO 2013

Liberan a policías comunitarios en Acapulco tras pagar fianza (Radio Fórmula, 7 de mayo de 2013)

PGR libera a los dos últimos detenidos de la policía comunitaria en Guerrero (Crónica, 7 de mayo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: CRAC-PC demystifies journalistic claims regarding UPOEG (20 March 2013)

Guerrero: Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities-Communal Police (CRAC-PC) pronounces itself against state decree (26 February 2013)

Guerrero: Authorities linked to the UPOEG occupy the House of Justice of the CRAC in San Luis Acatlán (26 February 2013)

Guerrero: Governor Aguirre intervenes in situation of insecurity in Ayutla. Communal Police repeats: “it is not us” (24 January 2013)

Guerrero: Self-defense against organized crime in 4 municipalities (15 January 2013)

Guerrero: Social insurrection in Olinalá against organized crime (9 November 2012)

Guerrero: Members of the Popular Movement of Guerrero destroy state offices of different political parties

Photo @El País

On 24 April, members of the Popular Movement of Guerrero (MPG), including dissident teachers, destroyed state offices of the PRI, PAN, PRD, and Citizens’ Movement in Chilpancingo.  The National Coordination of Educational Workers (CNTE) called these acts “desperate,” and for this reason it expressed its “total support” for the teachers of the State Coordination of Education Workers in Guerrero (CETEG).  Union leaders reported that a commission of teachers had entered the state to attempt to defuse tensions and seek a peaceful solution to the conflict, stressing that “as teachers we have never elected violence, though it is the State which is generating with its aloofness and lack of capacity for dialogue conditions of desperation and surfeit.”  Juan Melchor, member of National Political Direction (DPN), stressed that they would work “in the construction of an alternative proposal to the neoliberal educational model that the administration seeks to impose upon us.”

President Enrique Peña Nieto expressed to the state governor of Guerrero, Ángel Aguirre Rivero, all his support for “maintaining the State of Right” and avoiding a repetition of the violent acts perpetrated last Wednesday by thousands of teachers.  For his part, Aguirre reported that there have been issued 39 arrest-orders (still without execution) against members of the teachers’ movement who have installed a permanent sit-in in downtown Chilpancingo.  The governor also rejected the idea that the educators blockade the Sol highway as protest.  The teachers, who have since February been organizing mobilizations against educational reform, reacted violently on 24 April after the approval by the state Congress the previous day of a ruling that contradicted their demands.

For more information (in Spanish):

‘‘Acto desesperado’’, la violencia del miércoles en Chilpancingo: CNTE (La Jornada de Guerrero, 26 de abril de 2013)

PRI condena violencia contra su inmueble en Chilpancingo (Milenio, 26 de abril de 2013)

Presidente de México condena violencia de los maestros en Guerrero (Telesurtv, 26 de abril de 2013)

Los maestros de Guerrero presionan al Gobierno mexicano con violencia (El País, 25 de abril de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: Teachers’ megamarch ends with the occupation of Congress (23 April 2013)

Oaxaca: March-meeting of Section 22 of the SNTE in commemoration of 25 November (30 November 2012)

Guerrero: Briefs – Reactivation of arrest-orders against CETEG members (10 November 2010)

 

Guerrero: Release of police charged for the murder of students from the Rural Normal of Ayotzinapa

Photo @SIPAZ

On 23 April, two police officers from the Ministerial Police of the state of Guerrero were released, having been incarcerated for the homicides of the students Jorge Alexis Herrera Pino, 22 years old, and Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús, 21, which took place on 12 December 2011.  These murders took place amidst the violent operation undertaken by the federal, state, and municipal police to suppress a peaceful student march in Chilpancingo, Guerrero.

On 19 April, judge Arístides Marino Santos accepted the motion calling for the recognition of innocence of the two ministerial police held responsible for these acts, and he instructed the relevant authorities to release them within three days’ time.  The release of the two police officers confirms the fears expressed from the beginning of investigations undertaken by the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights and the victims’ relatives, due to the fact that the first investigations were carried out by authorities themselves associated with the acts and experts who could hardly be said to be independent.  Vidulfo Rosales Sierra, lawyer for Tlachinollan, who represents the Ayotzinapa case, noted that the release of these two police shows the high degree of impunity in Guerrero.  “In grave cases like this one where there was a violent repression and excessive use of force, it is not possible to release these subjects, thus illustrating the prevalence of authoritarianism [in the state], especially given the repressive acts of the past.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado de prensa (Tlachinollan, 23 de abril de 2013)

