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)

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)

Chiapas: ejidatario adherent to the Sixth Declaration murdered by gunfire in San Sebastián Bachajón

During the night of 24 April, Juan Vázquez Gómez, former Secretary General of the adherents to the other Campaign in the San Sebastián Bachajón ejido, was murdered by unidentified persons who shot him five times just outside his house.

In an informative note released on 25 April, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights condemned the murder of Vázquez Guzmán “who was known for his active defense of the land and territory in light of the government’s looting of the Agua Azul cascades and the imposition of a control point at their entrance.”  It recalled that on 17 April the ejidatarios of San Sebastian “publicly denounced that its territory is being threatened by the official policy of territorial looting, indicating continuity under the present government of the state.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Nota informativa del Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas (CDHFBC, 25 de abril de 2013)

Asesinan a ejidatario adherente a la Sexta declaración en Bachajón (La Jornada, 25 de abril de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Adherents to the Other Campaign in San Sebastián Bachajón denounce looting and impunity (22 April 2013)

Chiapas: Denial of motion to ejidatarios who adhere to the Sixth Declaration from San Sebastián Bachajón (7 February 2013)

Chiapas: New denunciation from San Sebastián Bachajón (10 July 2012)

Chiapas: Ejidatarios of San Sebastián Bachajón “occupy” control-point in Agua Azul before being displaced (25 June 2012)

Chiapas: Sit-in of the Front of Ejidos in Resistance in San Cristóbal de Las Casas (6 January 2012)

Chiapas: Press conference by ejidatari@s from San Sebastián Bachajón (20 March  2011)

Chiapas: Special report by Frayba: Government creates and administers conflicts (8 March 2011)

 

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)