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)

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)

 

Chiapas: Article 19 challenges legal reform in Chiapas due to its violation of the right to information

On 8 April, Article 19 published a communique saying that “on 7 March 2013, the state congress of Chiapas approved nearly unanimously the Initiative presented by Governor Manuel Velasco to include within the Penal Code of Chiapas a crime that would sanction the obtaining of information from police and [the] justice [system], thus vaguely generated an effect that inhibits the right to information.”  The approved reform was formulated within these terms: “There will be imposed a penalty of from two to fifteen years imprisonment with a fine of between 200 to 400 days of minimum wage to whoever carries out acts to obtain information from public security forces having to do with persecution, punishment, or the execution of sentences regarding their location, activity, operation, or general work.”

Article 19 expresses its concern, claiming that this reform would tend to “criminalize access to information and freedom of expression,” thus making it even riskier for journalists to investigate and share information with rural-dwellers and urban residents, in accordance with their rights to access to public information.

In this sense, Article 19 called on the National Commission on Human Rights, the State Council on Human Rights in Chiapas, and the Federal Attorney General’s Office to exercise their powers to present motions calling into question the constitutionality of this reform, toward the end that the Supreme Court for Justice in the Nation judge this.

For more information (in Spanish):

Posicionamiento. Chiapas, reforma legal violenta el derecho de Acceso a la Información, ARTICLE 19, 8 de abril de 2013

Un retroceso”, ley contra ‘halconeo’ en Chiapas: Artículo 19, Proceso, 8 de abril de 2013

Meterán a la cárcel a quienes tomen fotografías de policías en Chiapas, Miradasur, 14 de marzo de 2013

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

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

Oaxaca: Harassment of the offices of Código DH and repression of rights-defenders and communal radios in the Isthmus

During the early morning of 3 April, the offices of the Committee for the Comprehensive Defense of Human Rights Gobixha (Código DH) were harassed, with clear signs of informational materials having been removed.  It should be recalled that Alba Cruz Ramos, who is responsible for the juridical sphere of this organization, enjoys precautionary measures granted her by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) due to her having received a nu number of death-threats.

Código DH has indicated the repression and harassment suffered by communal human-rights defenders in the state of Oaxaca by means of various Urgent Actions released in recent weeks.  One of these communiques notes “our concern for this new wave of aggression against human-rights defenders.  In Oaxaca for several months there has been the generation of a climate of intimidation and harassment against communal human-rights defenders whom we have been accompanying, some of them having been recently arrested.”  Among those they accompany is found Mariano López Gómez, an activist for the defense of territory in the Tehuantepec Isthmus and a member of the Assembly of the Juchiteco People and of the Assembly of the Peoples of the Tehuantepec Isthmus, who was arrested on 2 April and released two days later due to lack of evidence against him.

The harassment of different communal radios in the Isthmus has been notorious; these together with social organizations have made pronouncements against the recent aggressions targeting Radio Huave, Radio Xadani, Radio Voces de los Pueblos, and Radio Totopo, noting that “In light of the repressive wave that the communal radios of the Isthmus have been suffering, we make an urgent call for solidarity and call on the Marena Renewables and Fenosa Nautral Gas firms and the state government of Oaxaca to halt harassment against these communal communication media.”  For its part, the Consultation Council of Indigenous and Afromexican Peoples of Oaxaca denounced that “we consider the persecution and criminalization of indigenous communicators of the ‘Radio Totopo’ communal radio to be an attack on cultural diversity and a violation of basic rights and collective rights.”

For their part, a dozen social and human rights organizations, including the IACHR and Amnesty International, have demanded urgent actions and precautionary measures from the federal government for the representatives of communal radios in the zone of the Isthmus.  The organizations have denounced harassment and arbitrary detention suffered by representatives of the communal radios, such as with Mariano López Gómez and Carlos Sánchez of Radio Totopo.