Liberan a policías ministeriales por caso Ayotzinapa (El Universal, 23 de abril de 2013)

Liberan a los ministeriales acusados de asesinar a los dos normalistas (La Jornada de Guerrero, 24 de abril de 2013)

Liberan a policías ministeriales por caso de alumnos de Ayotzinapa (El Sur de Acapulco, 23 de abril de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: normalists commemorate first anniversary of repression in Ayotzinapa (21 December 2013)

Guerrero: New aggressions against students in Ayotzinapa (26 November 2012)

Guerrero: “The Ayotzinapa case cannot remain in impunity” – OMCT (16 August 2012)

Guerrero: Ayotzinapa denounces impunity six months after the deaths of two students (17 June 2012)

Guerrero: CNDH confirms serious rights-violations against students of Ayotzinapa (16 January 2012)

Guerrero: Extrajudicial execution of students from the Rural Normal of Ayotzinapa (21 December 2011)

 

National: Peace Brigades International presents report on situation of human-rights defenders in Mexico

Photo @PBI

On 8 April, Peace Brigades International (PBI) presented its new report on the work of human-rights defenders in Mexico, called “Panorama of the Defense of Human Rights in Mexico: Initiatives and Risks for Mexican Civil Society.”  The publication demonstrates the actions and initiatives of social and human-rights organizations in Mexico, and it considers 25 cases.  The report is the product of an exploratory mission carried out during 2012 in six Mexican states, in addition to the experience accumulated by PBI during its 12 years of accompaniment work in Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Mexico City.In the roundtables organized by PBI, representatives of civil-society organizations shared their concerns regarding the situation of human rights in Mexico.  Rights-defenders agreed that the greatest obstacles for better security and participatory spaces are impunity, slander, lack of adequate protection, and lack of spaces for consultation and dialogue.  They called on the Mexican government and diplomatic corps to take actions to transcend these issues.

For more information (in Spanish):

PBI México: Nueva publicación sobre personas defensoras; organizaciones y autoridades acuerdan dar seguimiento a su situación de riesgo (PBI, 8 de abril de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: PBI calls for strengthening of protection of rights-defenders in the state (26 February 2013)

Guerrero: Teachers’ megamarch ends with the occupation of Congress

Photo @Francisco Olvera

On 18 April, thousands of members of the Popular Movement of Guerrero (MPG) and sympathizers from other states marched through the Sol Highway and subsequently took the state Congress to demand that the legislators hold session to approve the decreed reform of the State Law on Education No. 158.  It is estimated that 80,000 people participated in the mobilization.

Upon learning that the legislative session had not begun, the protestors decided to take the building.  Minutes after the occupation of the Congress, the MPG leadership received a telephone call to organize a dialogue-table with governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero in Casa Guerrero, where the 50 members of the negotiation team led by Gonzalo Juárez moved.  The commission of 15 deputies was led by PRD official Víctor Salinas, president of the Education Commission, to analyze the proposed changes to the law.Protestors were joined by teachers from Oaxaca, Michoacán, Morelos, Puebla, Zacatecas, and Chiapas, as well as Mexico City; similarly, members of the Mexican Electricians’ Union, #IAm132, workers from the Autonomous University of Guerrero, the College of Bachelors, retired people, normalist students, campesin@s, and some 50 members of the Communal Police from the House of Justice in El Paraíso, Ayutla de los Libres municipality, also joined the march.

For more information (in Spanish):

Megamarcha en Chilpancingo culmina con toma del Congreso (La Jornada de Guerrero, 19 de abril de 2013)

 Alianza Aguirre-PRI frena ley de educación apoyada por una marcha de 80 mil (Sur Acapulco, 19 de abril de 2013)

Se atora la reforma en el Congreso (La Jornada de Guerrero, 19 de abril de 2013)

CETEG libera la Autopista del Sol y Congreso de Guerrero (Excelsior, 19 de abril de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: March-meeting of Section 22 of the SNTE in commemoration of 25 November (30 November 2012)

Guerrero: Briefs – Reactivation of arrest-orders against CETEG members (10 November 2010)

