Mexico: EPN dismisses Calderón’s motion against the General Law on Victims

Among his first acts as president, Enrique Peña Nieto decided to suspend the motion that Felipe Calderón had interposed before the Supreme Court for Justice in the Nation (SCJN) against the General Law on Victims on 19 July 2012, a move that would have frozen its possible entrance into law.

The Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD), which was the principal platform from which the struggle for its implementation was coordinated, noted in a communique published on 4 December that “This new administration is obligated to respond to the pain and the demands of right and truth, justice, and the guarantees of non-repetition that are needed and demanded by the more than 80,000 dead, more than 20,000 disappeared, and more than 250,000 displaced during the war unleashed by Felipe Calderón in 2006.”  The MPJD recalled that the General Law on Victims is necessary, just as a radical change in security strategy is so: “we have insisted since spring 2011, when we took the streets, that there be a radical change in the national-security strategy, that there begin a national and regional debate regarding the prohibitionist anti-drug policy, and that a security model be adopted that is more humane and friendly to the citizenry, so as to advance in the construction of a peaceful society with justice and dignity.  Without a change in the security security, there will be more victims, and with this, there will not be conditions for peace.”

For more information (in Spanish):

ONG lo consideran un triunfo (El Universal, 6 de diciembre de 2012)

Peña Nieto retira recurso contra la ley de víctimas (Milenio, 6 de diciembre de 2012)

Retira EPN controversia contra la Ley General de Víctimas (Proceso, 5 de diciembre de 2012)
Ley de Víctimas tan necesaria como el cambio de la estrategia de seguridad (Pronunciamiento del MPJD, 4 de diciembre de 2012)

Activistas celebran las medidas para la atención a víctimas de Peña Nieto (CNN México, 3 de diciembre de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

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)

National: Week of protests to “dismiss” Felipe Calderón

Several organizations of relatives of the disappeared and victims of violence carried out protests throughout the country and abroad from 25 November to 1 December, the latter being the day of transition of power from Felipe Calderón (PAN) and Enrique Peña Nieto (PRI).

On 25 November, mothers who are members of the organization United Strength for our Disappeared of Mexico (Fundem) in Coahuila, the Human Rights Centers for Women of Chihuahua and Victoria Díez (Guanajuato), as well as the Committee “Until We Find Them,” from Guerrero and Michoacán, held a protest in front of the Museum of Fine Arts (Bellas Artes) in Mexico City.  They demanded justice and presented an exposition of more than 100 photographs of some of the thousands of the victims of the war against organized crime.  On this same day, in different cities of the country and in Central America, mothers of those disappeared in Mexico carried out parallel public acts.

On 26 November, there was held a protest against the monument to the victims of the previous six-year term, which was constructed on the orders of Felipe Calderón.  Its inauguration was one of the final acts the ex-president performed at the end of his term.

On 28 November, the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD) organized another protest to dismiss the “six-year term of death.”  The day coincided with the anniversary of the death of one of its members, Nepomuceno Moreno, who was killed while seeking out his disappeared son a year ago.

On 1 December, the last day of the Calderón administration, the Movement of Collectives for Peace in Mexico held expositions in different countries in the country and abroad to demonstrate hundreds of scarfs to which were added the names of those who were murdered, disappeared, and threatened with death during the past six years.

For more information (in Spanish):

…Y víctimas lo despiden: “¡Te vas y no estarás en paz jamás!” (Proceso, 28 de noviembre de 2012)

Pronunciamiento del MPJD Balance de un sexenio de muerte, guerra y traición (MPJD, 28 de noviembre de 2012)

Con protesta, familiares de desaparecidos dicen adiós al presidente Felipe Calderón (la Jornada, 26 de noviembre de 2012)

Protestan contra memorial a víctimas de la violencia (Proceso, 26 de noviembre de 2012)

Familiares de desaparecidos bordan para Calderón pesadilla que vivieron en su sexenio (Proceso, 25 de noviembre de 2012)

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)

National: Mothers of the disappeared on hunger strike before Segob

 

Mother of disappeared person on hunger strike in front of Segob @ Proceso

Since 6 November, members of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD) have installed a sit-in before the Ministry of Governance (Segob) to demand that the head of this institution, Alejandro Poiré, resolve their cases. Margarita López, Julia Alonso, Malú García, and Paz Duarte have initiated a hunger-strike because to date they have met only omission and impunity on the part of the government of Felipe Calderón.  The cold night of 13 November became the eighth consecutive day of strike and sit-in on the street for the group of mothers who struggle against impunity in Mexico, given that their family members were kidnapped or murdered months or even years ago, and they have not received justice.  The long wait has reduced them.  Julia awoke ill, feeling very weak.  The headaches suffered by Margarita are ever-more frequent.  Regardless, and despite the cold weather, the dizziness, and their impotence, their love for the children keep them going.

