Chiapas: Conflict erupts in Venustiano Carranza, with two dead and several injured

On 5 May in Venustiano Carranza, there were seen confrontations between members of the campesino organizations Casa del Pueblo and the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization-Chiapas (OCEZ-Chiapas), resulting in several injured and two dead.  According to information provided by the diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, the confrontation began during the early morning of Sunday 5 May, when masked persons entered into different residences firing guns and burning homes.  In their respective communiques, both groups blamed the opposing organization for having initiated the conflict.  During the course of the happenings, which engulfed nearly the entire urban zone of Venustiano Carranza with the exception of two neighborhoods, two persons died and several more were injured.  For its part, the OCEZ-Carranza Region (OCEZ-RC) distanced itself from the events.

Following the confrontations, the state government indicated that it all had to do with an agrarian conflict, and for this reason it did not consider itself competent to attempt resolution of the problem.  Regardless, on 7 May, toward the end of seeking a solution to the conflict Noé Castañón, General Secretary for Governance, Raciel López Salazar,  state Attorney General, and Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca, head of the Secretary for Public Security and Citizens’ Protection, visited the area to try to find a solution to the conflict, in accordance with media reports.  It was proposed that families belonging to OCEZ-Chiapas, which presently find themselves outside the offices of Citizens’ Protection, that they be relocated to the Berriozabal municipality, a proposal they rejected.  The same journalistic source indicated that a military check-point had been established at the entrance of a community of the municipality, with several fly-overs reported.

For more information (in Spanish):

Proceso: Enfrentamientos entre pobladores dejan tres muertos en Chiapas (05/05/2013)

Proceso: Pasividad del gobierno de Manuel Velasco causa violencia en Chiapas: ONG (06/05/2013)

Proceso: Campesinos de Chiapas temen más agresiones de supuestos paramilitares (08/05/2013)

Comunicado de la OCEZ-FNLS

Comunicado de la OCEZ-Chiapas

Comunicado de la OCEZ-RC

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Denunciation of residents of Candelaria El Alto, Venustiano Carranza regarding the “El Desengaño” territory (25 March 2012)

Chiapas: new public denunciation from the Candelaria El Alto community (16 January 2012)

Chiapas: confrontation in Candelaria El Alto, Venustiano Carranza (28 September 2011)

Chiapas: Confrontation in Petalcingo leaves one dead

Photo @Contrapoder

The Tila City Hall, located in northern Chiapas, has reported that one person died from gunshot wounds, with six others injured, in the Petalcingo ejido following a confrontation that occurred during the early morning of 5 May.  “The situation in the ejido has worsened after the murder of a youth, given that the followers” of Eliseo Trinidad Trujillo Hernández, ex-mayoral candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for Tilia, “set ablaze the ejidal house and the library there located,” beyond the fact that “several men armed with pistols, machetes, and sticks have now besieged Petalcingo with trees and rocks.”

“The disturbances in the Nueva Esperanza neighborhood of Petalcingo have been developing for several months now, but the indifference of the authorities in terms of justice has resulted in the growth of shock-groups and the creation of a hostile environment; even the State Attorney General’s Office and the Subsecretary for Governance were aware of this all.”  The differences among the groups of Petalcingo have been exacerbated after the municipal elections in Tila, held on 2 July 2012, with the triumph of Limberg Gutiérrez Gómez, representative of the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) over the PRI candidate Trujillo Hernández.

For more information (in Spanish):

Un muerto en enfrentamiento (Cuarto Poder, 6 de mayo de 2013)

Mueren 3 en Chiapas por enfrentamientos (La Jornada, 6 de mayo de 2013)

Enfrentamientos entre pobladores dejan tres muertos en Chiapas (Contrapoder, 6 de mayo de 2013)

National: Second March for National Dignity

On 10 May, Mother’s Day in Mexico, there was held a “Second March for National Dignity” in which participated Mexican and Central American mothers who are seeking out their disappeared daughters and sons in Mexico.  The caravan was accompanied by civil-society organizations that demand truth and justice for the at least 26,000 cases of disappearances that have occurred in recent years, the majority of which continue without having been investigated.

“Today, May 10, is a very special day for many women who are mothers in Mexico.  However, for these mothers it is a sad memory of the absence of their children,” emphasized Daniel Zapico, representative of Amnesty International (AI) in Mexico.  “It is time that these authorities recognize the dignity of the struggle of these families and act to observe their obligations to clarify their disappearances and hold those responsible to justice,” noted the communique published by AI on the occasion.

