Guerrero/National: Caravan 43 “Hope is Reborn”

(@El Sur)

From December 19th to 26th, fathers and mothers of the 43 students of the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa in Iguala, Guerrero, missing since September 2014, caravan 43, Hope is Reborn, within the framework of the 51st Global Action, which began in Tixtla, Guerrero, passed through Morelos, and ended at the Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico City.

They denounced that 51 months have elapsed since the forced disappearance of their relatives without any result being achieved. They asked for justice in their case, in the case of political prisoners, the thousands of disappeared in Mexico, and the constant violations of human rights in the country. Several civil and social organizations also joined these protests.

Caravan 43 “Hope is Reborn” was named in this way because of the possibility that the new government led by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) will return the disappeared. “The idea is to continue touring and informing that the former administration of former President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, tried to bury the Ayotzinapa case and impose the historical truth”, said the spokesman of the parents of the 43 missing teachers, Meliton Ortega. He warned that despite the fact that the “new government has signed a decree, we want to say that it is not enough and it is necessary to go beyond the signing of a simple document; we need them to advance each of the lines [of investigation] until we know the truth and the whereabouts of the 43.”

For more information in Spanish:

Finalizan protestas de la 51 Acción Global por los 43 en la Basílica de Guadalupe (La Jornada, 27 de diciembre de 2018)

Padres de los 43 van a la Basílica; el obispo Rangel los recibe y en una misa pide saber la verdad y justicia (El Sur, 27 de diciembre de 2018)

Llega a Iguala la caravana 43 La Esperanza Renace, en el segundo día de actividades (La Jornada Guerrero, 21 de diciembre de 2018)

Llega a Taxco la Caravana 43 La Esperanza Renace, de normalistas (La Jornada Guerrero, 21 de diciembre de 2018)

Llega a Iguala la caravana de lucha por los 43 desaparecidos; demanda castigo a Peña Nieto (El Sur, 21 de diciembre de 2018)

Padres de los 43 inician caravana La Esperanza Renace en Tixtla (Quadratin Guerrero, 19 de diciembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero/National: Decree Establishes Truth Commission for Ayotzinapa Case
(December 19th, 2018)

Guerrero/National/International: CNDH and IACHR Ayotzinapa Reports (December 14th, 2018)

Guerrero/National: Ayotzinapa, Four Years On… (October 1st, 2018)

Guerrero/National: Incoming Government Confirms Creation of Truth Commission for Ayotzinapa Case (Aug. 13th, 12018)

Guerrero/National: Obstruction in Formation of Truth Commission in Ayotzinapa Case Denounced (Aug. 8th, 2018)

Guerrero: Classmates of Ayotzinapa 43 Graduate (Aug. 2nd, 2018)

Guerrero/National: Federal Court Orders Creation Truth Commission to Reopen Investigation of Ayotzinapa Case (July 12th, 2018)

 

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Guerrero/National: Decree Establishes Truth Commission for Ayotzinapa Case

(@SIPAZ)

On November 3rd, in one of his first actions as new president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) signed a decree that establishes the creation of a truth commission to resolve the case of the forced disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Normal Rural School, in Iguala, Guerrero, in September 2014.

“With this agreement, we began the search process for the youths of Ayotzinapa. With this decree the whole government is ordered, in what corresponds to the Executive Power, so that all the support is given to you, to the commission, to arrive at the truth. The whole government is going to help in this purpose”, AMLO told the parents of the missing students. He promised that, “there will be no impunity neither in this so sad, painful, case nor any other.”

The Commission which will start working within a maximum of 30 working days will be made up of the relatives of the disappeared students or their representatives, their lawyers, a representative of the Secretariats of the Interior, Foreign Affairs and Finance, as well as professional and technical experts who are required.

Alejandro Encinas, the new undersecretary of Human Rights of the Interior and who will lead the new Commission, said the Commission will resume the investigations carried out by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), as well as the “truncated” investigation of the PGR. “To clarify the case is the beginning of a state policy that places the victims at the center,” assured Encinas.

At the end of the event, family members of the students expressed that the decree gives them hope, although “confidence will be gained as the search for the truth advances”. For his part, Vidulfo Rosales, a member of the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center and a lawyer for the relatives of the victims, welcomed the inauguration of a “new stage in the struggle and the search for the 43 compañeros, but this is only the the beginning, all the invstigation lines that the Peña Nieto government did not want to promote and which remained stagnant will be retaken.” Santiago Aguirre, deputy director of the Pro Center, stressed that the decree instructs the entire federal administration to collaborate in the clarification of the facts, “given that in the past, the federal government obstructed the process.”

