Guerrero: ‘Alert’ Declared to Protect Human Rights Defenders

On September 11th, the National Network of Civil Organisms for Human Rights “All Rights for All” (Red TDT in Spanish) announced the launch of an Alert for human rights defenders in Guerrero. The purpose of this alert is to take actions that especially protect the organizations that are part of the TDT Network in that state: the Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon Regional Center for Defense of Human Rights, (Chilapa), the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center (Tlapa), as well as the Collective Against Torture and Impunity.

As the first action of this alert, a civil observation mission will be held in Chilapa and Chilpancingo on September 19th and 20th. According to Proceso magazine, this mission aims to have dialogue with victims of human rights violations, to note the difficulties that human rights defenders live on a daily basis in that area and to visit places that have experienced forced displacement.

The TDT Network stated that, “facing State inaction, civil society is obliged to generate follow-up and visibility actions, in order to protect individuals and groups that defend human rights.” It reported, however, that it hopes to have a “high level” meeting with Governor Hector Astudillo, members of his cabinet and mayors from different municipalities affected by violence.

 For more information in Spanish:

ONG documentarán atropellos en Guerrero (La Jornada, 18 de septiembre de 2017)

SE REALIZARÁ LA PRIMERA MISIÓN CIVIL DE OBSERVACIÓN A CHILAPA (Centro de derechos humanos Tlachinollan, 17 de septiembre de 2017)

Ante el desastre de la seguridad; la defensa comunitaria (Centro de derechos humanos Tlachinollan, 18 de septiembre de 2017)

Organizaciones emiten alerta para proteger a activistas en Guerrero (La Jornada, 11 de septiembre de 2017)

Ponen en marcha “Alerta” para proteger a defensores de derechos humanos en Guerrero (Proceso, 11 de septiembre de 2017)

Alerta Defensa DH | Red TDT declara Alerta para personas defensoras del Estado de Guerrero y anuncia Misión de Observación (RedTDT, 10 de septiembre de 2017)

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Chiapas: EZLN Sixth Commission Announces Tour Program for Indigenous Council of Government

Photo: @ Letra Roja

On September 15th, the EZLN Sixth Commission convened the start of the Indigenous Council of Government tour in Chiapas for October 14th, 2017. The Council’s spokesperson is Maria de Jesus Patricio, a possible independent candidate for the 2018 presidency. The events will take place

“in the framework of the National Working Assembly between the Indigenous Council of Government and the peoples who make up the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) to be held at CIDECI, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, October 12, 13, and 19, 2017.”

 The communiqué indicates that from October 14th to 19th, 2017, they will visit four caracoles, the town of Guadalupe Tepeyac and the municipality of Palenque for “a series of events to greet the Indigenous Council Of Government—the voice, ear, and heart of the indigenous peoples of the CNI.”

According to the schedule published last Friday the events will be held according to the following order:

“Saturday, October 14th, 2017: Community of Guadalupe Tepeyac, MAREZ (Zapatista Autonomous Municipality in Rebellion) of “San Pedro de Michoacan.” Time undetermined, as it depends on how much time it takes to get from CIDECI to Guadalupe Tepeyac. The CIG delegation will stay there overnight.

Sunday, October 15th, 2017: Caracol of Morelia, MAREZ of “17 de Noviembre,” Tzotz Choj zone.  Time undetermined, as it depends on how much time it takes to get from Guadalupe Tepeyac to the caracol of Morelia. The CIG delegation will stay there overnight.

Monday, October 16th, 2017: Caracol of Garrucha, MAREZ of “Francisco Gómez,” Selva Tzeltal zone. Time undetermined, as it depends on how much time it takes to get from the caracol of Morelia to the caracol of Garrucha. The CIG delegation will stay there overnight.

Tuesday, October 17th, 2017: Caracol of Roberto Barrios, MAREZ of “Trabajo,” northern zone of Chiapas. Time undetermined, as it depends on how much time it takes to get from the caracol of Garrucha to the caracol of Roberto Barrios. The CIG delegation will stay there overnight.

Wednesday, October 18th, 2017: Bad government municipality of Palenque, Chiapas. 10:00am. Travel to CIDECI in San Cristobal de Las Casas. The CIG will stay overnight at CIDECI.

Thursday, October 19, 2017. Caracol of Oventik, MAREZ of “San Andrés Sakamch’en de los Pobres,” Highlands zone of Chiapas. Return to CIDECI where the work of the assembly concludes.”

