Oaxaca: Disturbances during May Day march; human-rights defender among those arrested

@ CODIGO-DH

On 1 May in Oaxaca City, there was held a commemorative march for International Workers’ Day which resulted in confrontations between protestors and the municipal police, leaving 34 arrested, including 7 minors.   In a communique, the Committee for Comprehensive Defense of Human Rights Gobixha (CODIGO-DH) reported that the police opened fire with live ammunition, firing into the ground before the protestors and the air above them.  Furthermore, Gobixha demanded the liberation of Susana Ramírez Jiménez, a CODIGO-DH member, who was arrested as she was documenting abuses on the part of the police, having identified herself as a human-rights defender; however, this did not prevent her from being arrested.  Due to the context in which her arrest was performed, and given the lack of communication and violation of the right of habeas corpus, an Urgent Action was released demanding her immediate release, as well as that of those who were “arbitrarily arrested.”  On 2 May, in an update on the situation of Ramírez Jiménez, who at that time still was incarcerated, CODIGO-DH indicated that “our fear is that they could fabricate crimes against her, due to her mere presence at the time and space of the protest, so as to systematically criminalize human-rights defenders and social activists.  We denounce the excessive use of public force on the part of the police, who used their firearms to ‘contain the protestors’ by firing high-caliber weapons, including R-15′s, just in front of the protestors, both into the air as into the ground.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Acción Urgente: Nuevas detenciones arbitrarias en Oaxaca, entre ellas una integrante de CODIGO-DH (01/05/2013)

CODIGO-DH: Defensora de CODIGO DH sigue detenida (02/05/2013)

Ciudadanía Express: Documentan abusos policiales en detención de manifestantes (02/05/2013)

Quadratín Oaxaca: Liberarán a menores que participaron en disturbios del 1 de Mayo (02/05/2013)

Noticias Oaxaca: Violencia opaca Día del Trabajo (02/05/2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: Harassment of the offices of Código DH (8 April 2013)

Oaxaca: Harassment and robbery of offices of Consorcio (14 November 2011)

Oaxaca: new intimidation directed at Alba Cruz (18 January 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)

Oaxaca: Death-threats directed at two human-rights defenders

Two human-rights defenders, both of them members of the Comprehensive Committee for Defense of Human Rights Gobixha AC (CODIGO-DH), suffered harassment and assault on 8 May, reports Amnesty International (AI).

“Alba Cruz Ramos, human-rights defender, received a threatening text message on 30 April.  It was similar to other threats that she had received previously: in this one, she was called ‘mami’ and told that the senders had unresolved business to finish; they did not attempt to repeat the threat, but instead acted on it.  Alba Cruz Ramos, lawyer and coordinator of the Comprehensive Committee for Defense of Human Rights Gobixha AC (CODIGO-DH), has since 2007 been awarded precautionary measured as ordered by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights so that she be afforded protection in light of the threats she has received due to the work for defending human rights,” as the AI Urgent Action notes.

AI continues: “Another human-rights defender who works with CODIGO-DH, Susana Ramírez, was detained and released after having spent 34 hours incarcerated.  She did not suffer abuses, but CODIGO-DH believes that her arrest was revenge for her work in defense of human rights.  As part of her work in the department of communications in CODIGO-DH, Susana Ramirez has been covering a protest in Oaxaca City during which protestors confronted the municipal police.  Susana Ramirez told the police that she had not been participating the protest, but rather documenting it; nonetheless, she was arrested together with 28 others.  She was held incomunicado for several hours, and was denied the right to speak with her lawyer and her family until 14 hours after her arrest.”

