Chiapas: Letter from Roberto Paciencia Cruz on International Prisoners’ Day

Image @ Beatriz Aurora

This September 24, as part of International Prisoners Day, Roberto Paciencia Cruz, unjustly imprisoned in Penitentiary No. 5, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle of the EZLN, shares his word. In an open letter to public opinion, the state media, national and international alternative media, the Sixth, the brothers and sisters of Believing Peoples, to the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas, independent organizations, the National Indigenous Congress and the EZLN, in the name of all those unjustly imprisoned, Roberto reveals the pain, preoccupations and injustice that they are suffering by being separated from their families. He claims that “those who are most punished by these injustices” are the prisoners’ families. He points out the lack of consideration by the authorities for them: “the governors do not care that the family of a prisoner is crying, or go to sleep hungry or that our children walk barefoot for lack of support from their parents.”

Roberto ends his letter inviting “all state, national and international independent organizations to join this cause in demand for our freedom.”

It should be remembered that despite giving ample evidence of his innocence, more than three years of his detention, Patience Roberto Cruz has still not been sentenced.

For more information in Spanish:

Velasco Coello el acérrimo enemigo de indígenas, a quienes se les fabrica delitos y se les encierra en la cárcel (Revolución TRESPUNTOCERO, 11 de agosto de 2016)

 For more information from Sipaz:

Chiapas: Niegan entrada a visitas del injustamente preso, Roberto Paciencia Cruz, en el CERESO No. 5   (30 de agosto de 2016)

Chiapas: Roberto Paciencia Cruz, tres años preso en el Centro Estatal de Reinserción Social de Sentenciados (CERSS) número 5 (19 de agosto de 2016)

 

Chiapas: Roberto Paciencia escribe a Alejandro Díaz (24 de junio de 2016)

 

 

Chiapas: Roberto Paciencia se asume como Adherente a La Sexta (25 de mayo de 2016)

Chiapas: Denuncia Roberto Paciencia desatención en su salud visual (24 de febrero de 2016)

Oaxaca: 500 Murdered Women Registered During Gabino Cue Monteagudo’s Term

Photo @EDUCA

On September 2, the indigenous education teacher Juanita Ramirez Osorio, a 25-year-old indigenous Triqui “was executed with ten gunshots, one to the head.” Juanita was found on the Copala riverbed, near the municipality of Constancia del Rosario. This crime makes four women, including a minor, murdered last weekend. The crime is in addition to the 75 cases registered this year. According to Consorcio Oaxaca, they have recorded “500 femicides during the administration of Gabino Cue Monteagudo”, while during the administration of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, 283 violent deaths of women were counted. Higher numbers of femicides “have occurred in the Mixteca and Costa regions.” The Rosario Castellanos Women’s Studies Group (GESMujer) claimed that the “government’s discourse remained in formalisms despite the commitment that the governor had with social organizations that monitor cases of women murdered due to gender.”

Gender equity and respect for the human rights of women were part of the discourse of Gabino Cue “even before starting his administration, and with four months left to complete his term, the number of murdered women and victims of femicide in the state increased by over 60% compared to the figures of his predecessor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.” With more than 20 years of recording violence against women, the president of GESMujer, Avellaneda Diaz, said that from January to August 2016 58 murders of women were recorded: 18 cases occurred in the Isthmus; Costa and Valles, 10 in each region; Cuenca, eight; and Mixteca, seven. In addition, 34 killings were done with firearms and seven with sharp weapons.

It is noteworthy that there is no “Gender Alert” in the state of Oaxaca, despite these figures. In July 2015, for the first time, the Interior Ministry declared a Gender Alert for 11 municipalities in the State of Mexico. Currently, there are alerts in the states of Morelos, Michoacan and Jalisco. The Gender Violence Alert emergency actions are implemented by a government to confront and end violence against women. As established in the General Law on Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence, warning of gender violence aims to ensure the safety of women, the cessation of violence against them and to eliminate inequalities produced by legislation that offends their human rights. The National Citizens’ Femicide Observatory has documented 2,299 cases of femicide in the country only between 2012 and 2013. The presence of femicide in the country has led to civil organizations in Nuevo Leon, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Chihuahua, Colima, Baja California, Sonora, Veracruz, Queretaro and San Luis Potosi also seeking Gender Violence Alert to be decreed.

