Chiapas: Presentation of the 2012 Annual Report of the CEDH

© Vozdelnorte.mx

On 30 May, the Chiapas State Council on Human Rights (CEDH) presented its second annual report, on the year 2012, to the state Congress.

“A society that is built on principles will be a society that is safe and that guarantees human rights,” declared Lorenzo López Méndez, council president of the CEDH.

He also stressed that “during 2012 there were held training courses for human rights to more than 30,000 persons, giving priority to the highly vulnerable sectors, such as migrants, the elderly, children, women, and those who, due to their social conditions, origins, or gender preference, could be subjected to discrimination.”

For more information (in Spanish):

CEDH presentó Informe de Actividades en Congreso del Estado, La Voz del Norte, 31 de mayo de 2013

ENTREGA CEDH SEGUNDO INFORME DE ACTIVIDADES AL CONGRESO DEL ESTADO, CEDH, 31 de mayo de 2013

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Censorship of Heraldo de Chiapas over criticisms of governor (22 April 2013)

Chiapas: Threats to the Executive Secretary of the CEDH (16 August 2012)

Chiapas: Denunciation from Las Abejas de Acteal on 22 May 2013

On 22 May 2013, in observance of the monthly commemoration of the December 1997 Acteal massacre, members of the Las Abejas Civil Society published their denunciation “Today we commemorate yet again the crime committed in Acteal.”

This denunciation asks, “Who can remain silent amidst so much insult and lying with regard to the state of justice in Mexico?  Who can accept such impunity as the one cultivated by the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Injustice?  When we heard of the decision of these justices to release the paramilitaries of Chenalhó, it gave us courage, because what they have done is absurd.  Now, only 6 paramilitaries remain incarcareted, though to cover up their shame, they have decided not yet to release them.  However, whenever it is that they are released, we will not be surprised.  It could be that they be released surreptitiously, as they did with one of the commanders of the paramilitaries, Roberto Méndez Gutiérrez, from the Miguel Utrilla Los Chorros neighborhood. Roberto Méndez is one of the murderes who has confessed to his crimes in Acteal; he now very calmly walks around drunk in Los Chorros and the Yibeljoj community of the same municipality.”

The document continues: “The truth is that there still are many misinformed people regarding the true cause of the Acteal massacre.  Recently we located 2 electronic webpages maintained by Italian and French Evangelicals, who claim that those who had been imprisoned for the Acteal massacre ‘are innocent,’ and that ‘only for being Evangelicas’ and for ‘following Jesus’ were they incarcerated.  Here are those two webpages, so that you can follow such bad information: 
http://www.evangelici.net/notizie/1366391700.html

http://www.portesouvertes.fr/informer/lettres-de-nouvelles/filrouge/2009/Octobre/filrouge753/
“

The communique emphasizes that “We have clarified in several previous communiques that the paramilitaries from the year 1997 are comprised of two political parties in Chenalhó: the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Cardenist Front.  PRI militants and Cardenist paramilitaries also pertain to different religions, such as Presbyterianism, Pentecostal, Baptism, Catholicism, among others.  If the Evangelicals were present in the jail, this was for their having participated in the Acteal massacre.  We do not accuse them for being Evangelicals.  Some Evangelical pastors from Chenalhó and other parts of the world can confirm what we say, and they are ashamed that their brothers had taken the dark path of murdering their own brothers and sisters.  In a Presbyterian temple of Acteal, there it was the arms were kept; there it was that the Presbyterian paramilitaries prayed so that their weapons would not fail in even one shot against Las Abejas and Zapatistas support bases.  Also in the Pechiquil community, in a communal kitchen the Presbyterians guarded the weapons and ammunition.  And on 22 December our Las Abejas comrades from the Tsajaluk’um community who had been taken by paramilitaries from Tsajaluk’um and Pechiquil saw the paramilitaries exit toward Acteal, to participate in the massacre.  Within this group there were Presbyterian persons.  For this reason it was that there were Presbyterians incarcerated; so we repeat that it was not for their religious beliefs, but rather because they became paramilitaries who participated in a counter-insurgent war designed by the Mexican state, led by the then-president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León“.

