Chiapas: 44 Secondary Schoolteachers Arrested in Tuxtla during Eviction of Sit-in

Eviction of teachers in Tuxtla Photo: @Proceso

On July 11th at 3 am, the eviction of the Second Technical School Teachers that had been in the city of Tuxtla since July 3rd took place.

According to Proceso magazine, “Among their demands is the rejection of structural reforms in general and in particular the educational reform – which they say, is labor, arrears since 2013 and also demand the chain of changes according to the method of Level of Technical High Schools.”

During the operation, 44 teachers, 34 men and ten women were arrested and according to Manuel de Jesus Mendoza Vazquez, substitute general secretary of Section 7 of the National Union of Workers of Education (SNTE in its Spanish acronym) “State police evicted teachers from secondary technical schools who for a week had held a sit-in in the center of Tuxtla Gutierrez to demand the payment of 150 million pesos to teachers of that level.” The teachers were transferred to the facilities of the Center of Investigation and Restorative Justice Unit of the state capital.

He stated that: “The Public Prosecutor’s Office, Ministry of Public Security and Protection, Municipal Public Security Secretariat, State Commission for Human Rights, Municipal Civil Protection and a Public Notary participated in the event.”

In turn, the State Attorney General explained that, “with the eviction the right of citizens to free transit was recovered. The protestors had installed tents and vehicles across the street, preventing free vehicular traffic and thousands of citizens who daily go to this area of ​​the city to carry out paperwork or purchases. “

It is noteworthy that according to statements to the newspaper La Jornada, Alejandro Ovando Rodriguez, secretary for labor and conflict of the technical secondary schools of the National Coordinator of Education Workers, said “that the teachers marched again in Tuxtla Gutierrez and they located at the State Secretariat of Education to meet their demands. The authorities owe about 150 million pesos to half of the 5,230 workers of that level in the state.”

For more information in Spanish:

Desalojan plantón de maestros en Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, y detienen a 44 (Revista Proceso 11 de julio de 2017)

Detienen en Chiapas a 44 maestros de secundaria en protesta (La Jornada 11 de julio de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Desalojo violento hacia el plantón de maestros y maestras en San Cristóbal de Las Casas

Nacional: Desalojos violentos de los plantones de protesta de la Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE)

Chiapas : El Pueblo Creyente peregrinó en Tuxtla en apoyo a las y los maestros

Chiapas: Press Conference to Demand Release Roberto Carlos Ruiz Hernandez

Roberto Carlos Ruiz Hernandez. Photo: @No Estamos Todxs

A press conference was held at the offices of the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) on June 29th in San Cristobal de Las Casas, to demand the release of Roberto Carlos Ruiz Hernandez, an immigrant of Honduran origin currently imprisoned State Social Reintegration Center for the Sentenced No. 13 (CERSS No.13), in Tonala Chiapas and detained since May 22nd, 2013, accused of extortion.

The “No Estamos Todxs” Working Group, and the lawyers of the Digna Ochoa Human Rights Centers and the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Human Rights Center participated in the press conference.

In 2015, his file was presented to the Reconciliation Table of the Government of Chiapas so that the case would be reviewed, and in 2017, according to information from Frayba: “the members of the Reconciliation Board had determined to grant him his freedom, but due to bureaucratic delays from February to date the government maintains an arbitrary deprivation that has caused anguish and psychological wear and tear from the promise of freedom.”

In addition to this, “independent experts conducted medical and psychological assessments based on the Istanbul Protocol, with the result that Roberto Carlos suffers from physical and psychological consequences due to acts of torture and/or cruel and inhuman treatment during his detention.”

They point out that: “Roberto Carlos has more than 70% of his sentence served, is a survivor of torture, his judicial process contained faults of due process and resulted in an unfair trial, had no consular assistance and the Reconciliation Board determined to grant him freedom.”

Frayba considers that: “The Embassy of Honduras in Mexico has not granted the appropriate consular assistance to Roberto Carlos, nor the political or diplomatic efforts to obtain his freedom, arguing that they do not have him registered as a citizen of their country, although Carlos has been deported by the Mexican State on three occasions, so the government of that country does have the records that accredit him as a Honduran citizen.”