For its part, the Network All Rights for All expressed that “it is very worrying that a year after the first March for National Dignity, the demands of mothers and relatives have not been resolved, and the number of disappeared continues to rise.  These realities show us the incompetence and lack of will on the part of local, state, and federal authorities to labor to resolve the disappearances and above all to guarantee, protect, and respect the human rights of all.  The Mexican State should take its responsibility by finding the disappeared, utilizing all the means available to it so that victims have access to truth, reparations, and the security of not continuing to be object of violations that damage their dignity.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Madres con hijos desaparecidos marchan, lanzan globos, cuentan su historia, lloran… (Proceso, 10 de mayo de 2013)

Madres de desaparecidos exigen búsqueda efectiva de sus familiares (La Jornada, 10 de mayo de 2013)

La Red TDT se solidariza con la Segunda Marcha de la Dignidad Nacional (Comunicado Red TdT, 10 de mayo de 2013)

Demandan que se tipifique como delito la desaparición de personas en Chihuahua (Proceso, 9 de mayo de 2013)

Participará Amnistía Internacional en Marcha de la Dignidad Nacional (La Jornada, 9 de mayo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

National: Mothers of the disappeared on hunger strike before Segob (16 November 2012)

Mexico: Caravan of mothers of Central American migrants seeking out their children (2 November 2012)

National: “March for National Dignity, mother seeking out their children and justice” (18 May 2012)

Mexico: Report of the UN Work Group on Forced and Involuntary Disappearances (24 March 2012)

Chiapas: Civil Observation Mission ends in Tenosique; migrants and rights-defenders in grave danger; caravan of Central American mothers searching for disappeared relatives arrives in Tenosique (14 November 2011)

Mexico: the International Week of the Disappeared and Detained ends (9 June 2011)

Mexico: Preliminary conclusions from the UN relator regarding extrajudicial, summary, and arbitrary executions in the country

From 22 April to 2 May, the Special Relator of the Untied Nations on extrajudicial, summary, and arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, visited Mexico, where he met with governmental officials, judges, members of civil society, and victims in Mexico City and the states of Chihuahua, Guerrero, and Nuevo León.

Upon finishing his visit, Heyns urged the Mexican government to strengthen the structure of the country in terms of protection of human rights in general and the right to life in particular, so as to reduce the necessity of the use of force.  Mr. Heyns also recommended the reduction of the involvement of military forces in police tasks.

“From my point of view, it is particularly important to diminish the participation of soldiers in police work, to assure that civil courts judge members of the armed forces who have been accused of committing human-rights violations, including murders of civilians; and to establish clear and broadly recognized standards on the use of force on the part of public-security forces,” he said.  The Special Relator also called special attention to the problem of impunity: “All of these lives that have been lost should be investigated with the same rigor, and each perpetrator should be apprehended and judged.  To follow this object it would serve not only to diminish impunity but also to re-establish the value that society places on life,” he emphasized.  Heyns stressed the importance of making justice by solving past homicides, whether committed during the Dirty War, or the more than 100,000 registered during the government of Felipe Calderón.  Whichever strategy is chosen for the future, he noted, must first look to the past.

For more information (in Spanish):

El desastre mexicano pone a dudar al relator Heyns (Proceso, 7 de mayo de 2013)

Comunicado de prensa: Relator Especial de la ONU urge al Estado mexicano a fortalecer la protección de los DH y reducir el uso de las fuerzas militares en labores policíacas(OACNUDH, 3 de mayo de 2013)

La estrategia militar contra crimen no funciona: ONU(El Universal, 3 de mayo de 2013)

Impunidad sistémica y endémica, principal desafío del gobierno federal: Christof Heyns (La Jornada, 3 de mayo de 2013)

Observaciones preliminares sobre la visita oficial a México del Relator Especial sobre ejecuciones extrajudiciales, sumarias o arbitrarias, Christof Heyns, 22 de abril al 2 de mayo del 2013b (2 de mayo de 2013)

Ojalá gendarmería no se trate del Ejército con “otro uniforme”: Relator de la ONU (Proceso. 2 de mayo de 2013)

Activistas y víctimas de Guerrero se reúnen con el relator de la ONU (La Jornada, 30 de abril de 2013)

Presenta ombudsman a relator de la ONU panorama de derechos (La Jornada, 25 de abril de 2013)

Especial interés de relator de la ONU en temas de fuero y justicia militar del país(La Jornada, 24 de abril de 2013)

Detallan a relator de la ONU un negro panorama en derechos humanos en México (Proceso, 24 de abril de 2013)

Chiapas: Call for Justice and the #Release of Patishtán, from 4 May to 19 June

From 4 May to 19 June, relatives of the prisoner Alberto Patishtán Gómez, the Movement of the People of El Bosque in Favor of the Release of Alberto Patishtán, and other organizations have organized a campaign called “For Justice and the #Release of Patishtan.”  In the blog which contains the information regarding Patishtán Gómez, it is asserted that “the lawyers of professor ALBERTO PATISHTAN have been informed at the Supreme Court for Justice in the Nation that the resolution is still to be awaited [...].  In light of this, we believe that during this month of May it is possible to remit the case before the FIRST COLLEGIATE TRIBUNAL which will release its decision immediately.  As a consequence, the resolution as to whether his innocence will be recognized or not could be had in the month of June 2013.”

