Mexico: IACHR admits case of 11 women victimized by physical and verbal violence

(@ProDH)

Three years after having been presented, the case of 11 women who were victimized by sexual and verbal violence on the part of police after been arrested in San Salvador Atenco, state of Mexico, in May 2006 was accepted on 4 November by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).  They were part of the 47 arrested women (out of a total of 207) in the operations ordered by the then PRI presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto.  At the time, there were denounced 26 rapes, but only 14 were denounced before the Special Prosecutorial Office for Attention to Crimes Related to Acts of Violence against Women (Fevim).  In light of the lack of results in the demand for justice, only 11 requested that the IACHR admit the case, as it finally did.

The Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Center for Human Rights (Prodh Center), legal representative with the Center for Justice and International Law (Cejil) of those attacked, celebrated the decision of the IACHR.  It denounced that “the admission of the case represents a substantive advance in the large path national and international taken by those victimized by sexual torture.  Doubtless, the national and international solidarity that has been expressed over more than 5 years has allowed that these women continue resisting in light of the sexual torture used by the State as a strategy to demobilize and generate fear.  The case is paradigmatic of the institutional violence exercised by the Mexican state, and the struggle for justice is for all women.”

The IACHR decision opens the possibility that the case pass eventually to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights.

For more information (in Spanish):

Admite la CIDH caso de las mujeres agredidas en Atenco (9 November 2011)

CIDH admite el Caso de las Mujeres que sufrieron Tortura Sexual de Atenco (Boletín de prensa, CentroProDH, 8 November 2011)

Admite la CIDH caso de mujeres ultrajadas en Atenco (Proceso, 8 November 2011)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Mexico: Atenco five years on, raped women continue demanding justice (6 May 2011)

Chiapas: Meeting “With Memory, the Peoples Build Justice and Truth” (25 March 2011)

Chiapas: Celebration of the release of prisoners from San Sebastián Bachajón

Photo @Zapateando

On 3 September, members of the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala, San Salvador Atenco, and members of the Sector of Workers from the states of Veracruz, Mexico state, and Mexico city responded to the call from the ejidatarios of San Sebastián Bachajón, adherents to the Other Campaign, to celebrate the release of the prisoners of San Sebastián Bachajón in the same community.  There were also present ejidatarios from Tila (northern zone of Chiapas) and from communities close to San Sebastián Bachajón.  The authorities of the ejido gave their word, as did the ex-prisoners, who declared themselves in favor of continuing to struggle.  They thanked those present and invited them to continue working together in struggle.  The women of the ejido shared the difficulties of their struggle and how they are participating.

It should be remembered that at the end of the month of July were released all the prisoners from San Sebastián Bachajón who had been incarcerated for 5 months.  On 5 February, the State Attorney General’s Office of Chiapas had detained 10 ejidatarios, including a minor, following a confrontation with militants from the Institutional Revolutionary Party for the control of an entrance-point located in the touristic center of the Agua Azul waterfalls.

For more information (in Spanish):

A defender San Sebastián Bachajón (Zapateando, 7 September)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: The four prisoners from San Sebastián Bachajón are released (18 August 2011)

Chiapas: Facing police repression, adherents to the Other Campaign from San Sebastián Bachajón abandon control-post they had taken the previous day (24 April 2011)

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: The Peace Network visits prisoners from San Sebastián Bachajón (8 March 2011)

Chiapas: detentions vis-a-vis blockade of road Tonala-Pijijiapan during action of the Other Campaign (26 February 2011)

Chiapas: Caravan of women to San Sebastian Bachajón (25 February 2011)

Chiapas: Agua Azul, new happenings and denunciations (17 February 2011)

Chiapas: update in the Agua Azul case (14 February 2011)

Chiapas: roadblocks and detention of militants in Mitzitón (10 February 2011)

Chiapas: confrontation over control point at Agua Azul leaves one dead and several injured (7 February 2011)

Mexico: Atenco five years on, raped women continue demanding justice

Photo: Centro-Prodh

Five years after the police incursion in Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco on 3 and 4 May 2006, women who have denounced their sexual torture firmly maintain their demands for justice.  Civil organizations indicate that the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and the State Attorney General’s Office of Mexico have impeded advances in the path toward justice for these women, and that due to the inefficacy of the internal institutions the case of 11 women finds itself presently before the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights (CIDH).

