National/International: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Visits Mexico

Michelle Bachelet (@CINU)

At the end of her official visit to Mexico, which took place between April 5th and 9th, the United Nations Organization High Commissioner of the for Human Rights (UN-DH), Michelle Bachelet, said she was surprised by the levels of violence and the dimension of the human rights crisis in the country. “It was a surprise to me what I found. Without a doubt, the case of Ayotzinapa is well known by the press, but the 40 thousand disappeared was not something that was so clear, of the 26 thousand bodies without identification (in the forensic services). Or ten women murdered a day. I knew very well about the violence, but I had no idea of ​​the dimension (…) The data are terrifying.” She pointed out that Mexico has figures for violent deaths equivalent to a country at war: 252,538,000 since 2006.

She highlighted outstanding human rights issues in different areas, in particular regarding forced disappearances, femicides, violence against defenders and journalists, torture, abuses against migrants, as well as high poverty rates -especially in indigenous communities- and the need to carry out consultations in accordance with international standards, among others, in order to undertake megaprojects.

The High Commissioner also signed a collaboration agreement on the National Guard and another on the collaboration of the agency in charge of the investigation of the forced disappearance of the 43 student teachers from Ayotzinapa (Guerrero, 2014).

The former president of Chile stressed that the new authorities of the country “have recognized that Mexico has a human rights crisis,” that there is political will to move forward with the pending issues and that “President Lopez Obrador has expressed his willingness to implement a change of paradigm.” She stressed that in the case of the National Guard, the Mexican government is talking about “accountability, transparency, human rights indicators that allow us to see if the National Guard is indeed going in the right direction or is deviating.” “The office will not hesitate to raise the alarm if it sees that there is any type of situation that does not correspond to the spirit of what is sought and the spirit of the agreement”, she said.

In the Ayotzinapa case, she said: “My office will be an ally that will not hesitate to contribute to progress and at the same time will raise the alarm in case of non-compliance. We request to know the whereabouts of the boys”, she added.

For more information in Spanish:

Enfrentar las desapariciones forzadas es el problema central en México, insta Michelle Bachelet (ONU México, 9 de abril de 2019)

México tiene cifras de muertes violentas propias de un país en guerra: Bachelet (Proceso, 9 de abril de 2019)

La ACNUDH asesorará la creación de la Guardia Nacional (Proceso, 9 de abril de 2019)

Bachelet defiende a la sociedad civil: Es importante para la democracia, le dice al gobierno de México (Animal Político, 9 de abril de 2019)

Bachelet se va desolada de tanto horror en México: “No sabía de todo lo que me he encontrado…” (Sin Embargo, 9 de abril de 2019)

Bachelet: como una guerra, las muertes violentas en México (La Jornada, 10 de abril de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: Consultative Council on Mechanism for Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (April 11, 2019)

National: Chamber of Deputies Approves Law that Creates National Guard after Three Months of Debate and Negotiation (March 9, 2019)

National / International: UN-DH denounces that 10 Human Rights Defenders have been murdered in Mexico until now in 2018

September 21, 2018

National / International: UN-DH denounces that 10 Human Rights Defenders have been murdered in Mexico until now in 2018 (September 21, 2018)

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Chiapas/International: Urgent Action – Canadian Embassy before Courts for Undue Intervention in Chicomuselo Mining Conflict

On March 25th, a hearing will be held in Ottawa, Canada as representatives of the Canadian Embassy in Mexico were sued in an administrative complaint before the Federal Court of Canada “for their dangerous negotiations in a mining conflict,” related to the criminalization and the murder of Mariano Abarca in Chicomuselo, Chiapas in 2009.

It should be remembered that the local leader of the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA in its Spanish acronym) was murdered “after an active and peaceful resistance that the villagers carried out against this company that extracted barite ore. All the suspects in the case had links to the mining company Blackfire Exploration, but no one was convicted of the murder. The investigation is still open.” In addition, “until the day of his murder, Mariano suffered threats, intimidation, beatings, arbitrary detention under false accusations made by the mining company, among other abuses.”

In the framework of the hearing, the website #Justicia for Mariano Abarca published an Urgent Action in which it stressed that “documentation obtained through the transparency law of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada, shows that, despite the significant knowledge that the Canadian embassy had on the facts between the company Blackfire and Mr. Abarca -including the death threats that he faced- it went to the state government of Chiapas to ask it to control the protests against the Canadian company in the community.”