On 19 June will have passed 13 years since the beginning of the incarceration of professor Patishtán, and it is for this reason that the campaign will be launched.  Beyond this, there will be carried out presentations of the documentary “Alberto Patishtan: Live or Die for Truth and Justice.”  In this sense, there will also be a campaign to sign letters directed to the justices of the First Collegiate Tribunal of the Tuxtla Gutierrez Circuit.  Some of the other actions to be included will be a march every Friday from 10-12pm and from 4-7pm, with the Twitter hashtag #ReleasePatishstán.

For more information (in Spanish):

CONVOCATORIA POR LA JUSTICIA Y LA #LIBERTADPATISHTAN del 4 de mayo al 19 de junio 2013 (Blog Alberto Patishtán, mayo 2013)

Documental: Alberto Patishtán; Vivir o Morir Por la Verdad y la Justicia (Koman Ilel, abril 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Pilgrimage of the Believing People for the release of professor Alberto Patishtán Gómez (23 April 2013)

Chiapas: Petition from the CDHFBC to release Alberto Patishtán (15 April 2013)

Chiapas: Forthcoming actions for the release of Alberto Patishtán (8 April 2013)

Chiapas: “Justice is its opposite,” declares Alberto Patishtán (20 March 2013)

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)

Oaxaca: Meeting of Peoples in Resistance for the Defense of Territory in the Tehuantepec Isthmus

During 4 and 5 May, there was held the Meeting of Peoples in Resistance for the Defense of Territory in Juchitán de Zaragoza, in the Tehuantepec Isthmus, where there was popular agreement to block the construction work of the wind-energy park Bi Hioxio (Strong Wind) being advanced by the transnational Spanish firm Fenosa Union-Natural Gas (UFGN), located within communal Juchiteca lands.  As was confirmed by physical examination, UFGN has continued its work on the side of the highway toward Unión Hidalgo, where the foundations for several wind-energy installations have already been installed.

Beyond this, Eurodeputies Ska Keller (Germany) and Satu Hassi (Finland) visited the Isthmus region to learn more about the problems of wind-energy parks that are being installed, some of them with European capital, so as to make recommendations in this regard before the European parliament.  They also visited the Piedra Larga site, owned by the Demex firm in Unión Hidalgo, where they observed wind-energy generators leaking oil.

Furthermore, during the Meeting agreement was had to carry out a campaign in the communities of the Tehuantepec Isthmus to abstain from state elections for 7 July, as well as strengthen the creation of communal police units where they do not exist, toward the end of advancing the right to self-determination and self-defense of indigenous communities.

For more information (in Spanish):

Acuerdo comunitario para frenar parque eólico en el área de Juchitán (La Jornada, 5 de mayo de 2013)

Pactan en el Istmo oaxaqueño campaña de abstención para los comicios de julio (La Jornada, 6 de mayo de 2013)

Audio:

Primer día del Encuentro de Pueblos en Resistencia por la Defensa del Territorio, Istmo de Tehuantepec (Radio Zapatista, 4 de mayo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: Confrontation over supposed “approval” of wind-energy park in San Dionisio del Mar (8 January 2013)

Oaxaca: judge concedes motion against wind-energy project in San Dionisio del Mar (21 December 2012)

Oaxaca: confrontations between PRI militants and opponents to wind-energy park in San Dionisio del Mar (7 December 2012)

Oaxaca: Threats from shock-groups in San Dionisio del Mar (26 October 2012)

Oaxaca: entry of Caravan of Solidarity impeded to San Dionisio del Mar (15 October 2012)

Oaxaca: Meeting for resistance in San Dionisio del Mar, and new threats (21 September 2012)

Oaxaca: Communards of San Dionisio del Mar revoke contract for wind-farm (9 February 2012)

Chiapas: Enrique Peña Nieto’s visit creates conflict in Zinacantán

The residents of the Navenchuac community (Zinacantán municipality), where President Enrique Peña Nieto led an act on 19 April for the so-called Crusade Against Hunger, recalled the municipal agent Antonio Pérez Gómez by means of popular assembly, with his having been accused of not having reported on the destination of the economic resources received for the transport of persons and works.

“The problem began when the people asked the municipal agent where he had left the money he had received to feed the residents during the president’s visit, and since he denied having received any such money, the assembly decided to call the mayor, José Sánchez de la Cruz, who confirmed that Pérez Gómez had received ten thousand pesos, and that he would also give another ten thousand,”  noted the residents of the community.