“I gave [the authorities] all the investigations that I did myself; I spent all my savings paying investigators and paying fees to the government,” noted Margarita López.  “It is lamentable that while we have given them all our evidence and told them where to go to find our children, they do not lift a finger,” added the woman, very weakened by lack of food, whose daughter was taken by a commando-group of men in April 2011 in southern Oaxaca.  On 9 November, Poiré received Julia Alonso and Malú García expressing “good intentions but no solution” for their cases.  “Unfortunately, we fear what happened when we went to Maricela Morales [Attorney General]: their subordinates did not follow up with the indications we had given them.  The orders that Poire is giving were handed down by Morales a year ago, and nothing has happened,” noted Margarita López.  They have resorted to this desperate means because they fear the change of government to Enrique Peña Nieto, which will take place on 1 December, will signify the total closure of these cases, still resting in impunity.

The sit-in will be held indefinitely, “until they solve each one of our cases,” assured Alicia Trejo, one of the dozens of mothers whose children are disappeared who arrived from all over the country to be together with the three mothers who began the hunger-strike.

It should be noted that the daily newspaper Excelsior published an investigation that finds 14,300 disappeared persons in Mexico between the years 2008 and 2011, with an impunity rate of 87%, according to information received from 23 of the 32 state governments.  For its part, the UN Committee on Forced Disappearance finds that there exist 3,000 disappeared persons in Mexico whose cases have not been resolved.  Amnesty International  claims that local NGOs speak of tens of thousands of disappeared.

For more information (in Spanish):

Madres del MPJD realizan huelga de hambre frente a Segob (Proceso, 7 de noviembre de 2012)

Comunicado de Malú García Andrade, Defensora de Derechos Humanos (Facebook, 6 de noviembre de 2012)

Desaparecidos, el vergonzoso saldo de Calderón (Proceso, 12 de noviembre de 2012)

Impunidad en México lleva a madres a una huelga de hambre (Terra Noticias, 12 de noviembre de 2012)

Madres hacen huelga de hambre contra la impunidad de crímenes (El Nuevo Diario, 12 de noviembre de 2012)

Audio-Video:

Julia, Margarita, Malú y Bárbara, madres de desaparecidos en la llamada guerra contra el narco de Calderón llevan tres días en huelga de hambre frente a Gobernación (Reporte Indigo, 13 de noviembre de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

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)

National: Communiqué by the All Rights for All Network on the occasion of its 44th National Assembly

On 13 and 14 October, the National Network of Civil Human Rights Organizations “All Rights for All” carried out its 44th National Assembly in Tlapa de Comomfort, Guerrero, in which participated representatives from 73 organizations hailing from 21 states of the country.

Upon concluding the meeting, participants published a pronunciation to condemn the federal government of Felipe Calderón for “60 thousand deaths, a number that by ratio is larger than that which occurred during the Guatemalan civil war, in addition to thousands of disappeared which surpass the number from the Dirty War, thousands of internally displaced by violence; a massive increase in torture as method of investigation and punishment; attacks on the human rights of women and increasing feminicide; a policy of security that on the one hand criminalizes migration, thus generating large dividends for the trafficking of persons and exacerbating insecurity throughout large regions, and that on the other has created a siege and civil war throughout many parts, on the parts of soldiers and criminal groups, that lacks any sense of rationality and that has no end in sight.”

The document also criticizes the coming administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, because “he should be facing criminal charges at the least for the events of Atenco in 2006.  He is two months from taking office, thanks to the irresponsibility of the judicial power and the submission of the administration of justice to political power.”

Regardless, against this threatening panorama, the Network recognized the organizational efforts of different groups from civil society which would build a more democratic and just country.  Lastly, the Network confirmed its commitment to continuing the work of defending and promoting human rights.