 For more information in Spanish:

Programa de la gira del Consejo Indígena de Gobierno en Chiapas, del 14 al 19 de Octubre del 2017 (Enlace Zapatista, 15 de septiembre del 2017)

María de Jesús Patricio realizará gira por Chiapas (La Jornada, 16 de septiembre del 2017)

Candidata zapatista prepara gira por Chiapas en octubre (SDPnoticias.com, 16 de septiembre del 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional / Chiapas : El CNI conforma su Concejo Indígena de Gobierno y elige a su vocera (31 de mayo del 2017)

Chiapas/Nacional : Candidata presidencial “no es decisión de una persona” (Subcomandante Moíses) (15 de noviembre del 2017)

Chiapas / Nacional : CNI y EZLN realizarán consulta para nombrar a una candidata indígena hacia las elecciones presidenciales de 2018 (15 de octubre del 2016)

National/International: Mexico Top Country for Impunity in America

Photo: @plumas libres

In August 2017, the results of the Global Index of Impunity IGI 2017 were published by the University of Las Americas in Puebla UDLAP, UDLAP Jenkins Graduate School, and the Impunity Studies Center (CESIJ) of UDLAP.

It should be noted that the Global Impunity Index measures three dimensions: security, justice and human rights.

Regarding the Global Impunity Index (IGI), Mexico ranks 66th out of 69 countries in impunity, surpassed only by the Philippines, India and Cameroon. This study took into account the statistics presented by the United Nations (UN) countries and delivered to its Office against Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Mexico is the country that occupies first place in America.

In an interview with the rector of the University of the Americas in Puebla, Luis Ernesto Derbez said: “We are the fourth worst,” adding that this “is “terrible” because if impunity in Mexico continues, if we take concrete measures “violence, corruption and insecurity will continue to advance.”

As stated by Animal Politico news website: “The study highlights the increase in the number of police officers in Mexico, 359 per 100,000 inhabitants, nevertheless, assures that this does not represent that those in uniform ones have the adequate preparation to fulfill their duty”. It continued, “the Index recommends that Mexico must take urgent measures to reduce levels of impunity, such as providing a greater budget for security, justice and penitentiary systems, as long as this is reflected in training, infrastructure improvement and the professionalization of the systems mentioned “.

For more information in Spanish:

Incide Global de Impunidad (IGI) 2017. (Agosto 2017)

México, en los últimos lugares del Índice Global de Impunidad 2017. (El Economista, 28 de agosto de 2017)

México en el Índice Global de Impunidad, análisis en Despierta con Loret. (Televisa news, 28 de agosto de 2017)

México, primer lugar de Impunidad en América. (El Universal, 28 de agosto de 2017)

México, el país con mayor impunidad de América Latina, pese al aumento de policías. (Animal Político, 28 de agosto de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero : tres años de impunidad en el caso del asesinato de Rocío Mesino. (SIPAZ, 20 de octubre de 2016)

Oaxaca : 7 años de impunidad en el caso de Bety Cariño y Jyri Jaakkola. (SIPAZ, 28 de abril de 2017)

Nacional: Según pre-audiencia del TPP, simulación e impunidad impiden erradicar violencia contra mujeres. (SIPAZ, 14 de agosto de 2008)

 

Chiapas: Pemex to Provide Resources in Perpetuity to Preserve the Lacandon Jungle

Photo: @Chiapas State Government

On September 31st, from the archaeological zone of Bonampak, the general director of Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Jose Antonio Gonzalez Anaya, reported that as part of its sustainability program, it will donate 25 million pesos for the conservation of the Lacandon Jungle, in order to promote the productive reconversion of the area and combat climate change.

The announcement was made during the delivery of more than 11 million pesos destined to Lacandon comuneros for 120 productive projects through different programs for environment conservation projects. As well as González Anaya, the Secretary of Finance and Public Credit, Jose Antonio Meade Kuribreña; the secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources, Rafael Pacchiano Alamán and the governor, Manuel Velasco Coello were present.

“We will continue to work hand in hand with the community of the Lacandon, the Municipal Council and the Government of the Republic to generate concrete actions that benefit the jungle of Chiapas, which is the jungle of Mexico and pride of our entire nation,” Governor Velasco stressed, according to a statement from the Chiapas State Government.