It is worth remembering that in May 2017 Roberto Carlos sewed his lips and began a hunger strike to demand his immediate release or at least transfer to San Cristobal de Las Casas prison for having received threats, according to Roberto, from the authority of the prison.

Frayba laments that, “the case of Roberto Carlos is one more example of the criminalization of migrants who decide to transit or to settle in our country.”

 For more information in Spanish:

Hondureño preso injustamente en Chiapas denuncia tortura, montaje de expediente y exige su liberación (Centro de medios libres, 22 de junio de 2017)

Denuncia de Roberto Carlos Ruiz, hondureño preso en México (Grupo de trabajo No estamos Todxs, 27 de junio de 2017)

Inmigrante hondureño continúa en detención prolongada e injusta (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, 28 de junio de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional/internacional: La CIDH expresa su preocupación ante el endurecimiento de las autoridades mexicanas hacia los migrantes y sus defensores en la frontera Sur

México : Caravana de Madres de Migrantes Desaparecidos “buscando vida en caminos de muerte”

Nacional: Senado aprueba Ley contra la Tortura

Guerrero/Chiapas: Ayotzinapa Caravan Arrives to San Cristobal de Las Casas

Press conference of the relatives of the 43 disappeared student teachers from Ayotzinapa in Cathedral Square, San Cristobal de Las Casas.  Photo @ Sipaz

On July 1st, the South Southeast Caravan of relatives and students of the 43 disappeared student teachers from Ayotzinapa (2014) arrived to San Cristobal de Las Casas on the last stage of their journey. The caravan was welcomed by students from the Jacinto Canek Intercultural Normal School, members of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE in its Spanish acronym), as well as various groups and social organizations. The objective of the caravan was to make known the “four essential roads for truth and justice” of the case:

– open a thorough investigation into elements of the Mexican Army present during the night of September 26th, 2014.

– the arrest of members of the federal, municipal, ministerial and State police that carried at least 25 Huitzuco students.

– analyze the students’ cell phone activity and their geographical location and hand over the results to the relatives.

– to investigate the transfer of the drugs from Iguala to Chicago as a motive for the aggression.

At a press conference, Felipe de la Cruz, a spokesman for relatives, revealed that, “two telephones of the 17 student taechers continued to function and a message was sent from Military Camp Number 1 in Mexico City and another from the Center Research and National Security (CISEN in its Spanish acronym). And through investigations of independent bodies, it is known that the students Julio Cesar Ramirez Nava and Daniel Solis Gallardo, were killed with bullets manufactured by the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA in its Spanish acronym).”

At the end of the press conference, Felipe Cruz said that “the State crime committed in Ayotzinapa cannot be forgotten because if we stop fighting today it will happen again and other Mexican families will live that nightmare.”

 For more information in Spanish:

Reciben en San Cristóbal de las Casas a padres de los 43 (La Jornada, Sabado 01 de julio de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional/ Guerrero : Caravana en el Sur Sureste en búsqueda de los desaparecidos de Ayotzinapa (27 de junio 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)

Chiapas: FNLS Reports Delay in Forensic Investigation into Case of Minor Murdered in Ocosingo

Photo@ tiempo y forma

On June 26th, 2017, a team of Argentine forensics arrived to Chiapas to investigate the cause of death of Humberto Morales Santiz, aged 13, and from El Carrizal, who was assassinated in February 2017.

The Argentine experts found it difficult to start their activities due to the lack of X-rays that the Mexican government should have provided.

The National Front of the Fight for Socialism (FNLS in its Spanish acronym) demanded that “no motive obstructs the laudable work that will contribute to the right to the truth for the victim’s next of kin; trial and punishment for the material authors and responsible for the execution of our compañero; dismantlement and expulsion of the police-paramilitary camp that is unconstitutionally located in El Carrizal.”

Simultaneously, 14 members of the FNLS were detained while distributing information at the Chiapa de Corzo toll booth on the Tuxtla-San Cristobal highway on June 29th, 2017.