Outside the National Palace, some parents of missing persons protested because they were not allowed to enter the event and demanded that immediate mechanisms of search and investigation be applied in all cases of disappearance, not only Ayotzinapa.

According to Alberto Solis Castro, director of Services and Consultancy for Peace (SERAPAZ), resolving this emblematic case “can be a spearhead and hope for all of the over 30,000 disappeared in the country. It is a first effort of that must be turned into something structural to address the serious human rights crisis we are in.”

For more information in Spanish:

AMLO presidente: ¿qué cambia con la Comisión de la Verdad creada por López Obrador para aclarar el caso de los 43 estudiantes desaparecidos de Ayotzinapa? (BBC Mundo, 3 de diciembre de 2018)

Decreto de AMLO, ¿nueva esperanza para padres de los 43 de Ayotzinapa? (CNN, 3 de diciembre de 2018)

Crea AMLO Comisión de la Verdad por caso Ayotzinapa (La Jornada, 3 de diciembre de 2018)

López Obrador formaliza comisión para la verdad y justicia del caso Ayotzinapa (Proceso, 3 de diciembre de 2018)

AMLO firma decreto de creación de la comisión para el caso Ayotzinapa; retomará investigación de PGR (Animal Político, 3 de diciembre de 2018)

¿Qué implica el decreto para la Comisión de la Verdad en el caso Ayotzinapa? (ADN Político, 4 de diciembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero/National/International: CNDH and IACHR Ayotzinapa Reports  (December 14th, 2018)

Guerrero/National: Ayotzinapa, Four Years On…  (October 1st, 2018)

Guerrero/National: Incoming Government Confirms Creation of Truth Commission for Ayotzinapa Case (Aug. 13th, 12018)

Guerrero/National: Obstruction in Formation of Truth Commission in Ayotzinapa Case Denounced (Aug. 8th, 2018)Guerrero: Classmates of Ayotzinapa 43 Graduate

Guerrero: Classmates of Ayotzinapa 43 Graduate (Aug. 2nd, 2018)

Guerrero/National: Federal Court Orders Creation Truth Commission to Reopen Investigation of Ayotzinapa Case (July 12th, 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional : CNDH informa que se tiene a un preso inocente por el caso Ayotzinapa (22 de junio de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional/Internacional : Llamados a redigirir investigación en el caso Ayotzinapa (14 de junio de 2018)

 

Guerrero/National/International: CNDH and IACHR Ayotzinapa Reports

Ayotzinapa at Tlachinollan anniversary(@SIPAZ)

On November 27th, three days before the end of the six-year term of office of Enrique Peña Nieto, the president of the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH in its Spanish acronym), Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez, presented recommendation 15VG/2018 on the events that took place in September 2014, in Iguala, Guerrero, that caused the forced disappearance of 43 students from the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa, the death of six people and 42 more wounded. He considered it as a “point of departure and a clear guide to what remains to be done” so that the next government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will get truth and justice in the case.

At a press conference, he said that, “what happened in Iguala should not be seen as an isolated case, but as a reflection of the situation that covers several regions of the country, and in which the possibility of generating an episode of similar dimensions and characteristics is a latent risk.”

He stressed that “a crime of the dimensions that happened in Iguala could only occur because of the penetration of organized crime in government structures”, while “various authorities, at federal, local and municipal levels, knew that things were rotten and contaminated, but nobody did anything. This would have prevented an outcome like the one that happened.”

He indicated that the investigation showed “that the authorities violated the right to the truth of the victims and of society when formulating or disseminating biased statements or partial or false information, which disorientated, confused and generated uncertainty in public opinion, causing the victims to be victimized again.”

On another note, two years after the Special Follow-up Mechanism was installed, this body of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) presented its final work report, in which it analyzes the main anomalies, deficiencies and omissions detected in the investigation conducted by the Mexican government. It concludes that “despite all the proceedings contained in a dossier of more than 618 volumes, the investigations continue fragmented, and require a comprehensive analysis (…) many of the proceedings seem to be incomplete, are discarded or fail to be procedurally driven.” The IACHR also expressed its concern at the fact that “there is still no change in the official narrative regarding the line of investigation of the Cocula landfill, despite what has been indicated by this Commission, by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE), the Office of the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights (UNHCHR) and the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (AFAT).” It urged the Mexican State “to redouble the efforts to determine the whereabouts of the student teachers, to know the truth of what happened on the night of September 26th and 27th, 2014, to provide comprehensive assistance to families and to ensure that these atrocious events do happen again”.