It also denounced that, “there is no will or legal frameworks, regulations or binding protocols for the personnel of the Canadian embassies in order to ensure human rights.” Therefore the Urgent Action raises the demand for “a full and impartial investigation into the case of Mariano Abarca Roblero, and ensure legal measures to prevent embassies from continuing to intervene to overlap the abuse and violation of human rights that Canadian mining companies commit in other countries.”

For more information in Spanish:

Acción Urgente en línea: Embajada Canadiense a los tribunales por su intervención indebida en conflicto minero en México (#Justicia para Mariano, 19 de marzo de 2019)

“En México, los intereses de Canadá son los de las empresas mineras” (Observatorio de Conflictos Mineros en América Latina, 15 de marzo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Internacional/Chiapas : Interponen solicitud formal ante gobierno de Canadá para investigar a los diplomáticos en este país ante caso de ambientalista asesinado (7 de febrero de 2018)

Chiapas: 5 years since the murder of mining critic Mariano Abarca (December 15, 2014)

Chiapas: 5,000 Men and Women on Pilgrimage against Mining in Chicomuselo (October 17, 2017)

Chiapas: Anti-Mining Activist Mariano Abarca Killed (December 1, 2009)

Guerrero/National: More Information Published on Role of Army in Ayotzinapa Case

@Cuartoscuro

The National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH in its Spanish acronym) has reported that it has corroborated a link between organized crime and the Mexican government in the forced disappearance of the 43 students of the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa in Iguala, Guerrero, on September 26th, 2014. In addition, the Commission has declared that there was “connivance or collusion” between the local, state, and federal governments regarding the follow-up of the case. Additionally, the CNDH has indicated obstacles on the part of the authorities during its investigation that led to a series of recommendations at the end of 2018.

In December, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) in one of his first acts as the new president created by decree the Commission for Truth and Access to Justice in the Ayotzinapa case. On March 11th, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) presented the Technical Support Group (TSG) that will provide technical support to the Mexican authorities to arrive at the truth in the facts. In presenting the new work plan, the president of the IACHR and rapporteur of that agency for Mexico, Esmeralda Arosamena de Troitiño, applauded the position of the new federal authorities, which unlike the previous administration, have opened an impulse that represents “a historic opportunity to break impunity.” During the event, the Undersecretary of the Interior for Human Rights, Alejandro Encinas, remarked that the TSG will technically support all the open criminal investigation lines, which were not followed by the former Attorney General’s Office.

One of the most delicate in this sense is the role that the Mexican Army could have played in the events. On March 12th, a video was published that shows that Julio Cesar Lopez Patolzin, one of the 43 missing student teachers, had been recruited by the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA in its Spanish acronym) to infiltrate the Ayotzinapa School.

Faced with this, civil organizations accompanying the families of the 43 students declared that the video shows that the army “did not deliver or have given all the information it has about the Iguala case and its context (…) to more than four and a half years after the events.”

The second reason for concern, they said, is that it confirmed that SEDENA practices the infiltration of the Ayotzinapa School, which “does not delegitimize in any way the requirement of the relatives of Julio Cesar to know the whereabouts of their son.”

Finally, they stressed that this new material “confirms the urgent need for a thorough investigation into the role of the Armed Forces in this new phase” and that they provide “all information in their possession that is relevant to the full clarification of the whereabouts of the 43 students, as ordered in the presidential decree that instructed to establish effective material, legal and human conditions, to strengthen the human rights of the relatives of the victims of the Ayotzinapa case to the truth and access to justice, signed, among other authorities, by the President of the Republic, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of National Defense and the Secretary of the Navy.”

For more information in Spanish:

CNDH a ONU: “obstáculos y negativas” en caso Iguala (Milenio, 14 de marzo de 2019.)

Proceso y la historia del normalista-soldado infiltrado en Ayotzinapa (Proceso, 14 de marzo de 2019)

CNDH presenta recomendación por violaciones graves en caso Ayotzinapa (Excelsior, 13 de marzo de 2019.)

Normalista de Ayotzinapa desaparecido era infiltrado de la Sedena (VIDEO) (Radio Formula, 13 de marzo de 2019)

Un normalista de Ayotzinapa era militar e informante del Ejército: reporte (ADN Politico, 13 de marzo de 2019.)

Señalan necesidad de esclarecer papel del Ejército en caso Ayotzinapa SIDIDH, 13 de marzo de 2019.)

