Chiapas: denunciation of criminalization against environmental activists in San Cristóbal de Las Casas

 

@SIPAZ

On December 27^th, during a press conference that took place at the Human Rights Center Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, the board of Colonia Maya in the municipality San Cristóbal de Las Casas denounced the existence of arrest warrants against its members and demanded their immediate cancellation.

In June 2016, the construction of a housing estate caused a flooding that affected 20 families in Colonia Maya. As a reaction, various habitants started to organize themselves to defend their rights and the environmental rights.

Since then, the members of Colonia Maya’s board faced various threats and the criminalization of their movement to defend their district.

Three moths ago, the board met with representatives of Manuel Velasco’s government who proposed the construction of a rain drain in the settlement. The board responded that they could not take any decisions without the participation of the the Colonia’s assembly. The arrest warrants were released after that meeting.

In the words of the board about the criminalization: “We are in fear. Fear that justice one more will be bought. During the last days we have affirmed once more that the legal authorities in our country can be bought. We know that some of our members have received arrest warrants without committing any crime. We are being accused of kidnapping, when we only ever acted peacefully, consulting and respecting the settlement’s assembly.”

They solicited “that the hostility and the criminalization against human environmental rights defenders for the land and the territory are eradicated or cease as they are pillars of democracy and with their work they can promote and strengthen the civil participation”.

For more information in Spanish:

Cese la criminalización a defensores de la Madre Tierra (27 de diciembre de 2018, Chiapas Denuncia Publica).

Colonos de la Maya denuncian que les fueron inventados delitos (27 de diciembre de 2018, Noticias Voz e Imagen de Chiapas).

Se defienden activistas demandados (27 de diciembre de 2018, El Heraldo de Chiapas).

Criminalización por la defensa de la Madre Tierra (21 de junio de 2017, Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas).

For more information from SIPAZ :

National: 161 Defenders and 40 Journalists Murdered in Last Presidential Term of Office (December 14th, 2018)

Nacional : Se pospone entrega de concesiones de agua vía Internet por seis meses en medio de protestas. (17 de octubre de 2018).

Advertisements

Oaxaca: 22 Members of Sol Rojo (Red Sun) Released

Press conference of the Coordination for the Release of Criminalized Defenders in Oaxaca (@Consorcio)

In a statement published on November 6th, the Coordination for the Release of Criminalized Defenders of Oaxaca reported that “after more than three years of facing a judicial process with serious violations of due process, torture and incommunicado detention, 22 members of the organization Corriente del Pueblo Sol Rojo [Current of the Red Sun People] were freed from criminal case 30/2015 in which they were accused of terrorism and carrying a weapon (molotov cocktail). This freedom was given in resolution of the incident promoted in August by the lawyer and defender Ernesto Sernas, rejecting a series of tests used by the Attorney General of the Republic’s office. It should be recalled that these people were arbitrarily arrested on June 7th, 2015 in retaliation for their participation in a peaceful demonstration called by Section 22 of the Oaxacan teachers in the context of the elections on the same day. Their trial was at all times plagued by serious irregularities; also the members of Sol Rojo suffered torture during their detention, as well as during transfers and arrivals in prisons. This torture has left serious consequences on physical and emotional levels.”

The Coordination stressed that with this decision – in which it was observed “action on political direction on the part of the Attorney General of the Republic, when imputing crimes that they never committed in coordination with federal and state police bodies” is evidenced once again the “policy of criminalization” of Enrique Peña Nieto against human rights defenders, the “serious pattern of criminalization in Oaxaca” and the urgency that all these serious violations be punished promptly and in accordance with the law.

It also demanded the presentation of the defender Ernesto Sernas who is missing, since last May 10th for reasons that they believe have to do with his defense work in favor of the organization Sol Rojo, in the context that so far “there has been no progress in the investigations to find his whereabouts.”