For more information in Spanish:

RECOMENDACIÓN No. 15VG/2018 « Caso Iguala » (CNDH, 28 de noviembre de 2018)

Toca a AMLO enderezar investigación por caso Ayotzinapa: CNDH al emitir recomendación a Peña (Proceso, 28 de noviembre de 2018)

La CNDH revive “versión histórica” de la PGR en caso Iguala: mínimo 19 personas calcinadas en Cocula (Proceso, 28 de noviembre de 2018)

La CNDH señala que autoridades violaron el derecho a la verdad en el caso Iguala (ADN Politico, 28 de noviembre de 2018)

Informe Final: Mecanismo de Seguimiento al Asunto Ayotzinapa (CIDH, 25 de noviembre de 2018)

Profundizar investigación a militares y policías por caso Ayotzinapa, recomienda CIDH (Informe) (Aristegui Noticias, 28 de noviembre de 2018)

Sin identificar, 19 calcinados en basurero de Cocula: CNDH (La Jornada, 29 de noviembre de 2018)

Caso Ayotzinapa: la CIDH detecta más indicios de federales y militares en ataque a normalistas⁩ (Animal Político, 29 de noviembre de 2018)

Caso Ayotzinapa aún incompleto y sin detención de involucrados: CIDH (Vanguardia, 29 de noviembre de 2018)

Incompleta y fragmentada la “versión histórica” del caso Ayotzinapa; CIDH pide desecharla (Proceso, 29 de noviembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero/National: Ayotzinapa, Four Years On…  (October 1st, 2018)

Guerrero/National: Incoming Government Confirms Creation of Truth Commission for Ayotzinapa Case (Aug. 13th, 12018)

Guerrero/National: Obstruction in Formation of Truth Commission in Ayotzinapa Case Denounced (Aug. 8th, 2018)Guerrero: Classmates of Ayotzinapa 43 Graduate

Guerrero: Classmates of Ayotzinapa 43 Graduate (Aug. 2nd, 2018)

Guerrero/National: Federal Court Orders Creation Truth Commission to Reopen Investigation of Ayotzinapa Case (July 12th, 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional : CNDH informa que se tiene a un preso inocente por el caso Ayotzinapa (22 de junio de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional/Internacional : Llamados a redigirir investigación en el caso Ayotzinapa (14 de junio de 2018)

 

Guerrero: First Colloquium for Peace

Photo @ La Jornada

On November 5th, in the auditorium of the Superior Court of Justice in Chilpancingo de los Bravo, the Colloquium for Peace in Guerrero began. The event was convened by the Chilpancingo-Chilapa diocese and the Organization of the Americas for Educational Excellence (ODAEE in its Spanish acronym) and survivors of the Iguala massacre (2014), the current mayor of Chilpancingo participated among others.

On November 6th, in Chilapa, Salvador Rangel Mendoza, bishop of the Chilapa-Chilpancingo diocese, “proposed the inclusion of young people, who now constitute a key sector of the population for reconciliation and peace, as they represent most of the affected and victims in conflicts. He said that achieving peace is everyone’s task, building an inclusive democracy, and a path of peace, concrete actions from different fronts; they cannot sit and wait for only government institutions to build peace.

The cleric proposed a strategy that he commented, has given good results in Europe and the Middle East, as well as in Colombia, through education, establishing as obligatory the subject of peace and reconciliation in the study programs of all levels educational, from primary to professional; the promotion of cultural sports, recreational, and artistic activities; providing them with tools, materials, access to spaces and resources for it; recognizing young people as relevant actors, improving coexistence and transformation; strengthening of youth organizations; promotion of extra-curricular activities, with the purpose of rebuilding the social fabric and promoting general prosperity.”

According to several sources, during the Colloquium the bishop also mentioned that he continues to seek dialogue with organized crime groups in order to achieve a “Christmas truce” in December.

