National/International: Centro Pro DH Urges Foreign Ministry to Accept UN Committee on Forced Disappearance

In a statement published on March 19th, the Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center (Centro Pro DH in its Spanish acronym) reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE in its Spanish acronym) filed an appeal for review of an injunction ruling in favor of Maria Herrera Magdaleno and Juan Carlos Trujillo Herrera, mother and brother of the disappeared Raul, Salvador, Luis Armando and Gustavo Trujillo Herrera (in 2008 and 2010), the woman who called on the Foreign Ministry to decide on the acceptance of the expansion of the competence of the Committee against Enforced Disappearances of United Nations (CED) in individual cases in a period of 60 calendar days. She declared that this decision would allow “thousands of relatives of victims of disappearance to raise their cases with this international body.”

She said that the Foreign Ministry appealed the sentence stating that “it invades the sphere of competence of the Executive Power and that establishes a right that in its opinion does not exist: access to International Justice, in addition to granting a very short period to conclude the term of acknowledgment of competence of the CED Committee to hear about individual cases.”

The Centro Pro DH considered that this decision “represents a missed opportunity for the government of Mexico to recognize the competence of the CED Committee and to continue to demonstrate its commitment to human rights and international scrutiny.” It filed a motion for review again urging the Foreign Ministry to recognize this competence to hear individual cases in Mexico, “in line with the recognition that this administration has made on the grave humanitarian crisis the country is experiencing.”

It should be recalled that just on March 14th, the Mexican State accepted 262 of the 264 recommendations made in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), also from the UN. 25 of them are related to the problem of forced disappearances, and one of them being the admission of the competence of the CED Committee to analyze individual cases.

For more information in Spanish:

Poder Judicial resolverá sobre competencia del Comité contra Desapariciones Forzadas de ONU (Comunicado de prensa del Centro de Derechos Humanos Agustín Pro DH, 19 de marzo de 20199

Prodh pide a la SRE aceptar competencia de comité de la ONU ante crisis de desapariciones (Proceso, 19 de marzo de 2019)

Cancillería se niega a reconocer competencia de casos de desaparición forzada ante la ONU (Heraldo de México, 19 de marzo de 2019)

Piden a SRE aceptar competencia de ONU sobre desapariciones en México (Aristegui Noticias, 19 de marzo de 2019)

La SRE no admite la competencia de Naciones Unidas en desapariciones (La Jornada, 20 de marzo de 2019)

Para más información de SIPAZ: 

National/International: Mexico Accepts 262 of 264 UN Recommendations from 2018 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) (March 21, 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 22, 2019)

International/National: Mexico’s 2018 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) (November 14, 2018)

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National/International: Mexico Accepts 262 of 264 UN Recommendations from 2018 Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

On March 14th, the Mexican State accepted 262 of the 264 recommendations issued by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council last November, in the context of the third Universal Periodic Review (UPR). It should be remembered that during these examinations, the situation of human rights in the assessed country is analyzed and each State makes a series of recommendations that are added to a final report.

The Mexican State took note of the recommendation proposed by the Vatican in the sense of “respecting and defending life from conception to natural death” on the grounds that it would be unconstitutional to accept it due to several resolutions of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation that guarantee the legal interruption of pregnancy for several reasons, for example in case of rape.

The second recommendation that Mexico did not admit was the ratification of the Kampala measures to the Statute of Rome, to attain a caregorization of the crime of aggression so that it can be made known to the International Criminal Court (ICC), requesting more time to make that decision.

Cristopher Ballinas, general director of Human Rights and Democracy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs -which led the Mexican delegation- reported that the Mexican government would create a platform to process the more than 2,800 international recommendations that the country has received since 1994, which he proposes to do in collaboration with civil society organizations. He expressed that the decisions were taken to “maintain a policy of openness to scrutiny and collaboration with international organizations in the field of human rights, in parallel with the defense and enforcement at the national level.” He acknowledged that “the Mexican government is aware of the challenges that prevail in the country and is determined to take the necessary measures to guarantee the rule of law, based on a model that promotes the prevention of violence and the strengthening of institutions, the protection of human rights defenders and journalists, as well as the elimination of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

For their part, representatives of Mexican civil society at the event reiterated several concerns after the first 100 days of government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. On behalf of the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Protection of Human Rights, the defender Tita Radilla, daughter of Rosendo Radilla, victim of enforced disappearance in 1974, and actor Luis Gerardo Mendez, warned of the fact that “we are concerned that after only 100 days of management, 14 human rights defenders and journalists have been killed”, among other issues. They also expressed their concern about “the attempts of the president (Lopez Obrador) to discredit the work of civil society organizations, many of whom accompany victims of human rights violations and whose work is at risk in a hostile environment in their defense.” Gerardo Mendez also called for “the government of Mexico to undertake an adequate and effective communication and follow-up mechanism with civil society organizations, with human rights defenders and with victims, in order to fully comply with the recommendations made today and accepted by the government of Mexico.”