It reaffirmed its position in favor of the liberation of all the defenders of Oaxaca who remain unjustly in prison as “reprisal” for their legitimate defense work. It also urged the authorities to act against the high risk in which members of Sol Rojo remain who have suffered serious and permanent attacks.

For more information in Spanish:

Defensores de DH integrantes de la organización Sol Rojo en libertad mediante sentencia absolutoria, luego de tres años de proceso judicial (Coordinación para la Libertad de Personas Defensoras Criminalizadas en Oaxaca, 6 de noviembre de 2018)

22 presos políticos de Sol Rojo fueron puestos en libertad (Libertad Oaxaca, 6 de noviembre de 2018)

Dejan en libertad a 22 presos políticos en Oaxaca (Siete Días Oaxaca, 6 de noviembre de 2018)

Anuncian la liberación de 22 activistas de Oaxaca presos por delitos federales (Despertar de Oaxaca, 7 de noviembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero / National: Nestora Salgado announces campaign for the freedom of political prisoners  (September 16th, 2018)

Oaxaca : Exigen atención para 33 personas defensoras de derechos humanos bajo procesos judiciales (3 de agosto de 2018)

Chiapas: Julión Alvarez Threatens to Sue Media and Frayba; Chiapas Paralelo Denounces “Erosion of Freedom of Expression”

On September 20th, it was announced that the singer Julio Cesar Alvarez Montelongo, better known as Julion Alvarez, threatened to sue the news website ‘Chiapas Paralelo’ and the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba), for denouncing alleged bribery the artist to arrest and sentence Sergio Alberto Gonzalez Castro to six years in prison. The legal representative of the artist reported that, “We have been instructed by Mr. Julio Cesar Alvarez Montelongo to exercise any legal action against those who have made the accusations that are attributed to him (…) We consider that what is disclosed in the aforementioned news items constitutes damage to the honor, reputation and private life of our client. ‘We will not tolerate injury or insult’; whoever causes damage will have to make reparations and whoever is responsible will have to assume the consequences of their actions.”

Sergio Alberto Gonzalez Castro was accused of stealing cattle at the artist’s ranch in the municipality of La Concordia. According to the relatives of Gonzalez Castro, “there was never any cattle theft, the influence of Julion Alvares (sic) with Governor Manuel Velasco meant that for cattle they detained several people, in total they are like 18 people accused of cattle theft.” The report issued by Chiapas Paralelo website states that Sergio Alberto Gonzalez Castro was arrested in 2015 and, according to Frayba, he was subjected to physical and psychological torture for three days by public officials, to plead guilty to the crimes of those who accused him.

In light of what happened, on September 21st, the editorial team of Chiapas Paralelo considered the letter issued by the legal department of Julio Cesar Alvarez Montelongo “slanderous”, “to make use of qualifiers such as “irresponsible remarks”,”injury” and “insult.” It stated that “it is implicit in an attempt to intimidate journalists and human rights organizations”, which “entails an erosion of the right to freedom of expression.”

Due to this, Chiapas Paralelo called on national and international organizations that defend freedom of expression and the rights of journalists and human rights defenders “so that, within the scope of their competencies, they may initiate an investigation into these events. We believe that in a scenario such as Mexico, where in recent years 118 journalists have been killed in possible connection to their journalistic work, the statements made by the legal representative of the singer Julion Alvarez place us in a situation of even greater risk coming from a person who has been singled out by governments of other nations, to have links with groups that are outside the law. We ask the governor of the state of Chiapas, Manuel Velasco Coello, to be guarantor of respect for freedom of expression in the state, and that no personal connection that he has should be a cause to take on actions outside the law.”