For more information (in Spanish):

Hoy hacemos memoria una vez más del crímen cometido en Acteal (22 de mayo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Las Abejas denounce lack of justice in the Acteal case (23 April 2013)

Chiapas: Las Abejas lament release of yet another of those charged for Acteal massacre (27 March 2013)

Chiapas: New communique from Las Abejas de Acteal (24 January 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: launch of call for 2014 jTatic Samuel Jcanan Lum

The Organizing Committee for the “jTatic Samuel jCanan Lum Award 2014″ has launched its call as directed to social and civil organizations, different churches and religious groups, and collectives to participate in the promotion and presentation of candidates for the fourth iteration of this recognition.The recognition is given to collectives or individuals who have distinguished themselves “for their contribution to the people in the creation of communal and/or regional alternatives, as well as work directed at unity and peaceful social transformation.”  It does not seek to be an award but rather “a concrete means by which to animate the different paths and efforts taken toward liberation that indigenous peoples and the poor have assumed in their struggles as historical subjects.”It should be recalled that in 1999, Samuel Ruíz García received the charge of jCanan Lum (caretaker of the people and the land) in Amatenango del Valle, on the part of communities of Tsotsil, Tseltal, Tojolabal, Zoque, and Ch’ol peoples.

For more information (in Spanish):

Audio de la convocatoria (Koman Ilel, 23 de enero de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: First anniversary of the death of bishop Samuel Ruiz García; third award of the Jtatik Samuel jCanan Lum recognition (2012) (8 February 2012)

Chiapas: presentation of the jTatic Samuel jCanan Lum Award during the assembly of the Believing People (7 March 2011)

Chiapas: Presentation of the jTatic Samuel jCanan Lum Award to the Coordination of Indigenous Social Organizations XI’NICH (25 February 2011)

Chiapas: celebration and presentation of 2011 jTatic Samuel jCanan Lum Award (31 January 2011)

Chiapas: visit to observe 2011 call for “jTatic Samuel jCanan Lum” Honor denied (30 July 2010)

Chiapas: Peaceful march for the release of opponent to wind-energy park in Arriaga

On 30 January close to a hundred residents of the Arriaga community, led by Heymán Vázquez Medina, a priest and director of the migrant home Place of Mercy, and members of non-governmental organizations like Pro-Migrant, marched to demand the release of the owner of the land known as El Brillante, César Octavio Blanco García.  On El Brillante are located nine of the sixteen wind-energy plants that were closed down on 14 January by ejidatarios who have been affected by the wind-energy park that is the property of the Dragón firm, a subsidiary of the Salinas Group.

Blanco García has been held in prison no. 13 in Tonalá since 22 January, accused of the crime of looting, after he and twenty others closed down the wind-energy park to protest the violation of contract and environmental damage suffered by ejidatarios and small property owners.

Heymán Vázquez requested that the state governor, Manuel Velasco Colleo, respect the state of right and that the authorities not act in the interests of the powerful.  During the rally at the end of the march, the priest said that Blanco García was no paratrooper but rather owner of land where new wind-energy plants have been installed to produce electricity, and that he was merely exercising his rights.  The priest also added that the Catholic church, social organizations, and the people of Arriaga demanded his immediate release, given that working people cannot be held behind bars.

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado de Heymán Vázquez Medina (30 de enero de 2013)

Exigen libertad de líder que se opuso a empresa eólica de Grupo Salinas en Arriaga (Blog Escrutinio Público, 30 de enero de 2013)

Exigen liberar a opositor a la empresa Dragón, en Chiapas (Milenio, 30 de enero de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Displacement of campesinos who were protesting a wind-energy park in Arriaga (29 January 2013)

Chiapas: Communique and pilgrimage of the Believing People

On 25 January the Believing People, an organizational process associated with the diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, carried out a pilgrimage in this city in Chiapas to commemorate the second anniversary of the death of bishop Samuel Ruiz García, the twenty-fifth anniversary of bishophood for Raúl Vera López, and the fifteenth anniversary of the Acteal massacre.  The pilgrimage of some 10,000 people demonstrated their concern regarding “the launching of the National Crusade against Hunger, precisely in the municipality of Las Margaritas, given that with this action the federal government’s strategy of not attending to the structural necessities of the people is shown clearly,” as they declared in a public communique.