For more information (in Spanish):

Allanan oficinas de ONG en Oaxaca (Proceso, 3 de abril de 2013)

Exigimos garantías para las defensoras y defensores de derechos humanos (CodigoDH, 3 de abril de 2013)

AU por la libertad inmediata de Mariano López Gómez (CodigoDH, 3 de abril de 2013)

Acción Urgente a favor de comunicador de Radio Xadani (CodigoDH, 29 de marzo de 2013)

Denuncian ONG en Oaxaca represión dirigida a radios comunitarias (Milenio, 3 de abril de 2013)

Se rompe el diálogo entre gobierno de Oaxaca y opositores a parque eólico (La Jornada, 3 de abril de 2013)

Pronunciamiento del Consejo Consultivo de Pueblos Indígenas y Afromexicanos de Oaxaca (La Luna de Oaxaca, 4 de abril de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

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

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

Oaxaca: attack on union leader Marcelino Coache (20 May 2010)

 

Chiapas: The displaced of Banavil, Tenejapa in “precarious and inhumane” conditions

In a press bulletin released on 2 April, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) denounced that “men, women, and children who were displaced from the Banavil community (Tenejapa municipality), being sympathizers of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), find themselves facing precarious situation of health due to their forced displacement, beyond being threatened constantly as a result of the looting of their lands, the disappearance of Alonso López Luna, and the murder (still not clarified) of Pedro Méndez López. In response, the state government by means of the Prosecutorial Office for Indigenous Justice has dawdled unjustifiably, thus systematically violating the human rights of the displaced.”

The bulletin details that the 13 persons displaced in December 2011 presently find themselves in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, living in “inhumane and precarious” conditions: “they live in a wooden and cardboard room, with a plastic roof of 3×3 meters, with soil for ground.”  Regarding the disappearance of Alonso López Luna, the communique notes that the Special Prosecutorial Office has refused to “carry out the 11 arrest orders against the aggressors, including the public servants of Tenejapa, Pedro Méndez López and Manuel Méndez López, indciated as having been material authors of the act.”  The bulletin affirmed also that “according to testimony, the PRI aggressors have recently looted five and a half hectares of the property of the displaced.  One part was taken directly by the aggressors, and the other sold.  These new acts worsen the situation of these EZLN sympathizers.”

For these reasons, the CDHFBC indicates that “the State is not observing its obligation to guarantee and protect the human rights of the indigneous peoples of Chiapas,” and it demands the “total cessation of all threats and harassment against the displaced in the Banavil ejido; that the 11 arrest-orders against the aggressors be carried out; that there be serious, timely, and expedited investigations to find the whereabouts of Alonso López Luna; that the right to land and the return with guarantee of physical safety and life of the displaced in Banavil be observed; that the Chiapas state government as part of the Mexican State guarantee and protect the human rights of the 13 assaulted persons.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Denuncia Frayba que 13 tzeltales desplazados viven en condiciones “inhumanas” (La Jornada, 3 de abril de 2013)

Boletín de prensa: Boletín: Siguen en situación precaria e inhumana las 13 personas desplazadas de la comunidad de Banavil simpatizantes del EZLN (CDHFBC, 2 de abril de 2013)

Denuncia de los desplazados de Banavil (27 de marzo de 2013)

Para más información de SIPAZ:

Chiapas: CDHFBC published more information on the Banavil case, Tenejapa (9 February 2012)

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: Commemoration of two years of the MPJD

On 28 March, two years after the murder of the son of the poet Javier Sicilia, which gave rise to the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD), there was held a series of actions to commemorate this date in Cuernavaca (Morelos), Mexico City, Chiapas, and even Tokyo, Japan.At the Mexico City event, Javier Sicilia declared that two years after the MPJD’s beginnings, there persists “a suffering that does not see any sort of justice or peace,” although he also indicated that “all commemorative dates are also times during which we stop to think, would it not be worth it to simply leave our pain inside [...]?”  He indicated in this sense that there have been advances in three respects: the visibilization of victims, the State’s taking acceptance of responsibility, and the creation of the General Law on Victims.Regarding the future of the MPJD, Sicilia identified three aspects.  With regard to the Law on Victims, he said that the MPJD would maintain “an absolute vigilance for the real application of the General Law of Victims throughout the country [...].  The only reasons that we see as serving as obstacles for this are bad faith, disparagement, ignorance, and solidarity with organized crime.”

Sicilia also demanded that the Estela de Luz, where the event was held, be transformed “not only into a center of documentation of the memory of all victims in the country, but rather a cultural center for peace.”  It should be mentioned that until 8 May, there will be carried out a campaign to collect signatures at www.change.org/esteladepaz toward this end.