For more information in Spanish:

Julión Álvarez amenaza al Frayba y al portal de noticias Chiapas Paralelo (Proceso, 21 de septiembre de 2018)

Denunciamos intento del cantante Julión Álvarez, por amedrentar a periodistas y organizaciones defensoras de derechos humanos, causando un menoscabo a la libertad de expresión (Comunicado de prensa, Chiapas Paralelo, 21 de septiembre de 2018)

Periodistas de Chiapas Paralelo acusan a Julión Álvarez de amenazarlos (Sin embargo, 21 de septiembre de 2018)

Amenaza Julión Álvarez con demandar a medios y un centro de Derechos Humanos (SDP Noticias, 21 de septiembre de 2018)

Libertad para Sergio Alberto González Castro #ContraLaTortura (Frayba, 13 de septiembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Heraldo de Chiapas Journalist Murdered in Yajalon (Sept. 27th, 2018)

 

Guerrero: 50 arrest warrants against members of CECOP

@Regeneración

Weeks after the release of members of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to the La Parota dam (Cecop), the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities – Community Police (CRAC-PC), and civilians of several villages belonging to the Communal Lands of Cacahuatepec, municipality of Acapulco, a new persecution and unprecedented criminalization has been unleashed against members of the movement, reported the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center.

According to several newspapers, ministerial police maintained checkpoints at the entrances of the communal lands of Cacahuatepec such as Las Chanecas, San Pedro Cacahuatepec, Las Palmitas, Tasajeras, San Isidro Gallinero and La Concepción ; and with list in hand illegally review all the peasants that come or go. They also reported that more than 80 policemen travel through the villages of San Isidro Gallinero, Parotillas, La Concepcion, Aguas Calientes, Oaxaquillas, Salsipuedes and Amatillo.

Two weeks ago, “ministerial police illegally searched the home of Clemente Cabrera Benítez, a prominent member of CECOP in the community of Tasajeras, and took him away. On September 4, Tomás Cruz Valeriano from the community of Ilamos was arrested in San Isidro Gallinero, both of whom have an arrest warrant for the crime of damages and dispossession resulting from unfounded accusations and fabricated evidence. The Office of the Prosecutor has released more than 50 arrest warrants against the same number of CECOP members, whose crime has been to defend their lands and natural assets such as the Papagayo River, which is irrationally exploited by gravial businessmen. “

On December 12, a delegation of community members from Cecop, CRAC, from the Council of Affected Communities of La Montaña (Ccdm), from the Popular Front of Tlapa (FPT), from the Front of Communities for the Defense of Collective Rights in La Montaña (Frecoddec) and the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center for went to the State Congress where they met with a commission of deputies from Morena. According to La Jornada de Guerrero, they listed several points for urgent resolution, among them the establishment of mechanisms for the prompt release of political prisoners, the immediate expulsion of state forces from the Communal Lands and the cessation of intimidation and harassment of civil organizations.

According to Cuadratin, they also presented a proposal for an initiative to reform the Political Constitution of Guerrero, from articles 8 to 14, regarding indigenous and Afro-Mexican populations so as to guarantee their right to decide and exercise their forms of social, economic and political organization, as well as their own community justice system.

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado / Persecución política contra el CECOP (CDH Tlachinollan, 6 de septiembre de 2018)

Piden organizaciones la libertad de los presos del Cecop y alto al hostigamiento (Sur de Acapulco, 12 de septiembre de 2018)

Piden comunitarios que diputados exhorten al gobierno a no reprimirlos (La Jornada de Guerrero, 13 de septiembre de 2018)

Piden organizaciones reforma que garantice derechos de los pueblos (Cuadratin Guerrero, 12 de septiembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: 9 of the 25 detainees for a confrontation in La Concepción in January are released September 17, 2018

Guerrero: Judge Orders Guarantees for Rights to Water, Health and Dignified Treatment for 25 CECOP Prisoners April 24, 2018

Guerrero: Extrajudicial Executions and Arrests of Community Police and Members of CECOP January 22, 2018

Chiapas: New Arrests of Members of Las Abejas in Rio Jordan, Chenalho

Arrested in Rio Jordan (@Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society)

The Civil Society Organization Las Abejas de Acteal denounced the arrest of two of its members, Manuel Jimenez Santiz and Alonso Jimenez Mendez, from the community of Rio Jordan, municipality of San Pedro Chenalho, on August 6th.