In their message, the Catholics demanded “the release of many unjustly imprisoned persons, including our brother Alberto Patishtán Gómez, a prisoner of conscience and an inspiration to all those who have suffered in the jails where he has been held,” beyond welcoming “the peaceful mobilization of the EZLN on 21 December, which unequivocably shows their desire for peace.”  Similarly, they denounced “the concessions for mineral exploitation that the federal government has awarded, particularly to foreign firms, thus totally violating the peoples’ fundamental right to prior informed consent,” among other demands.

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado del Pueblo Creyente 25 Enero 2013 (Koman Ilel, 25 de enero de 2013)

Desconfían indígenas católicos en Chiapas de cruzada contra el hambre (La Jornada, 26 de enero de 2013)

Agrupación católica de Chiapas critica la cruzada de Peña Nieto contra el hambre (La Jornada, 27 de enero de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Believing People call for invitation to join the Great Pilgrimage – 25 January (24 January 2013)

Chiapas: Pilgrimage of the Believing People in San Cristóbal de Las Casas (27 November 2011)

Chiapas: pilgrimage against “death projects” (3 December 2010)

 

Chiapas: Believing People call for invitation to join the Grand Pilgrimage – 25 January

Samuel Ruíz García Photo @CGT Chiapas

The Believing People of the diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, have organized a Grand Pilgrimage to be held in San Cristóbal de Las Casas on Friday 25 January starting at 9am.  “We engage in this pilgrimage to mark the second anniversary of the death of jTatic Samuel Ruíz García and the 15th anniversary of the Acteal massacre.  We demand the liberation of our brother Alberto Patishtan Gómez, who has been unjustly imprisoned for 12 years.”  The points of meeting will be the gasoline station on the intersection between the San Felipe Ecatepec highway and la Caseta de San Pablo, exiting toward Comitán.  The eucharistic celebration will begin at 12pm in the Peace Plaza, as presided over by Bishop Felipe Arizmendi.

For more information (in English):

Noticia: Invitación de PUEBLO CREYENTE DE LA DIÓCESIS DE SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS (www.frayba.org.mx)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Pilgrimage of the Believing People in San Cristóbal de Las Casas (27 November 2011)

Chiapas: pilgrimage against “death projects” (3 December 2010)

Chiapas: pilgrimage of the Believing People to demand the release of Alberto Patishtán

Pilgrimage of the Believing People, September 2012 (@SIPAZ)

On 4 September, more than 3,000 indigenous persons belonging to the Believing People, a process in which thousands from the San Cristóbal de Las Casas diocese participate, made a pilgrimage through this city to demand the immediate and unconditional release of professor Alberto Patishtán Gómez, who has been imprisoned for 12 years and condemned to a sentence of 60 years.  Due to his activism from within the very prisons in which he has been held, Patishtán has been transferred to different prisons, including one in Guasave, Sinaloa, from where he was returned to Chiapas just a month ago, following ten months of national and international protest.

The pilgrimage ended in the Cathedral Plaza where there was held a “Liberatory Mass” as presided over by Marcelo Pérez Pérez, a priest from Simojovel.  The Believing People from the Tsotsil zone noted in a communique that “Today as a church we newly are present to express our solidarity with our brother Alberto Patishtán and to tell him that he is not alone, that we will not tire until he is enjoying his full liberties.  We would also like to demand that the federal and state governments in the name of the omnipotent God put an end to the injustices against us as indigenous people.  End to sentences full of injustices, end to the suffering being experienced by our brother Alberto Patishtán.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Católicos exigen libertad para Alberto Patishtán (La Jornada, 5 de septiembre de 2012)

Exigen indígenas la liberación del maestro Alberto Patisthán (Proceso, 4 de septiembre de 2012)

Peregrinarán por libertad de preso (Cuarto Poder, 4 de septiembre de 2012)

Comunicado del Pueblo Creyente del equipo tsotsil, Diócesis de San Cristóbal de las Casas(4 de septiembre de 2012)