In turn, the president of the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH in its Spanish acronym) Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez, urged the government of Lopez Obrador to ensure that the National Guard is led by a civilian command and that the Army withdraws from the streets in five years: “Security requires a comprehensive approach, not just reactive measures based on the use of force.” He stressed that “in the three cycles of the UPR, the issue of justice, security and the rule of law have led to multiple recommendations to Mexico and are currently cause for concern.” He also called on the government to “build bridges with the academy, with civil society, with autonomous agencies, with international organizations and something fundamental, that the victims are heard.”

For more information in Spanish:

Proteger a periodistas y activistas; frenar desapariciones y erradicar feminicidios, compromisos de gobierno de AMLO ante la ONU (Aristegui Noticias, 15 de marzo de 2019)

México admite 262 de 264 recomendaciones de ONU (La Jornada, 15 de marzo de 2019)

OSC reprueban gestión de AMLO en materia de derechos humanos ante la ONU (Proceso, 14 de marzo de 2019)

México: El EPU debe utilizarse para abordar retos fundamentales en materia de derechos humanos (Amnistía Internacional, 14 de marzo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

International/National: Mexico’s 2018 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) (November 14, 2018)

2018: México será examinado por el Consejo de Derechos Humanos de la ONU en el tercer ciclo del Examen Periódico Universal (EPU) (April 4, 2018)

National: 176 recommendations for Mexico during the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) (November 13, 2013)

Nacional: informe de OSC sobre DH rumbo al segundo Examen Periódico Universal (EPU) en octubre (July 12, 2013)

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)

 

International: Trial Against German Company for Illegal Sale of Arms to Mexico Ends

@n-tv

On February 21st, the trial against the German arms company Heckler & Koch in Stuttgart, for the illegal sale of arms to Mexico ended with sentences for a former head of sales and a member of the administrative staff. Between 2006 and 2009, Heckler & Koch delivered thousands of weapons to Mexico, including 4,219 semi-automatic G-36 rifles, two submachine guns and 1,759 gun barrels that arrived in Jalisco, Chiapas, Chihuahua and Guerrero, states where the export of weapons is prohibited by German law. The company itself will have to return all the profits of these sales amounting to 3.7 million euros (approximately 4.2 million dollars). The two individuals mentioned were sentenced to probation for 22 and 17 months with a fine of 80 thousand euros and 250 hours of social work. Three other employees, two former export managers and a sales assistant manager, were acquitted. The culprits obtained the export permit fraudulently, using false information from the Mexican government regarding the destination of the weapons.

During the sessions not only were there accusations against the German company, but also against politicians and members of the Armed Forces of Mexico, including the director of the Direction of Commercialization of Armament and Ammunition (DCAM in its Spanish acronym), Guillermo Aguilar, who received 117 thousand pesos as an accomplice to the events.

Jürgen Grässlin, activist and initiator of the trial, said that in this way thousands of German weapons were made available to state forces designated as co-opted by organized crime and responsible for serious human rights violations. Human rights organizations stressed that even legally imported weapons will end up in the hands of drug trafficking groups. A serious case of human rights violations in which a link with Heckler & Koch’s weapons was established is that of the 43 missing students of the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa. It has been shown that these weapons were used in the violent events of September 27th, 2014.

Heckler & Koch reacted to the ruling with the promise of “fundamental changes to avoid unfortunate incidents in the future” such as a change in the internal compliance system and “to each potential distribution partner a rigorous compliance audit.” However, they criticized the ruling “that we should not only renounce the profits generated from the business in Mexico, but renounce the total sales price, despite the fact that none of the directors committed the offense.”