Guerrero: The Communal Police joins the fight for the defense of education

Photo @SIPAZ

On 8 April, members of the Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities (CRAC) from the Tixtla municipality entered Chilpancingo following a march from their communities, to demand the release of the second commander of El Troncón, Nahum Santos Bartolo. The protestors included 41 communal police from Acatempa, Tecocintla, Zacazonapa, and El Troncón, which are communities that have recently joined the CRAC; they answer to the House of Justice in El Paraíso, which pertains to Ayutla.  The reason for this protest was to call for the return of the second in command.  Once he was freed, the CRAC joined another cause: the demand for the liberation of the teacher from Chilapa, Mario Durán Torres, who was arrested by federal police during the operation to displace the occupation of the Sol highway on 5 April.  Torres has been accused of assaulting 8 federal police officers.  In downtown Chilpancingo, the communal police marched alongside teachers.In assembly on 6 April, the CRAC decided to join the demands of the teachers in Guerrero to demand free education.  In a bulletin, they mention that “Our communal institution makes its demands with the teachers of Guerrero who are mobilizing themselves [...].  The deputies should take into account teachers’ proposals for inclusion within the law on education in Guerrero, given that it is precisely the teachers who know about education.”

For more information (in Spanish):

POSICIONAMIENTO SOBRE EL MOVIMIENTO (CRAC, 6 de abril de 2013)

Policías comunitarios marchan armados de Tixtla a Chilpancingo (La Jornada de Guerrero, 9 de abril de 2013)

La Toma de Chilpancingo (la Jornada de Guerrero, 9 de abril de 2013)

Policías comunitarios armados llegan a Chilpancingo; logran la libertad de su comandante (El Sur de Acapulco, 9 de abril de 2013)

Se une la Policía Comunitaria a la defensa de la educación, sin armas (Desinformémonos, 8 de abril de 2013)

Para más información de SIPAZ:

Guerrero: CRAC-PC desmiente afirmaciones periodísticas sobre acercamiento con la UPOEG (7 de marzo de 2013)

Guerrero: Coordinadora Regional de Autoridades Comunitarias – Policía Comunitaria (CRAC-PC) se pronuncia contra decreto estatal (19 de febrero de 2013)

Guerrero: Toman autoridades vinculadas a la UPOEG la Casa de Justicia de la CRAC en San Luis Acatlán (14 de febrero de 2013)

Guerrero: Gobernador Aguirre se involucra en situación de inseguridad de Ayutla. Reitera Policía Comunitaria: “no somos nosotros” (22 de enero de 2013)

National: Campaign “We Defend Hope” in favor of human-rights defenders

Starting on 20 March, the National Network of Civil Human-Rights Organizations “All Rights for All” announced the National Campaign “We Defend Hope” in favor of human-rights defenders.  By means of this campaign, and for a year’s course, it has been proposed that there be shared different experiences of the defense and promotion of the human rights advanced by the 73 organizations that comprise the Network in 21 states of Mexico.

By means of this and other public acts to raise consciousness, the Network seeks to make-visible the contributions of rights-defenders in the construction of a more just society.  During the launch of the campaign, Agnieszka Raczynska, Executive Secretary of the Network, observed that “the work of human-rights defenders is little-recognized in Mexico; on several occasions, it has been the authorities who defame those who defend human rights.  Over the course of the last few years, rights-defenders have been threatened, surveiled, harassed, slandered, and physically assaulted, all because of the work they carry out in favor of the victims or the causes they defend.”

The campaign also proposes the integration and participation of society in general in these efforts, given that all people can be defenders of their own communities and places.

For more information (in Spanish):

Página de la Campaña “Defendamos la esperanza”

Boletín de prensa en el marco del lanzamiento de la Campaña (20 de marzo de 2013)

Página de la Red Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos “Todos los Derechos para Todas y Todos” (Red TDT)

Defendamos la esperanza (La Jornada, 23 de marzo de 2013)

National: Thousands of persons participate in the March for Life in Mexico City

Photo @megafono.lunasexta.org

Thousands participated in the March for Life organized by the Network of Autonomous Anticapitalist Resistance (RRAA) left from the Ángel de la Independencia toward the Zócalo of Mexico City on Wednesday 13 March, while activities in solidarity were carried out in another 20 states of Mexico.  During the march there were made many slogans, including rejections of the war against the people and opposition to the rape of Mother Earth, megaprojects, the disappearance of employment, militarization, repression and criminalization of social protest, and attacks on the autonomy of indigenous peoples.