The protestors say it is necessary that the governor call the mayor to accounts, given that he has not reported on the amount of resources received by President Enrique Peña Nieto following his visit to the Navenchuac community.  They indicated that “what is known in the community is that the mayor and his agent have received much money [unclear how much] so as to give to the people of the communities during the act, but the only actual beneficiaries were members of the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico, who received 200 pesos cash each, as well as chicken to eat,” but others “did not even receive soda.”

“We know that the President left money after his visit [...] which was only received by those who are close to him, a total of 1.2 million pesos, also for productive projects that were advanced in a very discreet and personal manner.  There supposedly are agents who had access to this reunion which had 16 million at its disposal, and this has not been reported either to the municipality or to municipal agents,” noted the protestors.

For more information (in Spanish):

Dinero dejado por Peña Nieto para obras y acarreo, genera pleito en Navenchauc, Mirada Sur, 7 de mayo de 2013

Acusan a edil de Zinacantán, Diario de Chiapas, 7 de mayo de 2013

Presidente de Zinacantán se quedó con toda la paga, Noticias, 2 de mayo de 2013

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

National/Chiapas: EPN in Navenchauc, Zinacantán launches actions for the National Crusade against Hunger (22 April 2013)

Oaxaca: Three-year impunity continues in the case of the murders of Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola

On 27 April, three years passed since the murders of Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola, of Finnish origins, who were attacked by an armed group with presumed links to local and state authorities on this day in 2010, as they were traveling in a humanitarian and observation caravan to the Triqui community of San Juan Copala to document the conditions in which dozens of family had been living under conditions of siege.

Members of the Indigenous Zapatista Agrarian Movement (MAIZ), the Revolutionary Popular Front (FPR), and teachers from Section 22 of the Huajuápan chapter of the National Coordination of Educational Workers (CNTE), together with other social organizations, on 26 April carried out mobilizations and a march to protest the impunity experienced in the case of these murders.

Omar Esparza Zarate, leader of MAIZ in the Mixteco region and widower of Bety Cariño Trujillo, expressed that “These three years have been difficult, because I not only lost a comrade–the pain is there and will always be there–but also because of all the harassment, intimidation, illegal searches of the office, and sensing that one has to always be on edge due to lack of knowledge of when the aggressors will make good on their death-threats.”  Furthermore, he added that “for three years, we have spoken to the lack of interest on the government’s part to see justice done.  We have not perceived any sort of will to resolve these murders, nor for punishment of those responsible for them, in accordance with the law.”  Finally, Omar Esparza lamented that the state authorities have not observed their commitment, nor have they declared responsibility for the intellectual and material authors of the crimes.  Beyond this, he stressed that the deaths of social activists is certainly a constant feature of life in the country.

For its part, the Union of Indigenous Communities of the Northern Zone of the Isthmus (UCIZONI) made public that “with relation to these crimes, 12 arrest-orders have been declared against the presumed murderers, among which is included the leaders of UBISORT which one day before the departure of the caravan made serious threats against the physical integrity of our comrades.  We also indicate that ex-governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz should be considered an intellectual author of these bloody acts, given his public recognition of his having financially supported the paramilitary UBISORT group.”Similarly, Amnesty International and Frontline Defenders have reminded the federal and Oaxacan state authorities of their responsibilities to guarantee that these acts not remain in impunity.

For more information (in Spanish):

La herida está ahí y siempre va a estar: Omar Esparza (El Imparcial, 27 de abril de 2013)

UCIZONI: Demandamos castigo para los asesinos de Bety Cariño y Jyri Jaakkola (Kaos en la Red, 26 de abril de 2013)

A 3 años de la muerte de una indígena y un finlandés en Oaxaca (E-Oaxaca, 26 de abril de 2013)

Oaxaca: A tres años del asesinato de defensores de derechos humanos seguimos reclamando justicia (Amnistía Internacional México, 27 de abril de 2013)

México: Se cumple el 3° aniversario del asesinato de la defensora de los derechos humanos Bety Cariño (Frontline Defenders, 27 de abril de 2013)

Audio-video:

Entrevista a Bety Cariño: Sembrando sueños, cosechando esperanzas (Código DH, 27 de abril de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: 12 arrest-orders released against presumed material authors of the murder of the Mexican defender Bety Cariño and the Finnish observer Jyri Jaakkola (12 October 2012)

Oaxaca: Meeting in front of the PGR against impunity in the case of Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola, nearly two years after their murders (21 April 2012)

Oaxaca: justice demanded for San Juan Copala (14 December 2011)

Oaxaca: Eurodeputies in the case of Cariño and Jaakkola (17 October 2011)

Oaxaca: following the caravan “Bety Cariño y Jyri Jaakkola” to San Juan Copalá (21 June 2010)

Distrito Federal: visiting Mexico, the parents of Jyri Jaakkola demand justice for the case of their son and that of Bety Cariño (9 September 2010)