Also German pacifist organizations criticized the sentence for judging the company and its employees under the Law of Foreign Trade instead of the Law of Control of Weapons of War. The judges decided that the declaration to end use of arms is not part of the license to export arms, which is why the War Weapons Control Act cannot be applied. “If this ruling is maintained, the current controls on the export of weapons of war and military equipment do not work. You have to develop and introduce a new law to control the export of weapons that is effective”, said the German lawyer Holger Rothbauer. Other criticisms arose due to the absence of sentences against more influential employees. “This is a very clear case of two kinds of justice: the smallest are condemned and the biggest are let go,” said Jürgen Grässlin.

For more information in Spanish:

Multan a empresa alemana de armas usadas en caso de los 43 de Ayotzinapa (El Universal el 21 de febrero de 2019)

Juicio alemán por venta ilegal de armas a México concluye (El Universal el 21 de febrero de 2019)

Un tribunal alemán multa a Heckler & Koch por la exportación ilegal de armas a México (El País el 21 de febrero de 2019)

Condenas en Alemania por venta ilegal de armas a México (La Jornada el 21 de febrero de 2019)

Corte alemana condena a Heckler & Koch por exportar armas ilegalmente a México (Contra Linea el 21 de febrero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ :

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

Guerrero/National/International: New Reports on Ayotzinapa Case (March 27th, 2018)

International/National: CSOs Warn European Union about Human Rights Crisis in Mexico with Modernizing of Global Agreement (June 11th, 2017)

National/Guerrero: “No more arms sales to Mexico” – German Government (March 8th, 2015)

 

Guerrero: Disappearance of Obtilia Eugenio Manuel and Hilario Cornelio Castro Indigenous Activists and Members of OPIM Reported

Obtilia Eugenio Manuel @ E-Consulta

On February 12th, the leaders Obtilia Eugenio Manuel and Hilario Cornelio Castro, members of the Organization of Me’ Phaa Indigenous Peoples (OPIM in its Spanish acronym), were disappeared.

Activist Ericka Zamora Pardo posted on her Facebook page that they disappeared “at approximately 7:40 am on the Tierra Colorada road stretch – El Ocotito, Guerrero.” Obtilia Eugenio is a member of the Council of Community Authorities of Ayutla and has been receiving death threats for several years.

According to the newspaper Sin Embargo, Obtilia Eugenio denounced threats last November “against her and two members of the Municipal Council of Ayutla, of which she is a member of the Justice Commission.”

Since January 14th, 2005, the defender has precautionary measures by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), as a result of threats and harassment that she has suffered due to her role in the defense of the cases of Ines Fernandez Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantu. The measures were put in place for the first time in September 2007.

For more information in Spanish:

Solalinde denuncia desaparición de dos activistas; una defendió a indígenas abusadas por militares (El Proceso, 13 de febrero de 2019)

La amenazan a ella y a otros integrantes del Concejo Municipal de Ayutla: Obtilia Eugenio (Sur de Acapulco, 19 de noviembre de 2018)

El padre Solalinde denuncia el secuestro de dos activistas indígenas en carretera de Guerrero (Sin Embargo, 13 de febrero de 2019)

Respuesta de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos a la demanda interpuesta por la Comisión lnteramericana de Derechos Humanos y al escrito de solicitudes, argumentos y pruebas presentado por los peticionarios, respecto al Caso 12.580 Inés Fernández Ortega. (COidh, 13 de diciembre de 2009)

INFORME Nº 94/06 (Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, 21 de octubre de 2006)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Impunity prevails against human-rights defenders (December 18, 2013)

Guerrero: death-threats directed against Obtilia Eugenio Manuel, president of the OPIM (February 26, 2013)

Guerrero: Andrea Eugenio Manuel, indigenous activist and sister to Obtilia, is threatened with death (March 26, 2010)

Guerrero: New Threats against Obtilia Eugenio Manuel, President of the OPIM and Witness in the Inés Fernández Ortega vs. Mexico case (March 17, 2010)

 

 

 

National/Guerrero: Support Plan for Victims of the Dirty War

Photo @ EllosyNosotros

On February 11th, the Plan of Attention and Reparation for the Victims of Political Violence of the Dirty War was announced in the municipality of Atoyac de Alvarez in Guerrero.

The Executive Commission of Attention to Victims (CEAV in its Spanish acronym), relatives and survivors of victims of the “dirty war”, as well as the governor Hector Astudillo Flores, the president of the CEAV, Jaime Rochin del Rincon, presented the strategy of collective reparation that is intended to be implemented.

“The Care and Reparation Plan for the victims of past political violence in Guerrero seeks to give visibility to those who disappeared, give voice to those who were silenced and recover and reconstruct the social fabric of the communities”, according to information from Proceso.

