Survivors of the Viejo Velasco massacre during the TPP session in El Limonar, Chiapas, July 2014. Photo @ SIPAZ
From 12 to 15 November, the final audience of the People’s Permanent Tribunal (TPP) was held, after having begun in October 2011. After 3 years of collecting information and analyzing the totality of testimonies provided by victims, organizations, and experts regarding 10 thematic questions, the sentence “Free Trade, Violence, Impunity, and Rights of the People in Mexico (2011-2014)” was published. This sentence concludes that juridical responsibilities exist among four actors: the Mexican State, transnational corporations, other countries (such as the US and Canada, among others), and international institutions (like the IMF, World Bank, and WTO, and so on). The four tiers are assigned varying degrees of responsibility.
The sentence is the culmination of 10 thematic and multidisciplinary audiences, themselves the fruit of 40 preaudiences, as well as the participation of nearly a thousands organizations of diverse character that involved thousands of individuals. The cases that were presented showed the open violations of individual and collective human rights resulting from economic and commercial treaties. It was also decided that the Mexican State is the party that “has objective international responsibility for the violation of rights, civil and political, social and cultural, as for the creation of a healthy environment and access to justice. Such changes presuppose the observance of numerous international laws and of the Mexican Constitution.”
In this way, with regard to the normalist students who were disappeared and murdered in September 2014 in Iguala, it was mentioned “the events in Ayotzinapa constitute yet another chapter in the long list of violations of the rights to dignity and to life among the Mexican people: they are the dramatic expression, both real and symbolic, of present reality, and of the significance of the proposals for the TPP […]. All this that has been meticulously documented for three years was condensed in Iguala in a number of hours of barbarism. And in this reign of impunity that is Mexico today, there are murders without murderers, torture without torturers, and sexual abuse without rapists. This is a permanent deviation from social responsibility that has led to thousands of massacres, murders, and systematic violations of collective rights. [For the State] these are crimes that are always isolated or marginal, rather than true crimes for which the State is responsible.”
The sentence specifies the gravest crimes, including crimes against humanity, that have been committed during the six-year terms of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, Vicente Fox Quesada, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, and Enrique Peña Nieto. It concludes with a battery of recommendations directed to international groups, Mexican civil society, and international media, calling for a “refoundation of Mexico” to accord with the 20 lines of recommendations, so as to bring the country back from the “deviation of power” it has experienced.
One of the judges at the final audience, Bishop Raúl Vera, affirmed that what took place at the TPP “is a comprehensive study of the unjust system that deliberately has been promoted by the Mexican government”; he indicated the “lack of responsibility on the part of the State” which “is judged principally for its deviation of power to favor transnational corporations; its commitments do not identify with the people in the least.” “Social discontent prevails because the people feel abandoned,” noted Raúl Vera.
For more information (in Spanish):
Sentencia de la audiencia final del Capítulo México del TPP (TPP México, 18 de noviembre de 2014)
Desde Salinas, gobiernos son “responsables de crímenes de lesa humanidad”: TPP (Proceso, 18 de noviembre de 2014)
El Tribunal Permanente de los Pueblos: a la sombra de Ayotzinapa (La Jornada, 18 de noviembre de 2014)
Violaciones del Estado, desde Salinas hasta EPN: documento del Tribunal de Pueblos (Aristegui Noticias, 18 de noviembre de 2014)
Tribunal establece crímenes de Estado y señala “desviación del poder” en México: Vera (Aristegui Noticias, 18 de noviembre de 2014)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: TPP preaudience judges Mexican State for crimes against humanity (27 July 2014)
Chiapas: Invitation to the TPP preaudience, “With justice and peace we will find truth” (19 July 2014)
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