For more information (in Spanish):

México: DEFENSORAS DE LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS, AMENAZADAS, Amnistía Internacional, 8 de mayo de 2013

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: Harassment of the offices of Código DH (8 April 2013)

Oaxaca: Harassment and robbery of offices of Consorcio (14 November 2011)

Oaxaca: new intimidation directed at Alba Cruz (18 January 2011)

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)

Chiapas: March from Suchiate river to denounce abuses against migrants, and beginning of hunger strike

On 16 April, approximately 20 activists and migrants began a march of 290 kilometers from the Suchiate river, following the route taken by the undocumented, to denounce the sexual and labor exploitation to which many Central American migrants are subjected within the southern border region of Mexico.  The march was to end two days later in Arriaga, where the migrants often take the freight train toward the center of the country.

However, the following day, the protest ended in Tapachula, due to the fact that its members had received death-threats “by phone and in person, though we do not know from whom they originate,” declared the organizers.  Ramón Verdugo Sánchez, member of the organization “All for all” to assist street children and migrants, explained that “due to the fact that the security of those who were marching could not be assured, we decided to change the action into a hunger strike, which is something that is more drastic and sacrificial, given that it can exert the same pressure on the authorities so that they fulfill their responsibilities.  We are not asking for the impossible, given that it is their obligation to show that they are working to protect minors in the streets and migrants in transit.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Caminata desde el Suchiate para denunciar abusos contra migrantes(La Jornada, 17 de abril de 2013)

Por amenazas, deciden activistas concluir en Tapachula y no en Arriaga caminata (La Jornada, 17 de abril de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Organizations present report on migration during Sabines’ six-year reign (21 December 2012)

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

Chiapas/Oaxaca: #WeMigrantsAre132 (20 June 2012)

Chiapas/Tabasco: “The forgotten border” press-conference (13 December 2011)

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)

 

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)

 

Chiapas: Denunciation of death-threats and fabrication of evidence on part of PGJE made by those displaced from the Busiljá and Cintalapa ejidos

On 23 April, families who have been displaced from the Busiljá and Cintalapa ejidos (Ocosingo municipality), publicly denounced that agents of the Public Ministry (which belongs to the State Attorney General’s Office of Chiapas, PGJE) in Ocosingo had pressured and threatened Mrs. Elena Morales Gutiérrez to sign a document affirming knowledge of the whereabouts of her daughter Gabriela Sánchez Morales, who was kidnapped in 2011. Regardless, in a denunciation the families claim now that the girl still has not been located.  It should be noted that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has awarded the precautionary measures requested by the family of the minor.  Furthermore, those displaced expressed their disappointment with the lack of execution of penal action against the presumed kidnappers.  In this sense, they indicate that “the PGJE seeks to trick the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights,” given that the PGJE must inform the IACHR on progress in the investigations.

For more information (in Spanish):

Denuncia de los desplazados de Busiljá y Cintalapa (23/04/2013)

Proceso: Procuraduría de Chiapas falsea pruebas sobre el plagio de una niña indígena (25/04/2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Civil society expresses its concern for the situation of those displaced from Busiljá (26 February 2013)

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)

National: Article 19 receives death-threats

On 19 April, the organization Article 19, whose task it is to denounce abuses and intimidations against freedom of expression, received an anonymous message at its offices in Mexico City.  The message threatens the organizations’ director, Darío Ramírez, and his collaborators with death.The organization reported that it had presented the corresponding denunciations to the Federal Attorney General’s Office in Mexico City, who is responsible for the crime of death-threats.The same day, the organization Freedom House indicated that so far in the term of Enrique Peña Nieto (since 1 December 2012), there have been registered 26 cases of aggressions against journalists and communication media in Mexico, thus expressing its concern for the “impunity” evinced in these attacks.

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado de prensa (Artículo 19, 19 de abril de 2013)

Amenazan al director de la organización Artículo 19 (Proceso, 20 de abril de 2013)

Exigen a autoridades indagar amenazas contra Artículo 19 (Proceso, 22 de abril de 2013)

Freedom House registra 36 ataques al periodismo desde el 1 de diciembre (CNN México, 19 de abril de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Mexico: 172 aggressions against journalists in 2011 – Article 19 (2 April 2012)

 

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)