The arrest came after Manuel Santiz Vazquez, a municipal agent of Chenalho, called an assembly in which it was reported that Manuel and Alonso did not do community work in a local clinic, so “people from the political parties” agreed to punish them with 72 hours of prison, according to the Las Abejas statement, “without letting them eat or letting them go to the bathroom.” It explained that “this problem in Rio Jordan arose in the year 2015, but, both the community party authority and the municipal authority of the municipality of Chenalho, never showed interest and respect when, on several occasions, we looked for them to build a path of true dialogue. On the other hand, they have only defamed our colleagues for “breach of community services””. It recalled that in January of this year there was a similar case in which nine members of Las Abejas were detained, but, according to the statement, “they did not have the political will to resolve this conflict at the root, and what they did was to cover up their injustice and their inability to negotiate.”

In a later communiqué, Las Abejas clarified again: “the root is because of their decision [of Las Abejas] not to accept government programs that do not benefit them and not accept positions that are not community, such as the clinic, that those who benefit from this service are the women who receive the PROSPERA assistance program and the compañeras of Las Abejas from Rio Jordan do not accept this governmental program. We want to make it clear that our compañeros who on other occasions have been arbitrarily detained, by the people of the political parties of Rio Jordan, are not for “noncompliance with community positions”, as the agent and the local people are saying, but rather, that it is a punishment for our compañeros for criticizing the policies of bad government and for rejecting dispensable public works that damage Mother Earth.”

For more information in Spanish:

Nuestros dos compañeros llevan más de 50 horas en la cárcel, pedimos condenar y denunciar este grave atropello a los derechos humanos (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 9 de agosto de 2018)

Detienen a integrantes de las Abejas de Acteal (Chiapas Paralelo, 8 de agosto de 2018)

Retienen a integrantes de Las Abejas de Acteal (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 8 de agosto de 2018)

Denunciamos detención arbitraria de dos compañeros nuestros del barrio Río Jordán (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 7 de agosto de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Las Abejas desmienten versión gubernamental de lo sucedido en Los Chorros (18 de enero de 2018)

Chiapas: detención arbitraria y riesgo de desplazamiento forzado en Río Jordan, Chenalhó (10 de enero de 2018)

Chiapas : a 20 años de la masacre de Acteal (26 de diciembre de 2017)

Chiapas : Se mantienen amenazas contra Abejas de Los Chorros, municipio de Chenalhó (21 de abril de 2017)

Guerrero/National/International: New Reports on Ayotzinapa Case

(@Serapaz)

On March 15th, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights presented the report “Double Injustice”, which analyzes the human rights violations that were committed in the context of the Ayotzinapa investigations (forced disappearance of 43 students from the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa in Iguala, Guerrero, in 2014). 129 people were arrested in this framework. The UN-HR analyzed 34 cases and found “strong evidence of the use of torture, arbitrary arrests and other human rights violations” during and after the arrests. Those involved in these abuses would be elements of the prosecution, the federal police and members of the Navy. For all of the above, the UN-HR urged the Mexican government to identify those responsible for these abuses, as well as their superiors, and bring them to justice. It also called on the prosecution and the judiciary to dismiss evidence obtained under torture.

In response to the report, The Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR in its Spanish acronym) said that it is “particularly concerned that the OHCHR report draws conclusions on situations that are currently under investigation, or that are under analysis by the Judiciary”, and specified that the tortures referred to were “exceptional.”

One day before, 41 months after the forced disappearance of the 43 students, several NGOs including Fundar, the Center for Analysis and Investigation, the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, La Montaña Tlachinollan Human Rights Center and Serapaz, presented the report “I just wanted dawn to come. Psycho-social impacts of the Ayotzinapa case”. They pointed out that “the study shows how these impacts have deepened over three years due to impunity, understood not only as the lack of investigation and punishment of those responsible, but also includes the actions of the authorities that have hindered the investigation and manipulated the truth.”