Raúl de Jesús Cabrera, coordinator of the Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities-Communal Police (CRAC-PC) from the House for Justice in San Luís Acatlán, Guerrero, once again stressed the posture of the CRAC in terms of the context of the present discussions regarding self-defense processes and communal police: “Today we have come with 50 people to demonstrate to the federal government that our struggle has always been from below.  We come to totally reject the place of mining firms in Guerrero, which operate mainly in communal territories.  We also reject the decree that the Guerrero state governor Ángel Heladio Aguirre has released, calling for the Communal Police to integrate into the state apparatus, and for the community to be the subject of the federal government, as he desires.  We will not allow this, because our rulers are the people.  There is our base [...].  We would like to report to Mexican society that it not be deceived by the media, because the media at times lie.  There is a great deal of confusion now regarding the relationship between the Communal Police and the Union of Peoples and Organizations of the State of Guerrero (UPOEG) and self-defense in Guerrero.  We do not have links or ties with them.  We are independent and autonomous.”

For more information (in Spanish):

México DF: Voces desde la Marcha por la Vida(www.megafono.lunasexta.org 14 de marzo de 2013)

México: Durante Marcha por la Vida, Viudas de Pasta de Conchos piden justicia (Kaos en la Red, 15 de marzo de 2013)

El variopinto México de abajo marcha por la vida (Desinformémonos, 18 de marzo de 2013)

For more information (in Spanish):

Guerrero: CRAC-PC demystifies journalistic claims regarding UPOEG (20 March 2013)

Guerrero: Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities-Communal Police (CRAC-PC) pronounces itself against state decree (26 February 2013)

Guerrero: Authorities linked to the UPOEG occupy the House of Justice of the CRAC in San Luis Acatlán (26 February 2013)

Guerrero: Governor Aguirre intervenes in situation of insecurity in Ayutla. Communal Police repeats: “it is not us” (24 January 2013)

Guerrero: Self-defense against organized crime in 4 municipalities (15 January 2013)

Guerrero: Social insurrection in Olinalá against organized crime (9 November 2012)

Mexico: National Network of Civil Resistance against High Electricity Prices denounces failures of Governance

In a press-conference held on 5 March, members of the National Network of Civil Resistance against High Electricity Prices reported that the Secretary of Governance had failed to observe the agreements it came to on 7 February following a day of mobilizations taken by this Network at the national level.

The Network denounced that “Being close to the time in which the agreements of 6 March [are to be completed], we would like to denounce that on the part of the Secretary of Governance, we have not seen observance of the agreements; indeed, 14 February there have been increased in the number of cut-offs of electricity in different states of the country, and the penal demands have been reactivated against our comrades from the Front of Peoples in Defense of the Land and Territory in Puebla-Tlaxcala-Morelos.  The gravest actions of harassment have been suffered by the comrade from Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo [in Chiapas]; not only have their court cases been reinitiated due to their having participated in the protests of 7 February, but also kidnapping and torture of the Secretary of the Constitutional City Hall of Palenque, Jaime Cruz Díaz, so that he provide information regarding comrade Onésimo Hidalgo Domínguez and other comrades from the Northern Region of the organization Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo.  We are concerned by these failures of observance on the part of the Secretary of Governance; it would seem that on the one hand, they recognize that there exists a social conflict, and on the other, they desire to resolve it by means of repression in place of dialogue.”

Regardless, on 6 March there were installed dialogue tables on High Electricity Prices in the federal Chamber of deputies.  The proposals will be added to the discussion on energy reform that is planned to be discussed during the second period of sessions.

For more information (in Spanish):

Exigen a Gobernación y al Congreso detener la represión, respetar acuerdos y reconocer a la energía eléctrica como Derecho Humano(Boletín de prensa, Red Nacional de Resistencia Civil contra las Altas Tarifas de Energía Eléctrica, 5 de marzo de 2013)

Incumple Gobernación acuerdo para suspender cortes de luz, denuncian (La Jornada, 6 de marzo de 2013)

Ve Alavez apertura energética con plan nacional(El Universal, 6 de marzo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: harassment and threats from the CFE directed at organizations resisting high-electricity prices denounced (5 March 2013)

National: Mobilizations at the national level against high electricity prices (12 February 2013)

Mexico: National day of protests against high electricity prices (4 April 2012)

Chiapas: PUDEE denounces harassment and electricity cut-off by CFE (24 March 2012)