Abren, formalmente, nueva etapa de investigación por caso Ayotzinapa (La Jornada, 11 de marzo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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)

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

 

Guerrero: Urgent Action “No Dam, No Prisoners”, Demands Release of 16 Indigenous CECOP Members

On March 8th, more than 2,000 people had already demanded “the immediate release of the 16 indigenous members of the Council of Ejidos and Opposition Communities to the Presa la Parota (CECOP), whose crime was to defend their lands and natural assets against the La Parota Dam”, through the Avaaz petition website. This is due to the multiple violations of due process, torture and the arbitrary and illegal circumstances of the arrests, which “demonstrate that there are political and economic interests against the communities that oppose the dam.” They also requested that harassment and arbitrary arrests of the inhabitants of the community of Cacahuatepec, municipality of Acapulco, stop.

In the same case, on March 5th, members of CECOP, the Movement for the Freedom of Political Prisoners of the State of Guerrero (MOLPPEG in its Spanish acronym) and the Montaña Tlachinollan Center for Human Rights held a meeting with the Governor of Guerrero, Hector Astudillo Flores, to follow up on the tables established to review the cases of these same prisoners, as well as to demand the cessation of harassment against the members of CECOP. The MOLPPEG reported that, “it filed a complaint with the State Human Rights Commission (CODDEHUM in its Spanish acronym), to intervene and no longer continue to pressurize the comrades of the communal property of Cacahuatepec, in the municipality of Acapulco, as well as the Zapata Vive collective.” He explained that the State and Ministerial police have been raiding computers to identify comrades who have an arrest warrant.

For his part, the Tlachinollan lawyer, Vidulfo Rosales Sierra, reported that through this meeting he was following up a dialogue path begun in December, with a view to solving the problem of political prisoners in the state, mainly those of CECOP. He stated that the government authorities have said that it will be resolved according to law and that the legal route will be that which is privileged.

A day earlier, Tlachinollan listed 8 reasons why it considers that the 16 CECOP prisoners should be granted freedom:

“• They were arbitrarily detained on January 7th, 2018 in a violent operation where the police murdered three CECOP campesinos.

• On the way to the Prosecutor’s Office they were tortured and given cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment to force them to plead guilty. • During their detention, they were held incommunicado for more than 48 hours, preventing their relatives and lawyers from being interviewed.
• During their solitary confinement, the Public Ministry obtained evidence in an unlawful manner to indict them for homicide.
• The weapons allegedly obtained by the police were obtained from illegal searches carried out at the houses of the CECOP community members.
• The CECOP detainees were not at the scene when the confrontation took place between those who were killed on both sides. They were arrested in the place when they went to the Sunday Assembly of the CECOP.
• There is an onslaught to dismantle the CECOP and the resistance against the La Parota hydroelectric project.
• Gravel workers who irrationally exploit the gravel and sand of the Papagayo River have organized the villagers to confront CECOP.

For more information in Spanish:

Acción Urgente en línea “Ni presa ni presos” (marzo de 2019)

Se reúne ONG con Héctor Astudillo para pedir la libertad de 16 miembros del Cecop (La Jornada de Guerrero, 6 de marzo de 2019)

Denuncian en Guerrero acoso de policías contra opositores a La Parota (LA Jornada, 5 de marzo de 2019)

Se reúne Astudillo con Tlachinollan, Cecop y Molppeg (Quadratin, 5 de marzo de 2019)
8 Razones para la libertad de los presos políticos del CECOP (Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan, 4 de marzo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Liberan bajo fianza a dos integrantes de la CECOP (28 de febrero de 2019)

Guerrero/Internacional : Europarlamentarios y organizaciones internacionales expresan su preocupación por criminalización de integrantes de CECOP; marchan en Acapulco a favor de la liberación de sus presos (7 de febrero de 2019)

Guerrero : Siguen exigiendo la libertad de 19 presos detenidos por oponerse a la construcción de la Presa La Parota (1ero de febrero de 2019)

Guerrero: Piden la liberación de 19 presos políticos (10 de enero de 2019)

Guerrero: organizaciones nacionales e internacionales visitan a presos del CECOP y la CRAC-PC (6 de octubre de 2018)

Guerrero: 50 órdenes de aprehensión contra comuneros del CECOP (17 de septiembre de 2018)

Guerrero: Gonzalo Molina, Tixtla CRAC PC, Released

@Desinformemonos

On February 28th, after five years, three months and 22 days in prison, the promoter of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities-Community Police (CRAC-PC in its Spanish acronym) of Tixtla, Gonzalo Molina Gonzalez, was released.

