National: Activist Rosario Piedra Ibarra is elected new president of the CNDH

@Cuartopoder

On November 7, the Senate elected the new head of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). With 76 out of 114 votes cast in her favor, Rosario Piedra Ibarra, human rights activist and daughter of the founder of the Eureka! Committee, an organization of mothers and relatives of the disappeared, was elected as the new ombudsman, while candidates Arturo Peimbert Calvo and José de Jesús Orozco Henríquez received 24 and 8 votes respectively.

After the vote, members of the National Action Party (PAN) denounced that in reality 116 instead of 114 legislators voted and that there was fraud in the process. “We demand the annulment of the vote to elect the incumbent of the @CNDH. [. . . ] We cannot allow FRAUD to be done in the Senate of the Republic”, Martha Márquez of the PAN reported on Twitter. It should be noted that the only people empowered to count votes are the secretaries of the Board of Directors of the Chamber where the PAN is represented by one secretary.

PAN senators also criticized that Rosario Piedra Ibarra was a candidate for federal congresswoman for Morena: “Today Morena did not vote in favor of the Mexicans, they voted for a president of the @CNDH who will act under the command of the President”.

“I am never going to submit to a partisan idea that would be contrary to what is in my own conscience“, emphasized the new president of the CNDH before the accusations. She also stated that she wants to prevent the CNDH from becoming a instance of “simulation” with the promise of putting herself “in the shoes of the victims”.

On voting day she announced on her Twitter account: “A new period for human rights begins today. I heartily thank the people who place their trust in me and rest assured that I will work the same way I have for over 40 years. May this achievement be for all of us.”

For more information:

Rosario Piedra Ibarra en Twitter (November 7, 2019)

Rosario Piedra hace historia: Es la primera luchadora social que llega a la Presidencia de la CNDH (SinEmbargo November 7, 2019)

Oposición acusa fraude en elección de titular de CNDH; es un trámite concluido, dice Morena (Animal Político November 7, 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: CNDH Demands Clarification of Crimes against Journalists in Mexico – 90% Remain in Impunity (November 8, 2019)

National/International: UNO Presents Diagnostic of Protection Mechanism of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (September 2, 2019)

Oaxaca: Founder and Director of Community Radio Murdered. Tenth Journalist Murdered under AMLO Government (May 10, 2019)

 

Chiapas: 21 Mayors Leave Parties and Join MORENA

@NVI Noticias

On October 22nd, mayors from 21 municipalities in Chiapas announced that they renounced their militancy in the political parties that brought them to power to join the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s (AMLO) party, which also governs in the state.

In a press conference, they stated that, “today there is a different political vision from the traditional one, undertaken by the President of the Republic, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which seeks to raise the living standards of people with limited resources; the development of our municipalities and the entire country.” They also declared: “That vision is what attracts us; we perceive it in good faith, concerned with the development of the country, for the well-being of the people (…) we see it as important to strengthen it, prop it up, be part of its structure. Today more than ever, we have the real opportunity to represent citizens and their interests, because there is a true national will that looks down and thinks about them, that sensitizes and understands as never before, that governments are responsible for ensuring well-being, social peace, education, health, the fair distribution of wealth.”

They reported that there are four mayors who resigned from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI in its Spanish acronym), five from Chiapas Unido (from a local registry), three from the Ecological Green Party of Mexico, three from Nueva Allianza, two from the Democratic Revolution, two from Mover Chiapas (local registration) and two independents.

“We let our governor know that we are joining his battle and his daily struggle, in his way of working in favor of the most needy. We are working and have our work for the fourth transformation of the life of the country and the state of Chiapas,” they stressed.

With this announcement, MORENA will now have 45 of the 124 municipalities in Chiapas.