Finally, Sicilia announced that the MPJD would continue to collaborate with U.S. organizations that participated in the Caravan for Peace (August-September 2012), given that “there will be no peace as long as on the other side of the border, there is no regulation of the consumption of drugs or of control of the weapons of extermination.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Presenta oficialmente Movimiento por la Paz exigencia de resignificar Estela de Luz (La Jornada, 2 de abril de 2013)

La situación de las víctimas, peor (Proceso, 1ero de abril de 2013)

‘‘El Estado, aún omiso ante miles de crímenes’’(La Jornada, 29 de marzo de 2013)

“Sobre el misterio del dolor que trae esperanza y la vida que nace de la muerte”: Reflexiones en el II Aniversario del Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad (Iglesias por la Paz, 29 de marzo de 2013)

Palabras de Javier Sicilia en la conmemoración de los dos años del MPJD (MPJD, 28 de marzo de 2013)

La Voz del Amate y Solidarios de la Voz del Amate saludan al MPJD (28 de marzo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Mexico: EPN dismisses Calderón’s motion against the General Law on Victims (7 December 2012)

National: MPJD criticizes presidential “veto” of Law on Victims (10 July 2012)

National: Approval of Law for the Protection of Human-Rights Defenders and Journalists (16 May 2012)

 

Chiapas: Las Abejas lament release of yet another of those charged for Acteal massacre

During the religious celebration performed in the most recent monthly commemoration of the Acteal massacre, the Las Abejas Civil Society lamented that the Supreme Court for Justice in the Nation (SCJN) has released another indigenous person who had been incarcerated on the charge of having participated in the 22 December 1997 massacre in Acteal.  Las Abejas affirmed that “What we are now living here in Mexico confirms what we Abejas have always said: the organisms of the Mexican justice system do not serve justice but rather the interests of the powerful.”

“As in the case of the paramilitaries released previously, we are told that the reason for his release had to do with failures and violations to ‘due process.’  We think and denounce that this is nothing more than a pretext on the part of the authorities to twist justice in the way that is most convenient to them.”  Demonstrating this claim, Las Abejas indicated that the SCJN had denied review of the case of Alberto Patishtán, given that that case is marked by irregularities; moreover, the SCJN attended to the case of Florence Cassez, who had claimed failures to due process and was so released.  Another example that was mentioned was the “‘false Abejas’ who are playing with Salinas de Gortari so as to avenge Ernesto Zedillo, and a collegiate court immediately grants the motion to permit the continuation of the case against Zedillo in the U.S.”

Las Abejas assert that “the lack of justice and the means in which the authorities use law only for their benefit have resulted in the fact that throughout Mexico, some communities organize themselves for armed self-defense, as in the case of our friends from the Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities of the Mountain and Costa Chica of Guerrero.”  Distinguishing their perspective from that of many authorities and media, Las Abejas noted that “One thing is that people amidst total impunity organize themselves to apply justice according to their own methods, and another very different thing is seen when the government, unsatisfied with using its own repressive apparatus, resorts to using a part of the people who are tricked into repressing their own brothers.”

Finally, Las Abejas closed with saying that they are “seeking other means to obtain the justice that is denied us by the government, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.  But for now we will say that we reject the ‘friendly’ calls made by the Mexican government through the IACHR to our brothers and sisters in Atenco, who have rejected these proposals with the same dignity we shall employ.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado completo (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 22 de marzo de 2013)

Los grupos de autodefensa, resultado de la impunidad en el país, aseguran Las Abejas (La Jornada, 26 de marzo de 2013)

Confían en nuevo Papa (Cuarto Poder, 23 de marzo de 2013)

Abejas lamentan más liberaciones por Acteal (Noticiasnet.mx, 25 de marzo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: New communique from Las Abejas de Acteal (24 January 2013)

Chiapas: Commemoration of 20th anniversary of Las Abejas and coming 15th anniversary of the Acteal massacre (21 December 2012)

Chiapas: Survivor of Acteal massacre dies (16 November 2012)

Chiapas: the Las Abejas Civil Society denounces reactivation of paramilitaries in its community (12 October 2012)

National-International: Zedillo obtains immunity for the Acteal case(19 September 2012)