He had been detained on November 6th, 2013, when he was protesting against the arrest of Nestora Salgado, today senator for MORENA and at that time commander of the CRAC-PC in the municipality of Olinala. He was accused of deprivation of liberty, robbery and terrorism with a total of ten criminal charges against him. Since his arrest, he was in Miahuitlan jail, Oaxaca; in the maximum security prison of the Altiplano, in the state of Mexico, and finally in the Social Readaptation Center of Chilpancingo, Guerrero.

“I showed that I am innocent, that there is no crime to investigate, that CRAC is within the legal framework and we will continue to work because that is what 701 law permits”, he said.

“The indigenous peoples, who for more than 500 years have resisted looting and discrimination, have to organize ourselves. Megaprojects of death are promoted, and we will not allow that, because our peoples have a different worldview than the capitalist system”, he added.

For more information in Spanish:

Liberan a Gonzalo Molina, líder de la Policía Comunitaria en Tixtla (La Jornada, 1ero de marzo de 2019)

Guerrero: Dictan auto de libertad a Gonzalo Molina, preso político de la CRAC-PC (Desinformémonos, 28 de febrero de 2019)

Liberan al promotor de la CRAC-PC Gonzalo Molina tras casi 6 años (Quadratin Guerrero, 28 de febrero de 2019)
Gonzalo Molina, preso hace 5 años por supuesto terrorismo, queda libre en Guerrero (Sin Embargo, 28 de febrero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: 19 aniversario de la CRAC-Policía Comunitaria (11 de noviembre de 2014)

Guerrero: demand for release of political prisoners in observance of the eleventh anniversary of CECOP (September 2nd, 2014)

Guerrero: Police operation provokes confrontations and new arrest of member of CRAC-PC in Tixtla (March 30th, 2014)

Guerrero: Ministerial Police detain Gonzalo Molina, CRAC promoter, in Tixtla (November 14th, 2013)

 

National: Senate Will Not Approve National Guard Bill. Morena and #SeguridadSinGuerra Propose Alternatives

The discussion of the bill to create the National Guard approved by the Chamber of Deputies last January will not be endorsed in its current terms by the Senate of the Republic. The discussion will take place in an open parliament in which specialists and civil organizations will be invited, the Senate announced.

Before this decision, the United Nations (UN) had sent a letter to the senators, through which it expressed its serious concern about the constitutional reform project that “constitutionalizes and makes permanent the military presence in security tasks, giving continuity to a policy that has generated more violence and increased the commission of serious human rights violations (…) All this, in a context of fragile controls, ineffective mechanisms of accountability and alarming impunity.”

Morena already announced that it will distribute a project with various modifications to the legislators, while the more than 300 organizations and people grouped in the collective #SeguridadSinGuerra also presented an alternative reform proposal that eliminates the military component in its operation as well as in its conformation, and in which the National Guard would be a “police institution of character and civil direction” attached to the Secretariat of Public Safety, which acts with respect to human rights and with a gender perspective.

“The political discussion has been marked by the simulation and distortion between what is in the Minute and public discourse. Morena’s proposal plays with words again and again because they tell us that it is civil when it is actually military, and they tell us that it will be temporary when in reality it will be permanent (…) and when civil society has complained it accuses us of not having alternative proposals. That is why today we present this opinion,” said Denise Dresser, a member of the collective.

SeguridadSinGuerra celebrated the decision of the Senate to open the debate for the creation of the National Guard, through the open parliament format: “We understand the problem of insecurity and violence that the country is experiencing, but we are convinced that the use of the Armed Forces in security tasks must be exceptional, temporary, auditable and based on conventionality criteria, (…) We urge all senators, and especially the majority group, to discuss and work this issue in an open parliament exercise (…) If the war on drugs is over, its causes and effects can not be constitutionalized. We must build peace, with proof and democratic responsibility.”