For more information (in Spanish):

Pronunciamiento completo de la RedTdT en la marco de su XLIV Asamblea (Red Tdt, 14 de octubre de 2012)

National: MPJD denounces “treason of government” and demands advances in the cases of victims of violence

MPJD, press-conference on 9 October 2012 (@MPJD)

In a press conference on 9 October, the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD) assured that it has been betrayed by the federal government, given that the State has not observed the accords signed in Chapultepec in October 2011, and that above all the cases that were presented at that time have not been resolved.  It detailed that “Of the accords mentioned, Felipe Calderón has not created the memorial; he has not observed the General Law on Victims, instead creating a Special Prosecutorial Office for Attention to Victims that is governed by a limited supportive scheme, having no resources to establish a system of attention for victims.  This has meant fatal consequences for Don Nepomuceno Moreno, Eva Alarcón and Marcial Bautista, Pedro Leyva, and Don Trino, who formed part of the Dialogue Tables with the Executive and who, like Don Nepo who had presented his case to the president, were murdered or find themselves disappeared.”  They indicate moreover that “as family members of victims we clearly know that our murdered and/or disappeared sons and daughters are not the family-members of former governors, as in the case of the ex-governor who lost his son to murder, or the case of the brother of the former State Attorney General of the state of Chihuahua who was kidnapped and murdered.  If our families had these last names, then we would have the attention of Felipe Calderón or Alejandro Poire.”

On 10 October, as was announced in the press-conference, MPJD members met outside the office of the Secretary of Governance to denounce “the omission and lack of political will to resolve cases of disappearances, which like the thousands killed demand an immediate response.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado completo MPJD exige se cumplan acuerdos del gobierno federal y avances en los casos de víctimas de la violencia (MPJD, 9 de octubre de 2012)

Reprocha Movimiento por la paz al gobierno justicia para unos cuantos (La Jornada, 10 de octubre de 2012)

Acusa Movimiento por la Paz traición del gobierno (Milenio, 9 de octubre de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in Spanish):

Binational: Presentation of the “Caravan for Peace of the MPJD in the United States” (20 June 2012)

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

National/International: Calderón requests that the UN revise its drug strategy

Felipe Calderón @ Milenio

On 26 September, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa gave his final speech as president of Mexico before the General Assembly of the United Nations, during which he demanded that all member-nations open a debate regarding the prohibition of the consumption of drugs.

Calderón focused centrally on drug violence, asserting that if consumer countries, particularly the U.S., are incapable of restricting consumption, this debate should be opened; he anticipated that Mexico will lead a multinational strategy by means of an accord to detain the flow of arms across borders.  “The legal combat against drugs has generated a black market that leaves huge economic profit for criminal organizations that now have an unlimited capacity for corruption that allows them to buy governments,” he noted.  “The economic power of the organizations dedicated to trafficking in drugs, weapons, money, and persons is being converted into political power,” he said.  ‘The criminals seek to control territory; they dispute the strength of states.”

The Mexican president added that if UN member states “cannot or will not reduce their consumption of drugs, at least they should regulate the exorbitant flow of resources that finance criminals.”  But “if this cannot happen, it is the time to explore other alternatives if reduction in consumption cannot be achieved.”

For this reason, he announced that Mexico will support an agreement that limits or prohibits the trade in conventional arms when there exists the risk that these will be utilized to commit violations of international law.

For some analysts, the war-strategy of the present government, which has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands, in fact led to the multiplication of drug-trafficking groups in Mexico.  They indicate that the smallest and most violent groups took the place of the larger ones, building new alliances instead of disappearing.  At the same time, the Sinaloa cartel and the Zetas cartel arose as the principal organized-crime groups in Mexico.