For more information in Spanish:

Contra la violencia en Guerrero se organiza Coloquio por la Paz (La Jornada, 5 de noviembre de 2018)

Obispo de Chilpancingo, Guerrero, pidió a narcotraficantes una “tregua” navideña (Vanguardia, 6 de noviembre de 2018)

Es tarea de todos lograr la paz en Guerrero, coinciden en coloquio en Chilpancingo (El Sur de Acapulco, 5 de noviembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Article 19 urges to investigate political motivations in the case of the murder of the journalist, Gabriel Soriano
(November 4th, 2018)

Guerrero: Radio and TV Broadcaster from Guerrero Murdered
(November 1st, 2018)

Guerrero: Mixed Unit Disarms 500 Municipal Police and Arrests Two Officers in Acapulco; Public Security Controlled by SEDENA, SEMAR and State Police
(October 2nd, 2018)

Nacional: Relatores sobre libertad de expresión de la CIDH y la ONU presentan informe después de visita a México (21 de junio de 2018)

Guerrero : allanan las oficinas de la agencia de noticias Quadratín en Acapulco (25 de abril de 2018)

Guerrero: Ayotzinapa Student Teacher in Coma since 2014 Returns to Ayutla

(@Sexta Azcapotzalco)

On October 9th, at the request of his family, Aldo Gutierrez Solano was transferred to a hospital in the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres, in Guerrero, where he will remain under medical supervision. Since the attack in which 43 of his companions went missing, he remained in a hospital in Mexico City, in a vegetative state.

Students of the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa published on Facebook that the federal government built a clinic in the neighborhood of Barrio Nuevo de Ayutla, where Gutierrez Solano will continue to receive adequate medical attention.

Last October 5th, his brother, Leonel Gutierrez Solano, traveled to Germany to denounce the consequences of the irregular sale of arms in the hearings that are being held in the courts of that country, in the framework of a trial against the Heckler & Koch company, which, between 2006 and 2009, sold more than nine thousand assault weapons in Mexico. “After four years we have no results, we are still struggling to arrive at the truth of a case that the government does not want to clarify. We have a family member in a grave state who we must take care of 24 hours a day because he cannot stand on his own due to a firearm shot that damaged 65 percent of his brain”, Leonel Gutierrez said.

For more information in Spanish:

Normalista de Ayotzinapa que permanece en coma fue trasladado a un hospital de su natal Guerrero (Proceso, 10 de octubre de 2018)

Trasladan a Ayutla al normalista de Ayotzinapa que está en coma debido a los ataques en Iguala (El Sur de Acapulco, 10 de octubre de 2018)

Regresa a su casa normalista de Ayotzinapa que se encuentra en coma (Excelsior, 10 de octubre de 2018)

Trasladan a normalista de Ayotzinapa en coma, a su casa en Guerrero (Aristegui Noticias, 9 de octubre de 2018)

Trasladan a sobreviviente de Ayotzinapa de la CDMX a Guerrero (La Jornada, 9 de octubre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ :

Guerrero/National: Ayotzinapa, Four Years On… (01/10/2018)

International: Case against for Illegal Sale of Firearms to Mexico by Heckler and Koch Begins (25/06/2018)

National/Guerrero: “no more arms sales to Mexico” – German government (08/03/2015)

 

 

Guerrero/National: Ayotzinapa, Four Years On…

Fourth anniversary of Ayotzinapa (@Tlachinollan)

On September 26th, four years after the forced disappearance of 43 students from the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa in Iguala, Guerrero, in which six people – three of them student teachers – were also deprived of their lives and where dozens more were injured, thousands of citizens took to the streets in several cities of the Republic to demand justice in the case.

On the same day, the president-elect of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, met with relatives of the victims and promised to clarify what happened through the creation of a Truth Commission independently of the courts’ decision, through of a decree. He also agreed to request the assistance of the United Nations (UN) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

It should be remembered that in June a Mexican court ordered the creation of a Truth Commission to renew the investigation process but the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) has declared itself unable to do so. As part of the anniversary of the disappearance, the PGR reiterated that “all lines of investigation” have been addressed and stressed that in its efforts to satisfy the demands for justice, 1,447 people have testified on the case and 119 people are under criminal procedure, 69 of them for kidnapping.

On the fourth anniversary of the case, the first eight of the 69 involved in the disappearance of the student teachers were released, not for being not guilty, but for procedural irregularities committed by public servants of the PGR during their detention, several media reported. However, they will not necessarily leave prison as other cases are followed.