For more information in Spanish:

En el Senado, Morena hará cambios a minuta sobre la Guardia Nacional (La Jornada, 8 de febrero de 2019)

#SeguridadSinGuerra pide a senadores tomar en serio su propuesta de una “Guardia Nacional Civil” (Proceso, 7 de febrero de 2019)

Senado no avalará dictamen de Guardia aprobado por diputados; Morena y ONG presentan nuevas propuestas (Animal Político, 7 de febrero de 2019)

PROPONEMOS UNA GUARDIA NACIONAL CIVIL (Boletín de prensa Seguridad sin Guerra, 7 de febrero de 2019)

Propuesta de dictamen a la minuta (Seguridad sin Guerra, 7 de febrero)

La ONU rechaza la Guardia Nacional y pide a legisladores reconsiderarla (Animal Político, 6 de febrero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional: Aprueban diputados Guardia Nacional. Siguen los cuestionamientos incluso de parte del Ejecutivo (19 de enero de 2019)

Nacional:

Inician audiencias públicas para debatir la creación de la

Guardia Nacional
(9 de enero de 2019)

Nacional/Internacional:

ONU-DH pide al Congreso que guardia nacional se plantee con mando

civil y por un máximo de 5 años

(15 de diciembre de 2018)

Nacional: Ante rechazo al anuncio de Guardia Nacional, AMLO propone nueva consulta (23 de noviembre de 2018)

Nacional: La Suprema Corte invalida Ley de Seguridad; AMLO anuncia Plan Nacional de Paz y Seguridad 2018-2024 (16 de noviembre de 2018)

Chiapas: Arrest Warrant for Ex-Mayor of Arriaga as Possible Intellectual Author of Murder of Defender Sinar Corzo

On February 7th, a judge ordered the arrest of David Parada Vazquez, now ex-mayor of Arraiga, as the suspected intellectual author of the murder of the human rights defender Sinar Corzo Esquinca on January 3rd.

“The investigations make it possible to establish the existence of the act that the law indicates as a crime of homicide and the likelihood of the intellectual authorship of the former Arriaga mayor,” the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE in its Spanish acronym) reported. For the same reason it had informed “in time and form to the Honorable Congress of the State that an investigation for homicide is instructed for the aforementioned mayor, for which the commissions of the Interior and Constitutional Points, Justice and Surveillance of the State Congress determined that the request for Declaration of provenance against David Parada Vazquez, presented by the FGE, complies with the requirements established in the Law,” an assessment that led to his dismissal on February 7th.

So far, four arrest warrants have been issued for the murder of Corzo Esquinca against Rogelio “N” and/or Artemio “N”, Fernando “N”, Julio Cesar “N” and Apolinar “N”, the last being the father-in-law of Parada Vazquez, who since the beginning of last October was mayor of Arriaga, for the Chiapas Unido party.

The FGE stated that “now, the former municipal president should be brought before the courts and respond for the behavior that is reproached, with the certainty that both the arrest warrant and the process of declaration of origin have been the result of legality in the investigations and that David Parada Vazquez can not allege violations of fundamental rights because the Prosecutor has always attended to the rules of due process.”

Corzo Esquinca was part of the Coloso de Piedra Citizen Committee for the Defense of Human Rights. Hours before his death, he had met with Arriaga municipal authorities to discuss issues related to the construction of La Linea highway and the improvement of fishing communities.

For more information in Spanish:

Giran orden de aprehensión contra alcalde de Arriaga, Chiapas, por homicidio de Sinar Corzo (Aristegui Noticias, 7 de enero de 2019)

Giran orden de detención contra ex alcalde por asesinato de Sinar Corzo (La Jornada, 7 de enero de 2019)

Congreso de Chiapas avala desafuero de alcalde presuntamente implicado en asesinato del activista Sinar Corzo (Animal Político, 7 de enero de 2019)

Tras desafuero, ordenan captura del alcalde de Arriaga por asesinato de Sinar Corzo (SDP Noticias, 7 de enero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Detienen a tres presuntos responsables del asesinato del defensor Sinar Corzo Esquinca, incluyendo suegro del alcalde de Arriaga (18 de enero de 2019)

Chiapas: Movilizaciones para exigir justicia en el caso del asesinato defensor de derechos humanos Sinar Corzo. Todas las líneas de investigación siguen abiertas afirma fiscal.

(15 de enero de 2019)

Chiapas: Asesinan al defensor de derechos humanos Sinar Corzo Esquinca (4 de enero de 2019)

Chiapas: denuncian criminalización de defensores medioambientales en San Cristóbal de Las Casas (28 de diciembre de 2018)

Nacional : 161 defensores y 40 periodistas asesinados en el sexenio que termina, Red TdT (30 de noviembre de 2018).