In addition, the same bulletin said that was “the new authorities of Communal Goods that will make up “The Lacandon Community” were sworn into office, among which time three women were elected for the first; this conformation means the union of the three ethnicities of the region: Chol, Tseltal and Maya-Lacandon, who will work for the care of the jungle. “

It is worth mentioning that Pemex’s investments in this area represent 90 million that Enrique Peña Nieto delivered last June during the commemoration of World Environment Day.

For more information in Spanish:

Van 25 mdp para la Selva Lacandona (Diaro de Chiapas, 1 de septiembre de 2017)

Anuncia Pemex aportación de 25 mdp anuales para conservar la Selva Lacandona (Gobierno del Estado de Chiapas, 1 de septiembre de 2017)

Pemex anuncia apoyos para la conservación permanente de la Selva Lacandona (Pemex, 31 de agosto de 2017)

Entregan 11 mdp para la conservación de la Selva Lacandona (MxPolítico, 31 de agosto de 2017)

Recibe Selva Lacandona recursos a perpetuidad para su conservación (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, 31 de agosto de 2017)

Mexico: Announcements and Actions for International Day of the Victims of Forced Disappearances

(@ONU-DH)

On August 30th, International Day of Victims of Forced Disappearances, hundreds of family members and friends of missing persons marched in Coahuila, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon and Baja California to demand that the authorities make progress in the search for their loved ones and punish those responsible for this crime.

In this same context, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-HR) in Mexico urged the Mexican State to recognize the competence of the United Nations Committee to oversee the Convention that deals with this issue to receive and to examine individual complaints of victims of enforced disappearances. Jan Jarab, UN-HR representative in Mexico reported that “despite the fact that eight years have passed since it ratified the International Convention for the Protection of Persons against this scourge, there are currently more than 30,000 disappeared in Mexico.” In this context, UN-HR reiterated its demand to the Chamber of Deputies to approve the general law on forced disappearance.

For the same reason, Amnesty International launched the campaign “Nothing is the same if someone disappears”, with an emphasis on the situation in Syria, Mexico and Spain. In the case of Mexico, the organization emphasized: “As of June 2017, according to the Government, 32,096 people were missing, without specifying how many had been forced to disappear. An emblematic case is the 43 students of Ayotzinapa who disappeared in September 2014. In April 2016, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts, appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, accused the Mexican Government of not following the key research lines, manipulating evidence, protecting officers suspected of participating in enforced disappearances, and torturing suspects to secure “confessions.” It has recently been verified that members of this group and of human rights organizations working on the case have been spied on with sophisticated programs available only to governments.”

On its part, the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH in its Spanish acronym) affirmed on the same occasion that disappearances still occur in Mexico and urged the Chamber of Deputies to approve the General Law on the subject at the next sitting.

The Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC in its Spanish acronym) issued a bulletin in which it denounced that “forced disappearance is part of the strategy used by the Mexican State to infuse terror in society and annihilate organizational experiences” and recalled that in Chiapas, “cases of forced disappearance, in the context of the Internal Armed Conflict, as a consequence of the implementation of the Chiapas Campaign Plan 94, committed by state agents and paramilitary groups that operated with the support, tolerance and acquiescence of the Mexican State, remain unpunished, creating conditions for their repetition.”

 For more information in Spanish:

« Amnistía Internacional lanza la campaña: Nada es igual si alguien desaparece » (Amnistía Internacional, 29 de agosto de 2017)

México: ONU-DH lanza campaña a favor de los derechos de las personas desaparecidas (ONU-DH, 30 de agosto de 2017)

Llama la ONU a México a reforzar la lucha contra desapariciones (La Jornada, 30 de agosto de 2017)

Desapariciones subsisten en México como consecuencia de la impunidad: CNDH (Proceso, 30 de agosto de 2017)

Urge en México una Ley General sobre Desaparición (CDHFBC, 30 de agosto de 2017)

Desapariciones forzadas en México, “crimen de Estado” (La Jornada, 31 de agosto de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ :

Guerrero: Foro sobre desaparición forzada (22 de agosto de 2017)

Nacional: Amnistía Internacional presenta su informe anual sobre la situación de derechos humanos en el mundo. México, “en una de las peores crisis de derechos humanos y justicia” (3 de marzo de 2017)

Nacional : cierre de año legislativo con agenda polémica en el Congreso (8 de diciembre de 2016)

Chiapas: MOVEDITE Announcement on Early Political Campaigns

Photo:@MOVEDITE

On August 19th, 2017, the Movement in Defense of Life and Territory (MOVEDITE in its Spanish acronym) of Chiapas issued a statement from the community of Santa Cruz in Sitala, where they strongly denounce, “political groups disguised as civil associations or aid foundations that use people and abuse their poverty. Where they condition the most basic aid for votes and thus corrupt those who they say they support.”