For more information in Spanish:

21 alcaldes de Chiapas renuncian al PRI, PVEM y PRD para sumarse a Morena (Proceso, 22 de octubre de 2019)

Renuncian 21 alcaldes de Chiapas a su partido y se integran a Morena (La Jornada, 22 de octubre de 2019)

Renuncian 21 alcaldes a su militancia para unirse a Morena en Chiapas (Heraldo de México, 22 de octubre de 2019)

En Chiapas, 21 alcaldes renuncian a sus partidos para integrarse a Morena (Vídeo, Milenio, 22 de octubre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Rutilio Escandón Cadenas toma posesión como nuevo gobernador en medio de protestas que derivan de la gestión anterior (10 de diciembre de 2018)

Chiapas: anulan otra elección de ayuntamiento (31 de agosto de 2018)

Chiapas: El Tribunal Electoral del Estado de Chiapas (TEECH) anula elecciones en varios municipios del estado (27 de agosto de 2018)

Chiapas: Impugnan Elecciones en 67 Municipios de Chiapas (16 de julio de 2018)

National: Historic Elections in Mexico – Historic Record of Political Violence (July 17, 2018)

Oaxaca: People Demand Payment of Social Programs During AMLO’s Tour of State

@EFE

On October 6th, during a speech before 2,506 students from Huajuapan High School, Oaxaca, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) faced protests from the public present while referring to advances in various social programs. The president explained that, “they are going to arrive, justice takes time but arrives.” He added that, “if an authority is not popular there they are questioning and questioning the authority! We no longer have to be that way, there has to be unity,” requesting “don’t get us wrong, respect each other, I say it affectionately. It is not the same as before.” In the course of his public appearance, interruptions followed. In the end, AMLO declared that “we have to quench that hunger and thirst for justice, but we have to do it in an orderly manner, with a strategy, that this is what I ask, that you have patience with me and that there is understanding because first we are seeing to things generally, which includes and benefits more people.” Referring to promises of his campaign, he pointed out that, “we are going to root out corruption, it’s not just talk” and that “the Fourth Transformation is neither rhetoric nor demagogy.” In Huajuapan, 74 university-level students receive scholarships of 2,400 pesos per month and 176 young people, who neither work nor study, collaborate in workshops, receiving 3,600 pesos per month.

Before coming to Huajuapan, AMLO visited the community of the Santiago Juxtlahuaca Rural Hospital, also in Oaxaca. It is part of a tour of the 80 hospitals of IMSS Welfare throughout the country. During his visit he was accompanied by Zoe Robledo, the general director of the IMSS, and the Oaxaca governor, Alejandro Murat. There he announced his next visits: “Finishing the health tour, I will start a tour to talk to all the native peoples of Mexico, all cultures. For once, I won’t be going around with secrets, my heart is not a cellar, I always say what I think, if an agreement is reached between all the expressions of the Triqui culture, I start the tour in San Juan Copala (in Oaxaca). If there is an agreement, there we will sign a peace agreement that will be historic.” In addition, he called on people “to unite, no hatred, no resentment, and forgive … we have to forgive and embrace and love and be fraternal, become more and more human.”

For more information in Spanish:

Basta de ‘politiquerías’, pide AMLO en hospitales rurales de Oaxaca (La Jornada el 6 de octubre de 2019)

“¡No llegan!”: Reclaman a AMLO becas de Bienestar en Oaxaca (El Imparcial el 6 de octubre de 2019)

“Vayan respetándonos”, dice AMLO a pobladores de Oaxaca que lo cuestionaron por retraso en becas (Sin Embargo el 6 de octubre de 2019)

La 4T no es retórica, dice AMLO en Oaxaca (Noticias en la mira el 6 de octubre de 2019)

En Oaxaca, AMLO anuncia gira visitar a los pueblos indígenas (Expansión Política el 6 de octubre de 2019)

“No nos vamos a divorciar del pueblo”, afirma AMLO desde Oaxaca (El Heraldo el 6 de octubre de 2019)

Reclaman a AMLO falta de becas Bienestar en Oaxaca (Informador el 6 octubre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: AMLO Presents His First Government Report (September 10, 2019)

Oaxaca: de gira en el estado, AMLO declara que las comunidades indígenas avalan la realización del corredor transístmico (May 4, 2019)

Nacional: AMLO cumplió 100 días en el poder; revisa avances en compromisos (March 12, 2019)

Oaxaca/National: Federal Government Presents National Program for Indigenous Peoples (January 14, 2019)

 

National: Murder Rate Rises in Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s First Semester

@npr

In June, the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP in its Spanish acronym) published data that show that in the first semester of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s administration (December 1st, 2018 to May 31st, 2019) 17,500 people were killed in the country (of which 17,011 correspond to cases of intentional homicide and 489 to femicides). The murder rate during the first semesters of Vicente Fox, Calderon and Peña Nieto, were 7.12, 4.89 and 8.01 per one hundred thousand inhabitants; while during the first six months of this government, there were 11.51 cases of homicide per hundred thousand inhabitants in the country.