For more information in Spanish:

México: AMLO se compromete con familiares de víctimas de Ayotzinapa a esclarecer lo sucedido con los 43 estudiantes (BBC, 27 de septiembre de 2018)

Claves para entender cómo funcionará la comisión de la verdad de Ayotzinapa (ADN Política, 27 de septiembre de 2018)

Manifestaciones en varias ciudades del estado por los cuatro años de los hechos (La Jornada de Guerrero, 27 de septiembre de 2018)

Ocho implicados en el caso Ayotzinapa obtienen auto de libertad por fallas procesales (Proceso, 27 de septiembre de 2018)

Nueva comisión para el caso Ayotzinapa no investigará al Ejército: Encinas (Proceso, 26 de septiembre de 2018)

Ayotzinapa: en el corazón de la patria (CDH Tlachinollan, 26 de septiembre de 2018)

Ayotzinapa: la esperanza está en la verdad (Proceso, artículo de Mario Patrón director del Centro Agustín PRODH, 26 de septiembre de 2018)

El caso Ayotzinapa: Cuatro años de dolor e incertidumbre (NY Times, 26 de septiembre de 2018)

Con marchas, misa y un minuto de silencio ciudadanos exigen justicia a 4 años de Ayotzinapa (Animal Político, 26 de septiembre de 2018)

119 detenidos y 1147 personas han declarado por caso Ayotzinapa: PGR (Aristegui Noticias, 26 de septiembre de 2018)

AMLO frente a Ayotzinapa (Proceso, 26 de septiembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero/National: Incoming Government Confirms Creation of Truth Commission for Ayotzinapa Case (Aug. 13th, 12018)

Guerrero/National: Obstruction in Formation of Truth Commission in Ayotzinapa Case Denounced (Aug. 8th, 2018)

Guerrero: Classmates of Ayotzinapa 43 Graduate (Aug. 2nd, 2018)

Guerrero/National: Federal Court Orders Creation Truth Commission to Reopen Investigation of Ayotzinapa Case (July 12th, 2018)

 

International / National / Guerrero: First report of the Special Follow-up Mechanism of the IACHR to the Ayotzinapa case

On September 3, almost four years after the disappearance of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa in Iguala, Guerrero, the First Report of the Special Follow-up Mechanism of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) was presented at the Rural Normal School. The event was attended by Esmeralda Arosemena, rapporteur for Mexico of the IACHR; Luis Ernesto Vargas, commissioner of the IACHR; Paulo Abrāo, executive secretary of the IACHR; Jan Jarab, representative in Mexico of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Luis Raúl González Pérez, president of the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH).

In this document, the IACHR confirms its rejection of the “historical truth” that the Mexican government has been defending in the face of what happened. He emphasizes that of the nine telephone numbers belonging to the disappeared students that registered activity on the night of their disappearance, “at least one of them” was found in the possession of a public security official of Guerrero, a fact that has not been investigated and should be so promptly. Likewise, the report points out the possible participation of elements of the Federal Police for what it calls to analyze the activities that the elements of said corporation had in Iguala that day and to resolve the chain of command that ordered their mobilization. Regarding the participation of the military, the IACHR indicates that the contradictions presented by the statements of elements belonging to the 27th Battalion and the photographic material in their possession, which records the detention of the disappeared students, must be clarified. In addition, it requests that the alleged links of various elements of the 27th Battalion with organized crime through arms trafficking or even some relatives with leaders of the Guerreros Unidos Cartel should also be investigated.

For his part, and a few hours after finishing his term as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein considered that as long as there is no irrefutable knowledge of what happened in Iguala and there is no accountability for the forced disappearance of the 43 students, the case “will remain as an open wound in the minds of Mexicans” and as one of the “most pressing pending issues of the government of Enrique Peña Nieto.” If not resolved, “and if there is no responsibility for one of the most severe episodes we have seen in Mexico in the recent past, these conditions will persist.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Presenta el Mecanismo de la CIDH un informe en Ayotzinapa (El Sur, 4 de septiembre de 2018)

Participación de militares, aún sin atenderse en caso Ayotzinapa (El Economista, 3 de septiembre de 2018)

CIDH presenta informe en Normal de Ayotzinapa (La Jornada, 3 de septiembre de 2018)

Primer Informe del Mecanismo Especial de Seguimiento al caso Ayotzinapa de la CIDH (Aristegui Noticias, 3 de septiembre de 2018)

El crimen de Ayotzinapa es una herida abierta: Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein (Proceso, 3 de septiembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero/National: Incoming Government Confirms Creation of Truth Commission for Ayotzinapa Case August 13, 2018

Guerrero/National: Obstruction in Formation of Truth Commission in Ayotzinapa Case Denounced August 8, 2018

Guerrero/National: Federal Court Orders Creation Truth Commission to Reopen Investigation of Ayotzinapa Case July 12, 2018

Guerrero/International: New Hearing of Ayotzinapa Case with Inter-American Commission for Human Rights May 21, 2018