Chiapas: Urgent action involving the detainees of the MOCRI-CNPA-MN

In an urgent action on April 8, the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) expressed serious concerns about the “detention incommunicado of Pedro López Gómez, Genaro Gómez Gómez, Ramiro Hernández Gómez, and Marcelino Ruiz Gómez, all of whom are family members of persons incarcerated in the prison CERRS 14 also known as ‘El Amate`, and Eric Bautista Gómez; all of whom were detained in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, in the State of Chiapas.”

According to the denunciations of the Regional Independent Campesino Movement – National Coordination Plan de Ayala- National Movement (MOCRI- CNPA- MN) and from the Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights (Limeddh) at dawn on April 7 members of the State Preventative Police forcibly removed a “peaceful demonstration in front of the Government Palace in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez”. For 15 days, this demonstration had been protesting in solidarity with eight prisoners who are members of the MOCRI-CNPA-MN, who had sewed their lips shut and begun a hunger strike on March 23 because they had been unjustly jailed. During the removal of the protest, according to information from the OMCT, four people were detained “and to date we do not know where they were taken to after being detained”. The encampment of the prisoners who were on a hunger strike inside El Amate was also dismantled by the guards.

The OMCT also denounced that “at the same time that these detentions were taking place at the protest, another group of four patrols of the Preventative Police violently evicted the offices of the MOCRI-CNPA-MN and various residents of the neighborhood, Colonia “Emiliano Zapata”, and during this operation Eric Bautista Gómez, the spokesman of the MOCRI, was detained.

According to an article in La Jornada on April 9, the government stated that the detainees had been placed under arraigo (pre-charge detention) in a secure house and would be freed soon.

For More Information (In Spanish):

Boletín y denuncia publica, MOCRI CNPA MN (08/04/09)

OMCT: Caso MEX 080409/Detenciones en incomunicación/Temor de desaparición forzada/Riesgo de torturas y/o malos tratos  (08/04/09)

AU-010-2009.MOCRI-CHIS: Denuncia publica: Uso excesivo de la fuerza pública, detenciones arbitrarias, riesgo de desaparición forzada de personas y de actos de tortura en contra de familiares e integrantes de MOCRI CNPA, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, LIMEDDH (07/04/09)

Presuntos policías intentan secuestrar a líder del MOCRI, El Proceso (06/04/09)

Desalojan plantón de labriegos dentro de la cárcel de El Amate, La Jornada (07/04/09)

Liberarían en Chiapas a seis detenidos, La Jornada (09/04/09)

More Information de SIPAZ:

Chiapas: New denunciation from El Amate, SIPAZ Blog, 2/4.

Guerrero: Urgent Actions by various international organizations call attention to the arbitrary detention of Máximo Mojica

Amnesty International (AI), the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), and the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) through the Collective Against Torture and Impunity (CCTI) released Urgent Actions regarding the case of Máximo Mojica Delgado, María de los Ángeles Hernaández Flores, and Santiago Nazario Lezma who were arbitrarily detained in the last days of November in Telolapan, Guerrero.

On November 27, three armed men carried off Máximo Mojica without presenting identification or an arrest warrant. On November 29, María de los Ángeles Hernández and Santiago Nazario were detained by armed men who were described by neighbors to be agents of the Police Ministry of Investigation (PIM).

On December 3, after a number of days without knowing the location of these 3 people, they were found in the custody of the State Attorney General’s office. They were visited by members of the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights in Guerrero which later stated that the three detainees showed signs of mistreatment and had not been given the right to an attorney. The State Attorney General’s office had not yet presented formal charges against any of the three detainees.

It is worth mentioning that Mojica had participated in the Civil Association of Land and Liberty (Asociación Civil de Tierra y Libertad), which is part of the Front of Democratic Organizations in the State of Guerrero (FODEG) and that Mojica and María de los Ángeles Hernández were both members of the State Coordination of Educational Workers of Guerrero (CETEG).

Case update:  On December 4, 2008, Máximo Mojica Delgado, María de los Ángeles Hernaández Flores, and Santiago Nazario Lezma were transfered to Tecpan where they were brought before the Galeana District Judge in order to solicit an administrative detention on charges of kidnapping Adriana de Jesús Ortega Zarate.

For More Information:

UA – Mexico: Fear of torture or other ill-treatment (AI, 04/12/08)

The IRCT demands immediate action regarding forced disappearance of a Mexican colleague (03/12/08)