They further reproached “the political propaganda on posters, painted walls and calendars that promote candidates outside the stipulated time. Without respecting the laws and norms, it is obvious that what really matters to the parties is the triumph of their groups and not the good of the people.”

They also added that they reject “people who are visiting communities offering support and wanting to buy community leaders. It confirms that the parties have not changed and will not change the way they do things.”

They recalled through the communiqué that it is illegal for the parties to advance the campaign using, for example, the creation of foundations.

They urged all who receive this word to build autonomy and denounce lies from the path of their traditions seeking a fairer and more dignified life, where everybody has a place.

 Their denunciation is headed by a statement by Bishop Felipe Arizmendi, Bishop of the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas in which he states, “The parties split, divide and confront the communities. Legislators should analyze the feasibility and suitability of another electoral system: […] by traditions and customs. Analyze this path and advance democracy, if it really interests them that the people be the ones who build their history.”

It is worth mentioning that MOVEDITE is made up of Tseltal, tsotsil, ch’ol and mestizo men and women with presence in 11 parishes of 12 municipalities and one ejido of Chiapas, members of the Believing People of the Diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas.

 For more information in Spanish:

Pronunciamiento de MOVEDITE ante las campañas políticas anticipadas. (20 de agosto de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Culmina peregrinación de 12 días del Movimiento de defensa de la Vida y el Territorio en San Cristóbal de las Casas. (29 de noviembre de 2017)

Chiapas: El pueblo Zoque se está movilizando contra de los mega-proyectos en Chiapas. (29 de junio de 2017)

Chiapas: Peregrinación de unos 400 católicos en defensa de los pueblos, la Madre Tierra y por la liberación de presos. (6 de septiembre de 2016)

Guerrero: Relatives Organize Protests 34 Months after Ayotzinapa Tragedy

March for Justice for Ayotzinapa student teachers. Photo@: SIPAZ

July 26, 2017, marked 34 months since the forced disappearance of 43 students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Normal School in Ayotzinapa and the violent death of three others.

In a statement entitled “Listen to my voice, 43”, the mothers and fathers of the disappeared declared that they were “firm and dignified in the struggle for the presentation of our children alive.” They stated, “We are not scared or discouraged by the threats, repression and lies of the government.” In a march on the Paseo de la Reforma they reiterated to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR in its Spanish acronym) their demand that they follow the four lines of investigation that would lead them to the whereabouts of their children: 1. the Mexican Army, 2. Huitzuco, 3. cell phones and 4. the transfer of drugs from Iguala to Chicago as a motive for the crime.

In the statement they also called for a massive participation in the “Listen to my voice 43” days of protest to be held from September 15th to 26th, in several states of the Country “for the presentation of the 43 alive and thousands more, for justice for the murdered, for the freedom of political prisoners, for the abrogation of structural reforms, against the dispossession of our lands and natural assets and against the rising cost of living.”

 For more information in Spanish:

Pronunciamiento Escucha mi voz 43 (Comité de Padres y Madres de los 43 y Comité Estudiantil Ricardo Flores Magón de la Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos de Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, a 26 de julio de 2017)

Padres de los 43 exigen al gobierno de Peña deje de sostener la “verdad histórica” (Proceso , a 26 de julio de 2017)

Padres de los 43 marchan en la CDMX (La Jornada en línea, a 26 de julio de 2017)

Gobierno y organismos internacionales silencian caso Ayotzinapa (TeleSur, a 26 de julio de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Sesión de seguimiento de la CIDH del caso Ayotzinapa : avances nulos (10 de julio de 2017)

Guerrero / Chiapas: Llega la Caravana de Ayotzinapa a San Cristóbal de las Casas (3 de julio de 2017)

Guerrero/ Nacional: Madres y padres de los 43 consideran no acudir a la reunión con la PGR y la CIDH (20 de abril de 2017)

Guerrero : padres de los 43 participan en audiencia de la CIDH (22 de marzo de 2017)