Chiapas: Federal Police Attack Migrants and Journalists at Migration Center in Tapachula

@laotraopinion

On the morning of August 26th, federal police attacked migrants and two journalists while they were dispersing a blockade in front of the Siglo XXI migration center in Tapachula.

The two journalists, Damian Sanchez and Jose E. Torres, reported that they were beaten and kicked by the police when they were already on the ground. Some migrants were injured by police as well, and one was taken to the hospital for medical attention.

According to journalists, before the confrontation, an member of the Federal Police imitated a monkey with a very derogatory and racist gesture, directed against African migrants.

In the confrontation, the Federal Police used shields and pepper spray. A police officer was also taken to the hospital.

The violence comes after 11 days of blockade by a group of African migrants, who have been in front of the Siglo XXI facility seeking to obtain a change in the treatment of migrants from Africa and Asia. In the past, a migrant from one of these continents could receive a document that gave him 20 days to leave the country, which allowed him to travel legally to the northern border, and eventually enter the United States. However, since July 10th, the National Migration Institute (INM in its Spanish acronym) issued an executive order that states that migrants from these backgrounds will have to leave the country through the southern border. It is not clear if this policy change responds to pressure from the administration of the US president, Donald Trump, to force the Mexican government to curb migratory flows.

For more information in Spanish:

Policías federales agreden a migrantes y periodistas en estación Siglo XXI en Chiapas Animal Político, 27 de agosto de 2019.

Investigarán agresión a reporteros tras protesta de migrantes africanos El Sol de México, 27 de agosto de 2019.

Policía Actuó apegada a derechos humanos en enfrentamiento con migrantes: SSPC El Universal, 27 de agosto de 2019.

For more information from SIPAZ:

International/National: #DefensoresSinMuros-DefendersBeyondWalls Campaign Calls for End to Attacks against Defenders of Migrants’ Rights (July 8, 2019)

National/International: New Government Measures Seek to Curb Flow of Migrants (July 2, 2019)

National/International: US-Mexico Migration Deal Halts Imposition of Tariffs (June 17, 2019)

Advertisements

Chiapas: Public Denouncement of Human Rights Violations in Denuncia CERSS nº10 in Comitan

On August 14th, prisoners Marcelino Ruiz Gomez and Baldemar Gomez Hernandez, of the Viniketik Organization in Resistencia, issued a public complaint from CERSS nº10 in Comitan against mistreatment received and to request “intervention by human rights and social organizations to demand the cessation of all abuse.”

Both prisoners have just carried out a hunger strike as a strategy of non-violent political struggle to make their situation of injustice visible. In their complaint they explain that, “for more than four months since the beginning of our fight in this CERSS nº10 of Comitan Chiapas, we are recovering from the hunger strike, and the chief director of this center and his warden David Arias Jimenez, haven’t stopped harassing us. We denounce that all the time we have been subjected to mistreatment and intimidation given that in the site of protest where we had put our tarpaulin to protect us from the sun yesterday, August 13th at 6:00 pm, Commander Bili and his guards destroyed the site of protest and today the director came to threaten to move us to another prison arguing that we are planning an escape. All this time we have been threatened by Alejendro Constantino Hernandez.”

They ask “the competent authorities and to the governor of the State of Chiapas, Rutilio Escandon Cadenas, to stop the harassment of psychological torture and to respect our space of protest where we have been in a sit-in where our voice that we are asking for justice to be done for us and freedom (sic.)”

For more information in Spanish:

Viniketik en Resistencia: denuncia ante el desmantelamiento de su plantón (Grupo de trabajo “No estamos todxs”, 14 de agosto de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Hunger Strikers’ Lives at Risk (July 20, 2019)

Chiapas: After over 100 Days on Hunger Strike, Prisoners Need Appropriate Medical Attention and Continue to Demand Freedom (June 27, 2019)

Chiapas: Plantón y Ayuno en Solidaridad con Presos en Huelga de Hambre (a 84 días de su inicio), (June 6, 2019)

Chiapas: Indigenous Prisoner Released after 16 Years Awaiting Sentencing and 60 Days Hunger Strike (May 26, 2019)

Guerrero: Four Costa Grande Political Prisoners Freed

@El Sur de Acapulco

On August 9th, social activists Maximo Mojica Delgado, Javier Cordova Ruiz, Maria de los Angeles Hernandez Flores, originally from Teloloapan, and Santiago Nazario Lezma, from Atoyac, members of the Teloloapan Popular Movement, were released through direct protection, after spending ten years, eight months and 11 days in the Tecpan de Galeana Center for Social Reinsertion on the Costa Grande, accused of kidnapping. On leaving, they were received by members of social organizations shouting: “Freedom, freedom, prisoners to the fight” and “Our compañeros are not criminals, their only crime is to be consistent.”

Professor Maximo Mojica Delgado said that, “we were imprisoned for prefabricated crimes, because as social activists they consider us criminals. We appreciate the support of the organizations that encouraged us: we prove that we are and were innocent.” The released also said they will continue fighting to demand the freedom of all political prisoners and said that the amnesty law proposed by the federal government has been a failure but that the political prisoners who have been released nationwide were released “through the effort and the struggle undertaken by human rights centers and the pressure exerted by social organizations.”