The police operative implemented in the state of Mexico in 2006 against the Popular Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) in its struggle against the construction of an airport in Texcoco left two youth dead and 207 detained, of whom 47 were women.  Of the 47 women who were attacked, the National Commission on Human rights (CNDH) noted rape in 26 cases.  On this the fifth anniversary of the Atenco events, the Movement of Peoples in Defense of the Land, Amnesty International, and SME protested in front of the offices of the PGR to demand justice.

For more information (in Spanish):

Atenco, cinco años de resistencia frente a la tortura sexual, Cencos, 3 May 2011)

Atenco, a 5 años no se olvidan los excesos en el uso de la fuerza pública, El Universal, 3 May 2011

Víctimas de violación en Atenco se resisten a quedar en el olvido, cimacnoticas, 3 May

En Atenco prevalecen 5 años de impunidad, todotexcoco, 3 May 2011

A un lustro de hechos en Atenco, activistas exigen justicia frente a PGR, La Jornada, 2 May 2011

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Meeting “With Memory, the Peoples Build Justice and Truth” (25 March 2011)

Mexico: National Meeting of members of The Other Campaign in Atenco

@FTDP

Between the 12th and 14th of November 2010, a National Meeting of Organizations and Struggles of the Other Campaign took place in San Salvador Atenco (Mexico State), convoked by the Movement for Justice en El Barrio, United States and the Front of Peoples in Defense of the Land of Atenco, the latter being the host organization.

The invitation to the meeting noted: “While in the Other Campaign we have strengthened ourselves, we have extended more and have gone deeper in the way we work, the reaction from the capitalist system and from the ‘bad government’ has been to try and crush us where our roots are deep and our resistance is fierce. From the other side of the border, in New York, the movement for Justice in El Barrio strongly felt the chill first and then the anger that emerged from the repression that swept the country during the first phase of the Other Campaign. “ They argue: ” We hope to raise all our differences as flags and walk together to defend our lands, our cultures, our identities, our loves, our autonomy. “

According to press reports, the event was attended by over 70 organizations and groups. During the three days of the meeting there were different workshops, addressing issues such as repression, political prisoners, the defense of land and autonomy, among others, as well as an open forum on “The worthy struggles of Women , Indigenous Peoples, Lesbian, Gay and Transgender. ” In addition, there were screenings of documentaries on different actors and stages of the Other Campaign, as well as on the Zapatista struggle in Chiapas.

For more information (in Sanish):

• Todos los detalles día por día del Encuentro Nacional de Organizaciones y Luchas de La Otra Campaña. (Blog del FPDT)
• Imágenes del Encuentro Nacional de Organizaciones y Luchas de La Otra Campaña. (Blog del FPDT)
• Vídeo del cierre del encuentro de La Otra en Atenco (Blog del FPDT)
• La Jornada: Sesionan en San Salvador Atenco organizaciones de la otra campaña (13/11/2010)
• La Jornada: En grave peligro, el país por el sistema capitalista: zapatistas (14/11/2010)

• La Jornada: Concluye en Atenco el Encuentro Nacional de Organizaciones y Luchas (15/11/2010)

Chiapas: Frayba: Annual Assessment of Human Rights 2008

Don Samuel Ruiz, obispo emérito y presidente del Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, C. González Rosas y M.T. Ramirez Vázquez, del FPDT de San Salvador Atenco

On Thursday, May 28^th, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) presented their “Annual Assessment of the situation of Human Rights in Chiapas for 2008” at CIDESI-University of the Land in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. Their assessment of the Human Rights situation from March 2008 to March of this year explored the themes of Land and Territory, Criminalization of Social Protest, Armed Internal Conflict, and Historical Memory. During a slide show that evidenced concrete projects in support of Human Rights, Frayba invited representatives from different Mexican movements and organizations to speak and give testimony to the defense of Human Rights and communities. More than 100 people attended the Assessment, including various representatives from indigenous communities in Chiapas.