 For more information in Spanish:

Registra Oaxaca 500 mujeres asesinadas durante el sexenio de Cué (Educa, 6 de septiembre de 2016)

GESMujer: Discurso a favor de las mujeres fue eso, un discurso (Oaxaca a Diario, 3 de septiembre de 2016)

Ejecutan a dos mujeres en el Istmo, pese a operativos de Seguridad (Página 3, 3 de septiembre de 2016)

La alerta de género, una herramienta ineficaz para detener los asesinatos de mujeres (18 de abril de 2016, Animal Político)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: En 2016 continúan los feminicidios (25 de febrero de 2016)

Oaxaca: Alarmante incremento de los feminicidios: organizaciones de la sociedad civil (18 de diciembre de 2015)

Chiapas: Feminicidios a la alza: seis víctimas en menos de diez días (23 de octubre de 2015)

Chiapas: Gran incremento de feminicidios, se construirá un monumento en honor a las víctimas(4 de septiembre de 2014)

 

Implementation of Follow-up Mechanism for Ayotzinapa Case Approved

IACHR approves special mechanism to follow Ayotzinapa case (Photo@Tlachinollan)

On September 10, after a meeting between the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Mexican state, implementation of the Follow-up Mechanism for the Ayotzinapa case was approved. The mechanism aims to follow up the recommendations made by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE) in the two reports that it gave the government during its yearlong investigation into the case of the disappearance of the 43 students from the Normal Rural School on the night of September 26 and 27, 2014, in Iguala, Guerrero state.

 For more information in Spanish:

Forenses argentinos también desmienten a Zerón: no estuvieron en el río San Juan (La Jornada, a 28 de abril 2016)

COMUNICADO | CIDH anuncia el inicio de la implementación del Mecanismo de Seguimiento del GIEI (Tlachinollan centro de derechos humanos de la montaña, a 12 de septiembre 2016)

CIDH aprueba mecanismo especial de seguimiento para investigación Ayotzinapa (Fundar centro de analysis o investigacion, a 1ero de agosto 2016)

CIDH aprueba mecanismo especial de seguimiento para investigación Ayotzinapa (Tlachinollan centro de derechos humanos de la montaña, a 29 de julio 2016)

Chiapas: Tila Ejido Reports Violent Murder of Two Youths in its Territory, Intended to Destabilize its Assertion of Autonomy

Protest in Tila (@ Ejido Tila)

In a statement released on September 7, and the ejidatarios of Tila, reported that two brothers (a man aged 20, and a woman aged 19), originally from Tiontiepa Benito Juarez ejido, but whose grandparents are originally from Tila ejido, were attacked with machetes and the young woman raped on August 27.

They suggested that the relatives of the deceased said they did not want the intervention of government authorities “because they never investigate and everything remains unpunished, even more so if you do not have money, because in the courts justice is bought and so they ask that  the autonomous ejido do its work.”

Following this, the assembly of Tila ejido decided to investigate, stating that, “we have reported for many years that during the term of office of the municipal council gang members, drug use, drug dealing, alcoholism increased and they have left all this trouble and the ejido now has to clean up all this trash they left behind.”

At the same time, they warned that a small group of people related to official government tries to exploit such cases to destabilize the process of building autonomy, “They are a tiny group of people who want to impose their way of life in Tila ejido who have lived off the government, from dispossession and exploitation of our people and they are racists who are responsible for misinforming and criticizing our ejido autonomy, but despite this we will continue to advance because no one can stop us.”

For more information in Spanish:

Comunicado sobre el asesinato violento de dos jovenes en territorio ejidal (Ejido Tila, 7 de septiembre de 2016)

Advierten ejidatarios de Tila de intentos de desestabilizar su autonomía (Somosmás99, septiembre de 2016)

Denuncian intento de Grupo institucional de Abrir COBACH 14 en Tila (Reporte Ciudadano, 8 de septiembre de 2016)

 For more information from SIPAZ :

Chiapas: Incursión de la Marina en territorio del ejido Tila (4 de agosto de 2016)

Chiapas: Denuncia ejido Tila agresión a uno de sus ejidatarios (10 de junio de 2016)

Chiapas: Organizaciones alertan por posible represión en el ejido Tila (24 de febrero de 2016)

Chiapas: Indígenas Ch´oles toman la alcaldía de Tila tras décadas de no haber sido atendid@s (17 de diciembre de 2016)

 

Chiapas: Alejandro Diaz Santiz Reiterates His Demand for Freedom

Pilgrimage of Highlands Catholics, San Cristobal de Las Casas, September 2016 (@SIPAZ)

Alejandro Diaz Santiz, the indigenous Tzotzil prisoner held in the CEFERESO No. 15, Villa de Comatitlan near Tapachula, Chiapas, has again demanded his freedom. In the last letter he wrote, the adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle of the EZLN denounced that he is the only sympathizer of the Voice of Amate not released on July 4, 2013, allegedly because his case had not occurred in the state of Chiapas but in Veracruz. “The bad governors that exist in our country and states live in pure lies only making promises of support that they never keep, especially Governor Manuel Velasco Coello,” Alejandro in his letter. He alleged that the state governor, Manuel Velasco Coello, pledged to see to his case and to seek his freedom with the Veracruz authorities more than three years ago but “to date has not achieved anything.”