Although there was a slight decrease in April, in May there were 2,903 victims of intentional homicide and 76 of femicide, totaling 2,979 people murdered. It is equivalent to an average of 96 cases per day and represents the highest monthly total of victims so far in the term of office. The states with the greatest increase in crime are Nuevo Leon, which increased 72%; Tabasco, with a growth of 50.7%; Mexico City with 43.2%; Sonora and Morelos, with increases of 43.1%.

 

For more information in Spanish:

Con AMLO y Sheinbaum se vive el primer semestre de sexenio más sangriento de la historia (La Otra opinión, 24 de junio de 2019)

Mayo, el mes más violento (El Siglo de Durango, 22 de junio de 2019)

El primer semestre rojo (El Heraldo de México, 22 de junio de 2019)

Con 17,500 asesinatos, el primer semestre de AMLO es el más violento de los últimos sexenios (Animal Político, 21 de junio de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/International: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Visits Mexico (April 11, 2019)

National/International: Mexico Ranked 99th of 126 in Rule of Law Index – World Justice Project (March 12, 2019)

Chiapas: Already Five Femicides in January (February 1, 2019)

National: Chamber of Deputies Approves Ruling on Revocation of Mandate and Consultations

(@Quadratín)

On March 14th, the Chamber of Deputies endorsed a ruling by which the President of the Republic may be subject to revocation of mandate in addition to raising various constitutional amendments to regulate citizens’ consultations, with 328 votes in favor, 153 against and two abstentions

For the revocation of the mandate, it is proposed that it will be convened by the Congress of the Union at the request of the president and must have the endorsement of 33% of the members of the chambers.

To call for it, it will be necessary to gather at least 3% of the nominal list, that at least 40% of the voter register concurs and that is called in the intermediate elections (the day on which federal deputies are elected in the next electoral period).

In the case of the consultation processes, the document states that 1% of the electoral roll will be needed to request it and that it be binding, its results will be necessary to summon 33% of the nominal list. Likewise, it establishes that which cannot be the object of citizen consultation: the limitation of human rights, as well as the bases, tax rates and the budget of expenditures of the federation.

The National Electoral Institute (INE in its Spanish acronym) will be responsible for the organization and development of the voting while the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation will issue the declaration of official validity.

The approval of the ruling occurred in the middle of an exchange of signs and banners with the slogan “Effective suffrage, no reelection” on the side of the opposition versus “Revocation of mandate, prerogative of citizens, not of governors” on the part of the MORENA followers (the party of President Lopez Obrador). In the arguments of those who opposed, there is the risk that such a reform will allow reelection, the questioning of the fact that they occur in the intermediate elections (they consider that the intervention of the President of the Republic in them is “a tactical political resource to pull the vote towards the candidates of his party to positions of popular election”) and when indicating that “a badly designed mechanism of direct democracy can generate ungovernability.”

For more information in Spanish:

Tras acalorado debate, aprueban revocación de mandato y consulta (Aristegui Noticias, 14 de marzo de 2019)

Diputados aprueban dictamen sobre revocación de mandato y consultas (Proceso, 14 de marzo de 2019)

Revocación de mandato (Proceso, 15 de marzo de 2019)

AMLO dice que firmará el compromiso de no reelegirse como presidente de México (CNN, 15 de marzo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador New President Elect in Mexico (July 17, 2018)

National: Several Organizations Express Concern over Freedom of Expression in Mexico

(@Reporters without Borders)

On March 12th, in Mexico City, Christophe Deloire, Secretary General of the organization Reporters Without Borders (RWB) held a meeting with the Assistant Secretary for Human Rights, Alejandro Encinas, and reported that he had gone to the International Criminal Court (ICC) ask it to intervene in Mexico given the murders of 102 journalists and the forced disappearance of 14 others that occurred between 2012 and 2018 in the country. In the text presented, it is argued why they should be classified as crimes against humanity, as stipulated in Article 7 of the Statute of Rome, which establishes the jurisdiction of the ICC.