For more information in Spanish:

Forenses argentinos arriban a Chiapas para aclarar caso de menor asesinado en Ocosingo (FNLS, 27 de junio de 2017)

Represión y desalojo violento de la policía estatal preventiva a compañeros del Frente Nacional de Lucha por el Socialismo (FNLS, 27 de junio de 2017)

Detienen a 14 miembros del FNLS por toma de caseta en Chiapas (Proceso, 29 de junio de 2017)

For more information from SIAPZ:

Chiapas: Jornada Nacional: “Las víctimas del terrorismo de Estado son del pueblo, no desistiremos ¡hasta encontrarlos!” (14 de marzo de 2017)

Chiapas: “Jornada nacional contra el terrorismo del estado en Chiapas” del FNLS (2 de mayo de 2016)

Chiapas: Zoque People Mobilizing against Mega-projects in Chiapas

The movement declared itself against extractivist projects, “which put the social, environmental and cultural life of the 60,000 Zoque speakers at risk.” Photo: @Sipaz

On June 22nd, the indigenous movement of the Zoque Believing People in Defense of Life and the Earth organized a pilgrimage in Tuxtla Gutierrez, in which about six thousand people from 3 zones, members of civil society as well as priests of the Archdiocese of Tuxtla Gutierrez and the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas participated, according to La Jornada.

Participants denounced that the energy reform approved in 2013 along with ten other constitutional reforms “constitute a serious threat of dispossession of indigenous peoples’ lands”, as only their proponents would benefit from them.

In this case, the International Public Bidding known as Round 2.2 involves “the concession of 12 natural gas and oil extraction wells in the coastal states of the Gulf of Mexico and Southeastern Basin, which is composed of 12 blocks, two of which have an impact on the state of Chiapas. A total of 84,500 hectares of land in nine municipalities in northern Chiapas would be used for the extraction of natural gas through dispossession and environmental contamination of Zoque territory.”

Blocks 10 and 11 in Chiapas would affect the municipalities of Tecpatan, Francisco Leon, Ostuacan, the town of Chapultenango, Ixtacomitan, Ixtapangajoya, Pichucalco, Solosuchiapa, Sunuapa and even Teapa (Tabasco) in order to obtain moist gas, light oil and super light oil.

Photo: @Sipaz

In March 2017, representatives of the movement reported a series of irregularities in the bidding process awarded by the Federal Government’s Energy Secretariat (SENER in its Spanish acronym), because all the affected communities were not consulted and there were no translators in their maternal Zoque language and neither has an Environmental Impact Statement been presented as required by law.

According to the movement, the specific risks would be “excessive use of water, migratory movements, contamination of soil, air and springs, loss of biodiversity, environmental imbalance, reduction of food production, damage to property and public health.”

 The movement stated that they are proceeding “to make the corresponding complaints before the national and international courts over omission in the absence of the presentation of the corresponding Environmental Impact Statement, as well as by the faults that are being committed in the process prior, free and informed consultation.”

Equally, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym) said that “we salute the mobilization and organization undertaken from below for respect for what is theirs … to resist and to repudiate in an organized manner the so-called Round 2.2 on their ancestral territory with which the capitalists plan the extermination of the peoples of the north of Chiapas.”

Photo: @Sipaz

For more information in Spanish:

Pagina facebook del movimiento

Comunidades zoques resisten a proyectos de despojo (Chiapas Denuncia, a 22 de Junio 2017)

Marchan 6 mil personas en Chiapas en rechazo a explotación de hidrocarburos (La Jornada, a 23 de Junio 2017)

“Alto al despojo, destrucción y muerte”: Pueblo Zoque ante Ronda 2.2 de la SENER que ofrece su territorio al mejor postor (Desinformémonos, a 23 de Junio 2017)

Pronunciamiento del Congreso Nacional Indígena en apoyo y solidaridad con la lucha del pueblo Zoque y por la libertad de Luis Fernando Sotelo (Enlace Zapatista, a 23 de Junio 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: machan ejidos y comunidades de la zona zoque contra los proyectos extractivos