Comunicado de las Abejas de Acteal en la Peregrinación de Pueblo Creyente zona tsotsil en SCLC. (Denuncia Pública, 4 de septiembre de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Return of professor Patishtán to Cereso no. 5 (16 August 2012)

Chiapas: Letter from Patishtán, 12 years following his imprisonment(10 July 2012)

Chiapas: Actions in favor of the liberation of Alberto Patishtán, 12 years after his incarceration (25 June 2012)

Chiapas: Some thousand persons march for the liberation of Alberto Patishtán (4 June 2012)

Chiapas: Beginning of the “Week for Global Struggle for the Release of Patishtán and Sántiz López: To Tear Down the Walls of the Dungeon”(21 May 2012)

Chiapas: Forum against political prison and for the release of Alberto Patishtán Gómez (21 May 2012)

Chiapas: Assembly is held in El Bosque to demand the release of Alberto Patishtán (25 March 2012)

Chiapas: Demand for release and return of Alberto Patishtan (22 March 2012)

Mexico: Denunciation by Alberto Patishtán from prison in Sinaloa (7 March 2012)

Oaxaca: Different versions regarding future departure of Father Solalinde from migrant home

Alejandro Solalinde @ Página3

During the first week of August, different stories were published regarding the future departure of Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra from the “Brothers on the Path” migrant home in Ixtepec.  The priest, interviewed in media, commented that Óscar Armando Campos Contreras, bishop of the Tehuantepec diocese to whom Solalinde Guerra is subordinated, asked him to resign his post as director of the migrant home, so as to “put an end to conflicts,” as Father Solalinde put it.  This claim was later denied by Campos Contreras, who indicated that he had had a conversation with Solalinde regarding the possibility that he leave the home.  In any case, this question will be addressed again in November.

It was subsequently reported that Solalinde had to be taken to hospital, because he apparently suffers from dengue.  On 13 August, he was released in accordance with media reports so as to return to Ixtepec, but no mention was made of his specific condition.

For more information (in Spanish):

Página 3: Pide obispo de Tehuantepec a Solalinde dejar el albergue; es protagonismo, dice (07/08/2012)

La Jornada: Puedo luchar contra cárteles, pero no contra mi Iglesia: Alejandro Solalinde (08/08/2012)

La Jornada: Niega el obispo de Tehuantepec haberle pedido a Solalinde renunciar a albergue (09/08/2012)

Radio Red 1110 AM: Entrevista con Solalinde Guerra (en Youtube.com)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: Padre Solalinde returns to Mexico (20 July 2012)

Oaxaca: Padre Solalinde leaves the country temporarily due to death-threats (21 May 2012)

Oaxaca: Aggressions continue against migrants and Father Solalinde (19 April 2012)

Oaxaca: Father Solalinde denounces detention by local cacique (16 January 2012)

Oaxaca: Urgent Action to guarantee the protection of Padre “Uvi,” human-rights defender

Padre “Uvi” (@Colectivo Pinotepa)

In an Urgent Action published on 17 April, the Regional Center for Human Rights “Bartolomé Carrasco” A.C., the Diocene Commission for Justice and Peace, and the Oaxacan Citizens’ Initiative denounced new death-threats against Father R. Francisco Wilfrido Mayrén Peláez, better known as “Padre Uvi,” a human-rights defender and founder of the Region Center for Human Rights “Bartolomé Carrasco Briseño” A.C., founder of the Oaxacan Citizens’ Initiative, and present coordinator of the Diocene Commission for Justice and Peace.

The organizations denounce that on Saturday 14 April 2012 at approximately 5pm, Padre Uvi received a death-threat by phone, an eventuality that was denounced before the State Attorney General’s Office of Oaxaca.  They indicate furthermore that “this act coincides with the denunciation that other rights-defenders are making given that the threat comes from the same number that has been denounced by Ms. Alba Cruz Ramos.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Acción Urgente del Centro Regional de Derechos Humanos “Bartolomé Carrasco Briseño” A. C. (17 de abril de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: Death-threats against rights-defender Alba Cruz and wife of Marcelino Coache (19 April 2012)

Oaxaca: Urgent Action in the case of Padre Uvi (13 August 2010)