Deloire told Encinas of the great concern of his organization because in Mexico there continue to be numerous murders and acts of violence against reporters, being one of the most dangerous in the world for the press; it is ranked 147 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Ranking. In the first months of the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), three journalists have been murdered. In a subsequent press conference, he affirmed that “the mandate of President Andres Lopez Obrador must be marked by profound reforms in order to advance in the fight against impunity in which the murders and disappearances of journalists remain, as well as to improve the effectiveness of the protection mechanism for journalists, even in the states of the country where the situation is most difficult, so that journalists can work freely and disseminate all the information that is useful to Mexicans, for the country.”

For its part, the organization for freedom of expression Articulo 19 has expressed its concern over the fact that the new government has not pronounced on improvements in protection policies for journalists or presented clear actions to ensure that crimes committed against the press are investigated and punished: “The violence against the press did not end on July 1st nor in fact did it end on December 1st”, said Ana Cristina Ruselas, regional director of Articlulo 19. She also stated that “it is important and very necessary that the new government refuses to stigmatize the press, in a context like ours, the statements of the President of the Republic against the press only revive the violence and give guidelines to different individuals and different perpetuators to go against the press (…) The highest officials, including the President of the Republic, must expressly acknowledge the importance of the journalists, an express sanction to any type of aggression and a consequent fact that has to do with other State institutions of an investigation and sanction of this type of aggressions.”

Articulo 19 has documented that by using stigmatizing statements such as “conservative” [fifí] press and bribed journalists, AMLO might “legitimize and encourage attacks against journalists in the digital, in the physical physical and affect the plurality of public debate. This increases the level of vulnerability and risk faced by journalists in the most dangerous country to exercise freedom of expression in the Americas.” He demanded the head of state “unequivocally recognize the importance of a free press in democracy.”

In a similar vein, a study by Signa Lab of the Technological Institute of Higher Studies of the West (ITESO in its Spanish acronym) revealed that in recent months a trend in users related to the president in the social network Twitter emerged, whereby they carry out attacks against journalists and media critical to his mandate. The document “Democracy, freedom of expression and the digital sphere. Analysis of topologies on Twitter: the case # RedAMLOve” recommended “that there should be an official statement from the Presidency or from the Office of Social Communication of the same, to clarify what the position of the government against these online non-organic strategies is”. Signa Lab said that these actions “may result in critical voices, necessary in a democracy, retreating given the virulence of the attacks.”

When questioned about this study, the president denied that there is a group organized by the government to defend him from those who question or criticize him. He assured that the media will not be disrespected, freedom of expression will not be curtailed, “but we will exercise our right of reply.”

For more information in Spanish:

Reporteros Sin Fronteras denuncia ante la CPI crímenes contra periodistas en México (CNN México, 13 de marzo de 2019)

Dichos de AMLO incentivan ataques a la prensa, dice Artículo 19; Obrador niega bots a favor suyo (Vanguardia, 13 de marzo de 2019)

Impunidad de los crímenes contra periodistas en México: RSF anuncia su comunicación oficial a la Corte Penal Internacional (Reporteros sin fronteras, 12 de marzo de 2019)

En los primeros cien días de gobierno se ha intensificado la intolerancia a la crítica y al discurso disidente (Artículo 19, 12 de marzo de 2019)

Con AMLO van ya 3 periodistas asesinados y las acciones para protegerlos no aparecen: Art.19 (Sin Embargo, 9 de marzo de 2019)

DEMOCRACIA, LIBERTAD DE EXPRESIÓN Y ESFERA DIGITALANÁLISIS DE TENDENCIAS Y TOPOLOGÍAS EN TWITTEREL CASO DE LA #REDAMLOVE (Signa_Lab, ITESO, 28 de febrero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

International/National/Guerrero/Chiapas: More Attacks on Journalists; Articulo 19 and European Parliament Launch “By the Hand” Initiative to Protect Journalists at Risk (February 14, 2019)

National/International: UNHCHR Condemns Murders of Defenders and Journalists in Chiapas and Baja California and Questions Efficacy of Government Protection Mechanism (January 31, 2019)