For more information (in Spanish):

La ONU debe debatir sobre el enfoque prohibicionista de la droga: Calderón (CNN México, 26 de septiembre de 2012)

La esquizofrenia de Calderón (Proceso, 27 de septiembre de 2012)

Plantea Calderón ante la ONU analizar el enfoque prohibicionista de drogas (La Jornada, 26 de septiembre de 2012)

Urge Calderón a ONU “acción” anticrimen (Milenio, 26 de septiembre de 2012)

Debe ONU revisar prohibición sobre drogas: Calderón (El Universal, 26 de septiembre de 2012)

FCH pide en ONU revisar política en materia de drogas (El Universal, 27 de septiembre de 2012)

ONU: Calderón sorprende con discurso enérgico (El Nuevo Herald, 26 de septiembre de 2012)

Video-Audio:

En vivo: Asamblea General de la ONU (Aristegui Noticias, 26 de septiembre de 2012)

Presidente Felipe Calderón realiza su último discurso como presidente (Youtube, 26 de septiembre de 2012)

Chiapas: communiqué by the Las Abejas Civil Society for the monthly commemoration of the Acteal massacre

On 22 September, in observance of the monthly commemoration of the Acteal massacre (1997), the Las Abejas Civil Society noted in a communiqué that “the same history is being repeated in the process of our struggle.  The governments of death protect each other and cover up their crimes.”  Las Abejas denounced in this sense “Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León and his entire chain of command” who “allowed for the Acteal massacre, a tragedy that humanity could never imagine, because what happened has no name and is unacceptable under all circumstances.“  They also denounce Felipe Calderón Hinojosa for “covering up” the crime.  They stress moreover that the current president “also organized his own war, the so-called ‘war on organized crime’ or drug-trafficking, supposedly to give security to the people, but in place of protecting human life, his war has resulted in the death of 70,000 people and the disappearance of 10,000 others, these all being innocents, over the course of his six-year term.”

Las Abejas also expressed their solidarity with other processes, referring to “our Zapatista brothers” (regarding the aggression against the Comandante Abel community, from the autonomous rebel Zapatista municipality of “La Dignidad”); the 45 families who are members of the Emiliano Zapata Proletarian Organization-Movement for National Liberation (OPEZ-MLN) from the community of Las Flores, Chicomuselo municipality, Chiapas; and with Alberto Patishtan, who “should be released immediated and without conditions.”  “Those who should be in jail are Ernesto Zedillo and all his advisers, Felipe Calderón for his responsibility for the death of more than 70,000 persons, and Enrique Peña Nieto for his overseeing of the repression in San Salvador Atenco”.

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado completo (22 de septiembre de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

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

Chiapas: Communiqué by Las Abejas of Acteal on 22 August 2012 (18 September 2012)

Chiapas: Las Abejas of Acteal march against impunity (16 August 2012)

Mexico: final presidential report by Felipe Calderón and reactions

Sixth governmental report (@ Office of the President of the Republic)

On 1 September, Alejandro Poiré, secretary of Governance, submitted the sixth and final government report from President Felipe Calderón to deputies and senators.  Calderón for his part carried out a public act on 3 September at the National Palace, summarizing the document presented before the Congress.

During said act, Calderón assured that his action was “humanist.”  He claimed that “the actions carried out by the government and society to promote sustainable human development in Mexico have resulted in undeniable progress in social, political, and economic terms that without a doubt signifies steps toward the continued development of forces that permit the advance of comprehensive development for the nation.”

The thematic questions that the report deals with are State of Right and Security; Economic Competitiveness and Generation of Work; Equality of Opportunnity; Sustainable Development; Effective Democracy; and Responsible Foreign Policy.

In his presentation, Calderón emphasized the advances in the struggle against crime, stressing that this “progressed significantly in the containment and weakening of criminal organizations.”  He highlighted the way he strengthened the Federal Police (which increased in size from 6,489 to 36,940 officers during his six-year term), the Army and Navy (with an increase of more than 100% in the number of soldiers and sailors), presenting as a result the recuperation of 5,000 public spaces.  Calderón warned his successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, that the idea of returning the Armed Forces to their barracks “is as mistaken” as the idea that violence due to insecurity in the country began in 2006 with his accession to power.  He affirmed that “the only way of truly ending this cancer is to preserve the containment of the criminal organizations,” strengthen institutions of security and administration of justice, and to rebuild the social fabric.

Just before the release of the report, Amnesty International published a severe assessment of the six-year term with regard to security and human rights: “The government of President Calderón initiated a public security strategy to militarily confront organized crime groups, thus aggravating violence severely in several regions of the country, without having a strategy or capacity to halt this violence and guarantee security for the affected populations.  This policy was built using the mass-deployment of the Armed Forced in police tasks, a move that provoked a frightening increase in denunciations of human-rights violations as committed by security forces, such as arbitrary detentions, torture, extrajudicial executions, and forced disappearances.”