Catalina González Rosas and María Trinidad Ramirez Vázquez of the Front for Communities for the Defense of the Land (FPDT) from San Salvador Atenco in the State of Mexico described the repression they experienced at the hands of the state in 2002 and again in 2006. They spoke of their resistance and the fear and repression that they experienced, but more importantly, of their process of organization and the message of hope. Alejandro Cerezo Contreras of the Cerezo Committee spoke of the growing criminalization of social protest as a serious violation of Human Rights. As evidence of this, three representatives of the Regional Independent Campesino Movement-The Ayala Plan-National Movement (MOCRI-CNPA-MN) talked about their organization’s fight and the repression that they suffered in November 2008 in the neighborhood of Emiliano Zapata, in Tuxtla Gutiérrez. After this presentation, the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center presented a comparison between the Human Rights situation in Chiapas and Guerrero—a comparison which revealed similar strategies of repression by both the federal and state governments in both states. The presentation portion of the meeting was wrapped up by Estela Barco from DESMI who used the forced disappearances in the North Zone of Chiapas in the 1990s (that remain unsolved) to remind those present of the importance of historical memory “when one cannot expect justice from official authorities.”

Final comments were given by Don Samuel Ruiz, the founder and current president of Frayba. In his comments, he painted a frightening picture: even though the defenders of human rights wish that there would not be a shortage of human rights workers in Chiapas, the truth of the matter is that Frayba has more work every day. Nevertheless, he emphasized that in the 20 years of its existence, Frayba has become the Human Rights center of the indigenous communities that defend their rights.

For more information, please visit:

Balance 2008 del Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas

La Jornada: Reportan 675 abusos de autoridades en Chiapas (29/05/09)

Atenco: the Campaign “Liberty and Justice for Atenco” begins

On February 17 the National and International Campaign for “Liberty and Justice for Atenco” was initiated with the objective of the liberation of the 13 prisoners of San Salvador Atenco and the end of political persecution against three more people. This campaign began this week with forums of analysis, discussions, events, and visibility for the permanent sit-in which was set up in the prison Molino de las Flores. It also plans to organize visits with all the prisoners and publish interviews with them.

Mexico: Mexico undergoes the Universal Periodic Review

On February 10, for the first time, Mexico underwent the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) before the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UN) in Geneva. The UPR is a mechanism of the UN whose objective is to examine the achievement of human rights agreements and obligations in each member State. The critics of the presentation given by the Mexican government have been many and vocal. Jose Luis Soberanes, the Mexican ombudsman, stated that “the issues have been badly presented” and the results “have been manipulated”. He also expressed that in Mexico “the problem that we have is that what is resolved in the international bodies, such as the Human Rights Council, later is not implemented. There is a gap between what happens in the international bodies and what happens internally”.

The government stated in its report the proposal to withdraw the military from the fight against organized crime in the long term and support the establishment of a National Program of Human Rights. This plan has been questioned by organizations for being proposed solely for the UPR and without the intention of actually implementing it.

In addition two other reports were presented: the first compiled by agencies of the UN and the other by NGOs. While the Mexican state presented its report, the Mexican and international NGOs were allowed to be present but were not allowed to talk.

The report of the organizations from civil society, which was presented in September of 2008, showed a different reality with regard to human rights in Mexico. It criticized that the militarization and the fight against organized crime has focused entirely on questions of security and has sacrificed respect for human rights. It stressed that criminalization of social protest continues along with aggression and hostility towards human rights defenders, violations of fundamental guarantees by the military, feminicide, torture, and arbitrary detentions.

International organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch strongly emphasized problems of impunity in Mexico. They pointed to “the hundreds of homicides and the 700 forced disappearances which took place between the 1960s and 1980s” and that it still continues by not giving sentences according to the facts in San Salvador Atenco and in Oaxaca in the last few years. “The agents of the federal, state, and municipal police of Mexico are implicated in grave human rights violations; such as torture, violations, and homicide, especially the actions committed during the civil disturbances in San Salvador Atenco and the City of Oaxaca in 2006, which have still not been brought to justice”.

Friday, February 13, the countries carrying out the review on February 10, South Africa, Pakistan, and Nicaragua, will present their report to the public. The government of Mexico will show in the document if it accepts, rejects, or waits to decide on the criticisms and proposals which the Council formulated in the session on Tuesday.

More Information:

Highlights of the Univeral Periodic Review of Mexico – UNHCHR (10/02/09)

Reports by the Government, Civil Society, and the UN- UNHCHR

Press Release by the Human Rights Center PRODH on the UPR (10/02/09)

More Information in Spanish:

ONG mexicanas ante el Examen Periódico Universal de México, Red Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos (10/02/2009)

Article 19 coincide con el Consejo de Derechos Humanos sobre las agresiones a periodistas en México (10/02/2009)

Acusan ONG ante la ONU impunidad en la violación a DH en México, La Jornada (07/02/2009)

Atenco: The case of Atenco before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation

Source: El Porvenir

On January 21 of this year Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) released the “Public version of the report evaluating the constitutional investigation carried out by a special committee in their report on 3/2006”. In this document they present the results of an investigation into the events that occurred in Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco, in Mexico State, on May 3 and 4. On February 9 the findings will be reviewed by the full court.

The investigation indicates that the police operation demonstrated “negligence and lack of professionalism” and that resulted in “abuses, cruel and inhumane treatment, the use of excessive force, rape, and torture”. It concludes that “it is necessary that in the discussion and the final conclusion it is established that very grave violations occurred including torture and sexual violations against women”. The Collective against Torture and Impunity in Mexico, the Human Rights Center Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez, and the Network of Rights for Everyone commented that the report “is a step towards justice for Atenco”, but that it lacked the clear conclusion that there was “torture and sexual violations of women”.

Only days after the publication of the provisional report, Amnesty International (AI) stated that “the investigation carried out by the Supreme Court brings to light a long list of human rights violations that have remained un-addressed” and that it is “essential” that the highest Mexican court “decide on a positive resolution, based on international statutes signed by Mexico”. It also asked the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) to support the report written by the investigative commission into the abuses committed in the police operation so that impunity could be stopped.

The police operation, in which more that 4 thousand members of the Department of Federal Public Security (SSPF) and the Agency of State Security of the State of Mexico (ASEEM) participated, left of toll of 207 detained, two youths killed, and around 50 women who suffered violations, sexual abuse, torture, and illegal searches.

For More Information (In Spanish):

Versión pública del dictamen que valora la investigación constitucional realizada por la comisión designada en el expediente 3/2006, Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (21/01/2009)

Atenco y la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación, La Jornada (24/01/2009)

Las agresiones en Atenco, alentadas por superiores: dictamen de la Corte, La Jornada (29/01/2009)

Difunde Corte dictamen sobre caso Atenco, El Universal (03/02/2009)

México: La Corte Suprema debe apoyar el informe sobre Atenco y abrir la puerta a la justicia, Amnistía Internacional (06/02/2009)

Ante la discusión del dictamen sobre Atenco de la SCJN: Justicia o impunidad: Comisión Civil Internacional de Observación por los Derechos Humanos, Boletín 38 (07/02/2009)

Pide Amnistía Internacional a la Corte respaldar el informe sobre el caso Atenco, La Jornada (07/02/2009)

Pide América del Valle a los ministros no prolongar injusticia e impunidad en Atenco, La Jornada (09/02/2009)

El proyecto de la Corte sobre Atenco puede otorgar impunidad a funcionarios, La Jornada (09/02/2009)