According to the Economist, Jaime Rochin del Rincon, executive commissioner of the CEAV, acknowledged that, “actions such as forced disappearance, torture and arbitrary detention in Guerrero during the period of the Dirty War, followed a State policy of repression and extermination.”

The strategy emerged from the recommendation 26/2001 endorsed by the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH in its Spanisg acronym) addressed to the then president of the republic, Vicente Fox, and as well as the proposals included in the Special Report on the Disappearance of Persons and Clandestine Graves in Mexico of the CNDH, presented in 2017.

Through a statement, the CNDH announced that “in assessing the institutional progress represented by the Plan for Attention and Reparation for the Victims of the “Dirty War”, the CNDH established that the Mexican State has an outstanding debt with the victims of disappearance and their families, which will not be paid while the authorities of the three levels of government fail to comply with their basic and fundamental obligation to guarantee minimum conditions of security for peaceful coexistence between people and to put an end to the environment of violence, impunity and illegality that we face.”

For more information in Spanish:

Presentan en Guerrero plan de atención a víctimas de la guerra sucia (Aristegui Noticias, 11 de febrero de 2019)

La CEAV presenta Plan de Atención y Reparación a las Víctimas de la Violencia Política del Pasado (Proceso, 11 de febrero de 2019)

CNDH EL PLAN DE REPARACIÓN A VÍCTIMAS DE LA “GUERRA SUCIA”, QUE ATIENDE LAS PROPUESTAS DE LA RECOMENDACIÓN 26/2001 Y EL INFORME ESPECIAL SOBRE DESAPARICIÓN DE PERSONAS Y FOSAS CLANDESTINAS DE ESTE ORGANISMO NACIONAL (CNDH, 11 de febrero de 2019)

Recomendación 26/2001 (CNDH, 2001)

INFORME ESPECIAL SOBRE DESAPARICIÓN DE PERSONAS Y FOSAS CLANDESTINAS EN MÉXICO. (CNDH, 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: INAI Orders SENEDA to Submit Information on Generals Linked to “Dirty War” (June 26, 2018)

International/National: IACHR presents report regarding right to truth which includes the case of the “Dirty War” in Mexico (December 14, 2014)

The Peoples’ Permanent Tribunal condemns Mexican State for crimes against humanity (October 11, 2014)

Chiapas/International: Pueblo Sin Fronteras Reports Disappearance of Member

@Programa de Asuntos Migratorios de IBERO

On February 7th, 2019, the disappearance of Carlos David Cueva Ramirez, a member of Pueblos Sin Fronteras, was reported. He was last seen on February 4th or 5th, in Mapastepec, Chiapas. He had spent two weeks in this state where he accompanied the migrant caravans that entered the country between January and February.

It was also reported that two other members of Pueblo Sin Fronteras were detained by the federal police. Although there were rumors saying that Cueva Ramirez was also arrested, the National Institute of Migration and the Attorney General of the Republic have declared that they have no record of it. According to reports prior to his disappearance, he was harassed by workers of the INM (National Institute of Migration) and by the federal police in Tapachula. It is also worrying that the disappearance of Cueva Ramirez occurred after acts of xenophobic violence in Tecun Uman and Tapachula by the local population towards migrants.

Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an organization formed after 2000, denounced the “criminalization against migrants who assumed a leadership role in the accompaniment of migrants who arrived at the border of Mexico by the Suchiate, from mid-January of this year until today.”

For more information in Spanish:

Denuncia Pueblos Sin Fronteras desaparición de uno de sus integrantes (La Jornada, 7 de febrero de 2019)

Denuncian desaparición de activista David Cueva, en Chiapas (El Sol del Centro, 7 de febrero de 2019)

Denuncian desaparición de integrante de ONG en Chiapas (Informador, 7 de febrero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Internacional/México: Estalla la Violencia Xenófoba a migrantes en Tecún Umán 28 de enero de 2019.

Nacional/Internacional: más de 9 mil migrantes que entraron en caravanas siguen sin mucha posibilidad de cumplir con su sueño 7 de diciembre de 2018.

Nacional/Internacional: 164 países aprueban el Pacto Mundial para La Migración de Naciones Unidas 11 de diciembre de 2018.

Nacional/Internacional: Caravana Viacrucis Migrante 2018 llega a EUA 10 de mayo de 2018.