Beyond this, some time before the release of the official report, protests were held as organized by the National Coordination of Educational Workers (CNTE), the Mexican Union of Electricians (SME), #IAm132, and the Movement for National Regeneration.  The #IAm132 movement presented a counter-report evaluating the past six-year term, “six years during which year after year we have seen a cowardly president speaking of courage while we, society, observe the dead, the displaced, the kidnapped, those taken by the authorities.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Sexto informe de gobierno (página oficial)

Presenta Calderón cifras alegres sobre el estado del país (Proceso, 1ero de septiembre de 2012)

“Olvidan” mencionar en Informe 70 mil muertos de la narcoguerra(Proceso, 1ero de septiembre)

Gobierno destaca lucha anticrimen (El Universal, 1ero de septiembre de 2012)

Informe presidencial carece de autocríticas: especialistas (El Universal, 3 de septiembre de 2012)

Sexto Informe: Calderón pide a Peña mantener a militares en las calles(Proceso, 2 de septiembre)

Yo Soy 132 critica el sexenio de Calderón y presenta un contrainforme(CNN México,1ero de septiembre de 2012)

Último informe del Presidente Calderón: ¿reconocerá el grave deterioro en la protección de los derechos humano? (Comunicado de Amnistía Internacional, 31 de agosto de 2012)

Chiapas: Communiqué by Las Abejas of Acteal on 22 August 2012

© SIPAZ

In observance of the monthly commemoration of the December 1997 Acteal massacre, the Las Abejas Civil Society on 22 August published a communiqué calling into question President Calderón, among others: “we from ‘Las Abejas’ not only denounce Felipe Calderón as responsible for the death of more than 70,000 persons in the supposed war on drugs but also judge him to be complicit and responsible for the Acteal massacre, as it is the PAN regime that released en masse the paramilitaries who had been incarcerated for the Acteal massacre.  Regardless, Calderón is now preparing his departure from the country, seeking to work in the US and negotiating with the University of Texas at Austin regarding a possible academic post after the end of his presidential term.  And so we ask how it is possible that he seek work abroad if he says he is the president of work?  It is obvious that he is fleeing his responsibility for the crimes he committed and the others for which he is complicit, and given that he did nothing good during his administration, leaving our country in ruins.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado de Las Abejas 22 de agosto

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Las Abejas of Acteal march against impunity (16 August 2012)

Chiapas: Communiqué by Las Abejas of Acteal in observation of the Acteal massacre (4 June 2012)

Chiapas: Pre-audience of the People’s Permanent Tribunal (22 March 2012)

Permanent Tribunal of the Peoples – Mexico Chapter (14 November 2011)

National: Supreme Court admits case on General Law of Victims

On 24 July, the Supreme Court for Justice in the Nation (SCJN) admitted the demand regarding the constitutional controversy interposed by the Executive of the federal government against the Congress for legislating the General Law of Victims (LGV).  President Felipe Calderón had intervened with this legal resource following the Senate’s decreeing of this law, without its having taken into account the observations made by the president.  Legislators from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) criticized that this demand from Calderón originates “outside of time,” as they claimed that the present legislature will likely already have concluded when the SCJN resolves the controversy.  Regardless that the controversy does not refer to the content of the LGV but rather to different interpretations of the time that by law corresponds to the Executive, in accordance with legislators, several members of non-governmental organizations indicated that with the demand, the president will leave victims of his strategy of war against organize crime without defense.

For more information (in Spanish):

La Jornada: La Corte admite controversia del Ejecutivo contra la ley de víctimas (25/07/2012)

La Jornada: Insta Gobernación a buscar un acuerdo político sobre la legislación (26/07/2012)

La Jornada: La controversia de Calderón, fuera de tiempo, acusan legisladores de PRI y PRD (26/07/2012)

La Jornada: Tardía, notificación al Legislativo de que se aceptó la controversia contra la ley de víctimas (27/07/2012)

La Jornada: El mandatario, un obstáculo para los derechos ciudadanos, denuncia ONG (27/07/2012)