For more information in Spanish:

Autoridades torturaron a detenidos por caso Ayotzinapa para obtener confesiones: ONU (Animal Político, 15 de marzo de 2018)

ONU-DH sobre Ayotzinapa: al menos 34 casos de tortura y una ejecución extrajudicial (Proceso, 15 de marzo de 2018)

Excepcionales, los casos de tortura en caso Ayotzinapa: PGR a ONU-DH (Proceso, 15 de marzo de 2018)

Presentan informe de los “Impactos psicosociales del Caso Ayotzinapa” (Regeneración, 14 de marzo de 2018)

“Te van a ofrecer una cantidad muy alta” (Informe sobre #Ayotzinapa) Aristegui Noticias, 14 de marzo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: PGR buscará cerrar caso Ayotzinapa antes de diciembre (6 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / México – Nacional: Ayotzinapa: Caravana Rompiendo el Silencio y el Olvido (3 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / Nacional-México: Ayotzinapa a 40 meses de la desaparición de los 43 sigue la “indolencia” del gobierno (30 de enero de 2018)

Chiapas: repression and arbitrary imprisonment of health-care workers

Press Conference of the health sector (@SIPAZ)

On January 30, at a press conference, health-care workers denounced the repression and criminalization that workers of the Ministry of Health of Chiapas , organized in defense of the right to public health are suffering.

They explained that although Chiapas is the state with more support for the health sector in the Federal budget, it suffers from a shortage of medicines, poor infrastructure conditions and a lack of necessary tools for care due to the situation of corruption and mismanagement. Due to this situation, as reported by the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center, “the state of Chiapas exceeds the national average in maternal and child deaths, tuberculosis, malnutrition, among other curable diseases. »

In the press conference, the health-care workers explained that in spite of having carried out two hunger strikes last year that led to the signing of two minutes with the State Government, until today only 30% of what was agreed upon was fulfille . They also expressed their concern at the “crisis of repression” they are experiencing. They denounced the arrest warrants issued by the state against 4 health-care workers, who had participated in the hunger strikes and now accused of riot. One of them, Límbano Domínguez Alegría, was arrested and detained in the Amate prison, while the others, the nurse Maria de Jesus Espinosa de los Santos, the doctor Victor Hugo Zavaleta Ruíz and Humberto Gutierrez Medina, remain refugees at friends’ homes far way from their families to avoid being unfairly apprehended.

The president of the Fray Bartolome de la Casas HRC, Don Raul Vera declared that “what the state does is not an act of repression but a criminal act of State.” Therefore, he demanded “to the government of the state of Chiapas,the freedom and the end of the criminalization of those who defend their labor rights and the right to health. »

For more information (in Spanish) :

Trabajadores de Salud denuncian hostigamientos del gobierno de Chiapas por exigir sus derechos (Animal Politico, 31 de enero de 2018)
Acusan de motín a trabajadores de salud que piden mejores servicios en Chiapas (Regeneracion, 30 de enero de 2018)

Gobierno de Chiapas criminaliza a quienes defienden el derecho a la salud (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, 23 de enero de 2018)

Crisis del sistema de salud en Chiapas (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, 11 de abril de 2017)

Carta de la Diócesis de San Cristóbal a las enfermeras (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, 24 de mayo de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ :

Chiapas: Agreement to End Second Nurses’ Hunger Strike in Chiapas May 29, 2017

Chiapas: Nurses Return to Hunger Strike and Denounce Breach of Agreements by State Government May 4, 2017

Chiapas: Nurses Reach Agreements and End Hunger Strike April 27, 2017

Chiapas: Hunger Strike by Eight Nurses Continues in Chiapas April 13, 2017

Chiapas: Five Nurses Begin Hunger Strike in Tuxtla Gutierrez April 4, 2017