On another note, Alejandro asked President Enrique Peña Nieto “to urge the Governor of Veracruz for my freedom that has been stolen for more than 17 years paying for a crime that I never committed.” Finally, he invited all national and international independent organizations to continue to demand justice and freedom for political prisoners and prisoners of conscience throughout the world.

 For more information in Spanish:

Alejandro Diaz Santiz reitera su exigencia de libertad (Chiapas denuncia, a 30 de agosto de 2016)

Velasco Coello el acérrimo enemigo de indígenas, a quienes se les fabrica delitos y se les encierra en la cárcel ( Revolución TRESPUNTOCERO, 11 de agosto de 2016)

For more information from Sipaz:

Chiapas: Denuncia Alejandro Díaz Santiz malos tratos hacia los reclusos (8 de junio de 2016)

Chiapas: Alejandro Díaz Santiz ayuna por 17 años de encarcelamiento (13 de mayo de 2016)

Chiapas: Exigen la liberación de Alejandro Díaz Santiz (11 de marzo de 2016)

Chiapas: Trasladan a Alejandro Díaz Sántiz, junto a 386 presos, a penal de alta seguridad (15 de septiembre de 2016)

 

 

Chiapas: Maximiliano Gordillo Martinez Reappears after 52 Days Missing

In a joint statement published on September 2, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC), Meso-American Voices and La 72 Shelter for Migrants, reported that the youth Maximiliano Gordillo Martinez, who was missing since May 7 when he was stopped at a checkpoint of the National Migration Institute (INM) in Tabasco, reappeared alive.

Located on August 29, Maximilian is now with his family. They denounced that “since his arrest by INM federal agents on May 7 last at the immigration checkpoint at Chablé, Tabasco, until the day of his location on August 29, Maximiliano -a youth of 18 from the municipality of Socoltenango- was the victim of crimes and serious violations of his human rights, through the blame of the Mexican state. “

They claimed that “the documenting and analysis of the case continues in order to define the terms of the follow-up”, while asking for “sensitivity and respect to the processes of healing and strengthening as concrete ways of expressing solidarity”.

They stated that “what Maximiliano lived through reveals the magnitude of the structural, institutional and social violence suffered by Mexicans and people from other countries during their movements to migratory destinations within our country. But it also reminds us that the demand for and realization of truth, justice and full reparation imply a conscious and mobilized civil society.”

For more information in Spanish:

Tras 52 días de desaparecido, joven indígena aparece con vida en Chiapas (Revista Proceso, 3 de septiembre de 2016)

Reaparece joven mexicano detenido por el INM desde mayo (La Jornada, 3 de septiembre de 2016)

A casi cuatro meses de que el INM lo desapareciera, indígena chiapaneco es hallado con vida (Sin Embargo, 3 de septiembre de 2016)

Boletín “Maximiliano ya está con nosotros, con nosotras” (CDHFBC, Voces Mesoamericanas, La 72, 3 de septiembre de 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/Nacional: Siguen las exigencias de la presentación con vida de Maximiliano Gordillo Martinez, desaparecido forzadamente en mayo (24 de agosto de 2016)

Chiapas/Nacional: Conferencia de prensa sobre la desaparición Forzada de Maximiliano Gordillo Martínez (16 de junio de 2016)

Chiapas/Nacional : Denuncian desaparición forzada de Maximiliano Gordillo Martínez por agentes del INM (24 de mayo de 2016)

 

Chiapas/National: Announcement of V Anniversary of CNI in Chiapas

In a communiqué published on August 31, 2016, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), together with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), convened the celebration of the V National Indigenous Congress, which will take place from October 9 to 14 on the premises of the Indigenous Integrated Training Center (CIDECI- Unitierra) in the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas.

It is worth recalling that the event will take place in the context of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the CNI “a space of unity, reflection and organization of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, [which] celebrates 20 years of uninterrupted work, promoting the integral reconstruction of our peoples and the construction of a society in which all cultures, all colors, all peoples who are Mexico fit”. The statement raises the urgency to “find in these our flames of resistance, autonomy and rebellion that shine in each of the native peoples who spin new worlds from below, where love is born and ancestral commitment to our mother who is the earth.”

For more information in Spanish:

Comunicado completo (31 de agosto de 2016)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Anuncia EZLN actividades para el 2016 (9 de marzo de 2016)

Chiapas: Cierre del Festival Mundial de las Resistencias y las Rebeldías Contra el capitalismo (7 de enero de 2015)