The leader of the Francisco Villa Popular Defense Front, Clemencia Guevara Tejedor, said that the position of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to marginalize social organizations, has left human rights activists and defenders vulnerable and denounced that in Guerrero there are still 60 political prisoners.

For more information in Spanish:

A pesar de que estuvo 10 años en la cárcel, no abandonará su lucha: Máximo Mojica (Pueblo Guerrero, 12 de agosto de 2019)

Para más información : Liberan a cuatro presos político de la cárcel de Tecpan incluido Máximo Mojica (El Sur, 10 de agosto de 2019)

Libres, luego de 11 años presos, cuatro activistas de la ONG Tierra y Libertad (La Jornada, 10 de agosto de 2019)

Liberan después de más de 10 años a 4 presos políticos en Tecpan (Quadratín, 9 de agosto de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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

Nestora Salgado Launches Campaign to Demand Release of Political Prisoners (April 7, 2016)

Guerrero: Acciones Urgentes de varias organizaciones internacionales llaman la atención sobre la detención arbitraria de Máximo Mojica (8 de diciembre de 2008)

Chiapas: FRAYBA Denounces Attack on Zapatista Autonomy

Member of EZLN transport cooperative, archive photo, Angeles Mariscal/Chiapas PARALELO

On July 22nd, in its statement “Attack on Zapatista Autonomy”, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (FRAYBA) denounced the confiscation of two vans that provide autonomous transportation service by the Ministry of Mobility and Transportation in the Municipality of Salto de Agua in the North of Chiapas.

FRAYBA considered that this action represents one more attack against the support bases of the EZLN in the context of military harassment of its territory. It said that “these acts of aggression and harassment contradict the statements of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who during his visit to Chiapas said on July 6 that ‘we endorse our respect for the Zapatista Army despite our differences.'”

For this reason, FRAYBA demanded that the attacks and harassment of the autonomy of the Zapatista peoples cease and that they desist from the acts of criminalization against the drivers and autonomous transport, as well as return the two vehicles retained by the delegation of Transportation in Palenque.

For more information in Spanish:

Agresión a la autonomía zapatista (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas , 22 de julio de 2019)

Frayba exige devolver a bases zapatistas vehículos asegurados (La Jornada, 23 de julio de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: Controversy between EZLN and AMLO Supporters Floods Social Networks (January 18, 2019)

Chiapas: Zapatista Mass Meeting in Realidad Caracol 25 Years after Armed Uprising (January 14, 2019)

Oaxaca: Indigenous Communities Celebrate “Guelaguetza” against Extractivism

On July 23rd, 2019, several Zapotec communities of the Central Valleys, members of the “Non-Mining Front, for a Future of All”, organized an alternative Guelaguetza in San Martin de los Cansecos, Oaxaca. This was the first Guelaguetza of the Peoples of Oaxaca against mining that began with a traditional ritual of gratitude to Mother Earth.

“What they are looking for in this event is to recover the essence of the Cerro Mondays Festival, where with cooperation, love of neighbor and an attitude of sharing nature and life, they seek to reinforce the social fabric that unite us as indigenous communities.”

Marcos Leyva Madrid of the organization Services for Alternative Education (Educa in its Spanish acronym) mentioned that during the event “the towns and communities affected by mining projects and concessions celebrate life, autonomy, resistance processes and community alternatives that they are exercising within their territories.”

Photo @ SIPAZ

People and agricultural authorities from nine municipalities participated in the alternative Guelaguetza. The program included a forum, spaces for reflection for the communities about the defense of their lands against extractivism, and there were also cultural spaces.

It should be remembered that there are more than three hundred mining concessions in Oaxaca, which represent five percent of the state territory. Communities and civil organizations attribute damage to the environment and the social fabric of the communities to the extractivist model, among other consequences. In addition, they highlight the criminalization of defenders of the land, by extractive companies and the government, with the aim of protecting their economic interests.

According to the magazine Proceso, the Cuzcatlan mining company which is three kilometers away in San Jose del Progreso, also organized a Guelaguetza to “justify that it promotes traditions, gives employment and generates development.” The company is related to the Canadian company Fortuna Silver Mines.

For more information in Spanish:

Celebran comunidades indígenas la Guelaguetza antiminera en Oaxaca (EDUCA, 23 de julio de 2019)

Realizan en Valles Centrales la primera Guelaguetza de los Pueblos de Oaxaca contra la Minería (Proceso, 22 de julio de 2019)

Con Guelaguetza alternativa, protestan en Oaxaca contra mineras (La Jornada, 22 de julio de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: “Negamos el desarrollo que nos niega a nosotros”: Concluye Tercer Encuentro Estatal de Pueblos, Comunidades y Organizaciones “Aquí Decidimos Sí a la Vida No a la Minería” (May 22nd, 2019)

Oaxaca: Cabildo municipal anuncia el territorio de Magdalena Ocotlán prohibido para minería (April 11th, 2019)

National: No Cancellations but No More Mining Concessions in Mexico – AMLO (March 24, 2019)

Oaxaca: Nochixtlan Victims Say FGR Refuses to Call Chain of Command of Violent Eviction

Photo @ 24-Horas

In a press conference on July 10th, the Victims’ Committee for Truth and Justice (COVIC in its Spanish acronym) announced that the Attorney General’s Office (FGR in its Spanish acronym) has refused their request to investigate the chain of command involved in the violent eviction on June 19th, 2016 in Nochixtlan.