Chiapas: Two Members of Movement for Welfare, Peace and Common Good of Amatan and Independent Revolutionary Campesino Movement Murdered (January 28, 2019)

National: Journalist Rafael Murua Murdered (January 28, 2019)

National: 161 Defenders and 40 Journalists Murdered in Last Presidential Term of Office (December 14, 2018)

 

National: Third Assembly of National Indigenous Congress and Indigenous Council of Government (CNI-CIG) in Mexico City

On the first weekend of March, the third assembly of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym) and the Indigenous Council of Government (CIG in its Spanish acronym) took place in Mexico City, with 288 participants among delegates, councilors and guests from various towns in Campeche, Mexico City, Chihuahua, Chiapas, Guerrero, Jalisco, Morelos, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Puebla, Quintana Roo, Sonora, Tabasco and Yucatan.

In the final pronouncement, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN in its Spanish acronym), the CNI and the CIG considered that the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is nothing more than the “continuity” of the neoliberal governments that have held power since Miguel de la Madrid. They even stated that the current government “deepens neoliberalism”, even “with more brutality and cynicism if possible.”

They also denounced that “the neoliberal government led by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has its sights set on our towns and territories, where, with the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples, a network of co-optation and disorganization is laid, opening the way to a war that has an industrial name, made up of projects and violence, which, together with the other wars and war networks, spread a dark web of death in the original peoples of the country.”

They said that, with their “simulated consultations”, the new government only intends to impose megaprojects throughout the country. They made it clear that “our people, in exercise of their fundamental rights of autonomy and territory say NO to policies and megaprojects of dispossession, death and destruction, as well as to the consultations organized by bad governments to obtain the consent of our peoples to said policies and said megaprojects.” They said that, “in the exercise of our territorial rights and autonomy, we say that these megaprojects will be faced with the will of our peoples.”

They affirmed that the supposed transformations are taking place “in function of the interests of the oligarchies and those that have the power, which are increasingly smaller and bigger, that do not cease to live off the oppression, exploitation, and destruction of the same ones as always.” Instead, they stressed that “for the indigenous peoples the only ‘true change’ is the increase in lies, deceit, persecution, threats, imprisonment, dispossession, assassinations, ridicule and contempt, human exploitation and the destruction of nature; in sum: the annihilation of the collective life that we are.”

Among other more specific denunciations, they condemned the murder of Samir Flores in Morelos who was fighting against the Huexca thermoelectric plant: “Samir was killed by the neoliberal regime; we do not know if the government, if the entrepreneurs, if their criminal cartels, or, if the three together. The offers made by AMLO, not to those below, but to the owners of money and power, the veiled threats against those who defend life, laid the foundations of the murderous assassination.”

They finally expressed that “below, in all the geographies that the original peoples are, we continue to sow autonomy, we build and deploy power from below in what are also networks of networks, but of resistance and rebellion, which are also the mirrors not only of the peoples that we are the CNI – CIG and the EZLN, but many others that sow the hope and of which this is our mirror, our third national assembly.”

For more information in Spanish:

La Cuarta Transformación es más brutal que los anteriores gobiernos: EZLN (Radio Formula, 8 de marzo de 2019)

El gobierno de AMLO “profundiza” el neoliberalismo, acusan el EZLN y el CNI (Proceso, 7 de marzo de 2019)

Megaproyectos se toparán con voluntad de pueblos: EZLN y Congreso Nacional Indígena (El Universal, 7 de marzo de 2019)

¡SAMIR VIVE, LA LUCHA SIGUE! PRONUNCIAMIENTO DE LA TERCERA ASAMBLEA NACIONAL DEL CONGRESO NACIONAL INDÍGENA, EL CONCEJO INDÍGENA DE GOBIERNO Y EL EZLN (Comunicado CNI y EZLN, 6 de marzo de 2019)

El Congreso Nacional Indígena: balances y desafíos (La Jornada, 5 de marzo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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

Oaxaca : CODEDI denuncia hostigamiento militar ; CNI exige que cese la represión en su contra (1 de noviembre de 2018)

Chiapas: Second Assembly of National Indigenous Congress (CNI) (October 22nd, 2018)

Chiapas/Mexico: Invitation to the Second National Assembly of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and the Indigenous Governing Council (CIG) (September 18th, 2018)