On July 2nd, at the end of their 2022 Collectively Building Paths to Peace with Justice Encounter, partners from the Civil Service for Peace held a press conference in which they shared their concern about the human rights situation, particularly given the increase in violence in the case of Chiapas “in a complex context where organized crime and armed groups linked to the political cacicazgo permeate.”
Members of Aluna Psychosocial Accompaniment, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba), CODIGO DH (Gobixha Committee for the Comprehensive Defense of Human Rights), Oaxaca Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equity, Services and Advice for Peace (SERAPAZ) and the University of the Earth in Oaxaca and the Civil Service for Peace (Ziviler Friedensdienst) and Bread for the World (Brot für die Welt) from Germany participated in the encounter.
They declared that “Mexico has not been able to overcome the serious crisis of human rights violations and impunity that it has been facing for at least two six-year terms of office. The case of missing persons, whose dimension is increasing, is a sad example of this; according to official data, this May the country surpassed the barrier of 100,000 missing and unaccounted for people.” They also considered as “other serious indicators with an impact throughout the national territory, (…) extreme insecurity, violence, extrajudicial executions, forced displacement, torture, abuses against migrants, as well as against children and adolescents; gender violence, lack of access to justice, constant attacks against journalists and human rights defenders.” They highlighted the responsibility of the Mexican State in these offenses, “whether by commission, omission or acquiescence.” “The end of the impunity that protects and encourages the actions of criminal and business groups that dispute the control of territories, resources and markets, is one of the main challenges for the construction of peace”, they stressed.
In more hopeful notes, they emphasized that “despite the generalized violence, the communities continue to stand, building paths of peace and alternatives to strengthen their autonomy and defend their territory.” Finally, they called on organized civil society to “favor democratic dialogue and continue building Peace and Justice from the culture of Non-Violence, in order to strengthen the social articulation of peoples, communities and citizens.”
They demanded that the Mexican government “guarantee access to justice and truth and combat the co-optation of authorities from the different levels of government by networks of criminal-political-economic interests.”
For more information in Spanish:
México no ha podido superar la crisis de violaciones a derechos humanos e impunidad: ONG (Proceso, 3 de junio de 2022)
En encuentro por la paz en SCLC exponen a México como el país mas peligroso(El Heraldo de Chiapas, 2 de junio de 2022)
Pronunciamiento Conjunto. Nos unimos para fortalecer la lucha por la paz en Chiapas y México (Integrantes del Servicio Civil para la Paz, 2 de junio de 2022)
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