In their request, which they made last March, COVIC wanted the federal authorities to cite the then president Enrique Peña Nieto, the secretary of the Interior, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, the former governor of Oaxaca Gabino Cue Monteagudo, the former national commissioner of the Federal Police, Enrique Galindo Ceballos, and the former National Security Commissioner, Renato Sales Heredia.

COVIC’s lawyer, Daniel Blas Garcia, said that “the demands are part of the first point of the recommendation 7VG/2017 issued by the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH).”

He pointed out that they know “that the order came from above (…) however, on June 25th, the Public Prosecutor’s Office only granted that Enrique Galindo be interviewed, while it continues to oppose the collection (of the other interviews), under the appreciation that there are no reasons to call them.”

COVIC called on the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as well as the FGR, to show signs of certainty and will to the tens of thousands of victims in Mexico about an effective access to truth and justice, through processes that are not re-victimizing or debilitating, Proceso reported.

It should be recalled that in Nochixtlan, on June 19th, 2016, an eviction carried out by federal police against residents and teachers of Section 22 of the National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE in its Spanish acronym), which left eight dead and more than 100 injured.

For more information in Spanish:

La FGR rechaza citar a Peña Nieto y Osorio Chong por caso Nochixtlán, denuncian víctimas (El Proceso, 10 de julio de 2019)

FGR se niega a investigar a exfuncionarios implicados en hechos violentos de Nochixtlán: Comité de Víctimas por la Verdad y Justicia (Desinformémonos, 11 de julio de 2019)

Fiscalía rechaza citar a Peña Nieto y Osorio Chong por caso Nochixtlán, acusan víctimas (SDP Noticias, 10 de julio de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: Third Anniversary of Nochixtlan (June 21st, 2019)

Oaxaca/National: CNDH Issues Recommendation for Serious Human Rights Violations during Events in Nochixtlan on June 16th, 2016 (October 28, 2017)

Oaxaca: Impunidad amparada por el gobierno a dos años de Nochixtlán: ONU-DH (June 22, 2018)

Oaxaca: President of Nochixtlan Victims Committee Attacked (April 12, 2018)

Guerrero: New Stage in Investigation of Ayotzinapa Case – Creation of Special Investigation Unit with Omar Gomez Trejo as Head

Photo @ teleSUR

On June 26th, Agreement A/010/19 was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation, with which the Special Investigation and Litigation Unit for the Ayotzinapa case was created.

“The agreement establishes that the Special Unit will be responsible for the investigation and prosecution of the crimes committed in Iguala, Guerrero, in September 2014, until the conclusion of all the criminal proceedings related to the events that led to the disappearance of the 43 students from the ‘Raúl Isidro Burgos’ Normal School.”

On the same day, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR in its Spanish acronym) reported that the teacher Omar Gomez Trejo would occupy the ownership of the new unit.

“For the relatives of the disappeared students and for the organizations that accompany them, the announcement means the beginning of a new stage in the criminal investigation (…) in particular, the appointment of the new head is a reason for hope.” This is due to his knowledge of the case and his long career in human rights organizations.

As a first initiative, the head of the Special Unit for Investigation and Litigation of the FGR and the Commission for Truth and Access to Justice for the Ayotzinapa case, agreed to design a work plan to guarantee progress such as, “the integration of all the archives of investigation linked to the case and that, depending directly on the Attorney General, would guarantee substantive progress in the investigation and clarification of the Ayotzinapa case”, the Government Secretariat stated.

For more information in Spanish:

Inician nueva etapa en investigación del caso Ayotzinapa (Aristegui Noticias, 28 de junio de 2019)

Omar Gómez se reúne con unidad especial del Caso Ayotzinapa (Milenio, 28 de junio de 2019)

Comunicado FGR 313/19 Se crea por Acuerdo, Unidad Especial de Investigación y Litigación para el caso Ayotzinapa (Fiscalía General de la República, 26 de junio de 2019)

Familiares y organizaciones saludan inicio de una nueva etapa en la investigación del caso Ayotzinapa (Tlachinollan, 28 de junio de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/Guerrero: VIDEO of Torture in Ayotzinapa Case Belies “Historic Truth” (June 27, 2019)

Guerrero: Attorney General and SEDENA Denounced for Lack of Interest in Solving Ayotzinapa Case (May 17, 2019)

Guerrero/National: More Information Published on Role of Army in Ayotzinapa Case (March 15, 2019)

Guerrero/National: Commission for Truth and Access to Justice in Ayotzinapa Case Set Up. Federal Judge Orders Investigation into Possible Responsibility of Attorney General Employees for Irregularities (January 22nd, 2019)

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)