Chiapas: Libre activista zoque, Silvia Juárez Juárez

Chiapas : denuncian criminalización de defensores de la Madre Tierra en zona zoque

Chiapas : comunidades zoques se oponen a extracción de hidrocarburos en el norte de Chiapas

 

Chiapas: The Center for Women’s Rights Denounces Lack of Due Process and Access to Justice in Cases of Violence against Women and Femicides

Photo: @CDMCH

On June 26th, 2017, the Center for Women’s Rights of Chiapas (CDMCH in its Spanish acronym), announced that the state government has failed both to implement the urgent measures and the basic agreements taken in the different sessions of the Inter-Institutional and Multidisciplinary Group, established since the Declaration of a Gender Violence Alert of (GVA) in Chiapas, more than half a year ago now. It is worth mentioning that on November 18th, 2016, the GVA was declared in the state of Chiapas.

 The CDMCH stated that, “We denounce in particular the most recurring acts and omissions that we continue to document in our day-to-day work as Rights Defenders before the bodies responsible for procuring and administering justice in Chiapas.”

Specifically, they showed “Omission by the Operators of the system to their duty to preserve the life, physical integrity, rights and interests of women in situations of violence” as well as “Omission in the application of the Protocol of Operative and Technical Action in the Investigation of the crimes of homicide and femicide.”

The Center for Women’s Rights in Chiapas reported that “These patterns of action and omission are just some of the most common that we observe in a systematically, directly by the cases that we have accompanied we have documented these faults in prosecutors such as Bachajon, Yajalon, Ocosingo and San Cristobal; similarly in other Districts, without the Indigenous Public Prosecution taking on the responsibility conferred, we document negligent attention to indigenous people of municipalities such as Salto de Agua, Palenque, Margaritas and Teopisca.”

 Therefore, the CDMCH assured that “we will remain vigilant to the actions that the State implements to meet its obligation to safeguard the life and integrity of women in the state.”

For more information in Spanish:

Omisiones ante Alerta de Violencia de Género en Chiapas (26 de junio de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Centro de Derechos de la mujer de Chiapas denuncia amenazas (8 de diciembre de 2015)

Guerrero : emiten Alerta de Género en 8 estados (24 de junio de 2017)

National/Guerrero: Caravan in the South-Southeast in Search of the Ayotzinapa Disappeared

Photo @SIPAZ

33 months after the forced disappearance of 43 student teachers from the Raul Isidro Burgos Normal School and the murder of 6 others, their families continue to travel the country in their search and to demand justice. Since June 18th, they started a caravan in the South-Southeast of the Republic. The caravan started in Campeche and will pass through five states: Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Chiapas.

The aim of this caravan is that more than a thousand days after the attack on the student teachers, “in every corner of Mexico, it is known that the Mexican State, while still hiding the truth, is responsible, and that it not be forgotten”, said Felipe de la Cruz, a spokesman for relatives.

Relatives and friends of the victims as well as other students are asking the government to follow the four lines of investigation identified by the group of independent experts of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which, they are sure, will lead to the truth about what happened. The first request is to investigate the elements of the Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA in its Spanish acronym), who were, they propose, directly involved in the events. The other is the drug raid that was supposed to be the motive for the disappearance, as the young people allegedly had taken a bus loaded with drugs and money. The third is the detention of the federal and municipal police of Huitzuco, Guerrero, who took the 25 young people, because it has not been determined who is the “boss” who ordered their disappearance. The last line of research is cell phones. According to Aristegui Noticias, during their journey, participants were arrested by a patrol and violently taken off the bus on which they were traveling at the point of high-caliber guns, because they had passed a toll booth without paying: “It does not fit with disappearing our children, today they harass repress us for looking for them”, they said.

 For more information in Spanish:

Caso Ayotzinapa fue un crimen de Estado (La Jornada Maya, 26 de junio de 2017)

Ciudadanía se une a la marcha por Ayotzinapa de la caravana del sureste en Chetumal (Proceso, 25 de junio de 2017)

A punta de pistola, bajan de autobús a padres de Ayotzinapa (Aristegui Noticias, a 18 de junio de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:


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)