Chiapas: IEPC Approves Regulations to Deal with Indigenous Consultations in Electoral Matters

Photo @ Bajo Palabra

On March 20th, the General Council of the Institute of Elections and Citizen Participation (IEPC) of Chiapas announced that they approved the regulation to meet requests that are submitted to their institution that are submitted to their institution for indigenous consultations on electoral matters.

They reported that the regulation establishes the requirements that the citizens interested in requesting a consultation must determine to determine the origin of the change in the electoral system, which may be political parties or internal regulatory systems. “In order to guarantee that the request for consultation has the support of a significant part of the citizens of the municipality, the request must be endorsed by at least 25 percent of the communities that make up the municipality and that, in turn, represent the same percentage of the citizenship registered in the nominal list of the municipal district.”

They consider that the “regulatory attribution guarantees the right to consultation and self-determination of indigenous peoples and communities (…) complies with the principles established in Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries: endogenous, free, peaceful, informed, democratic, equitable, socially responsible, self-managed and prior.”

They highlighted that “among the actions carried out to comply with the aforementioned principles, consultation forums were held in the municipalities of Ocosingo and San Cristobal de Las Casas, on November 28th and December 5th, 2019, in which the the opinion of authorities and citizens of indigenous peoples and communities was recorded, to include it in the construction of the regulation.”

For more information in Spanish:

APRUEBA IEPC EL REGLAMENTO PARA ATENDER SOLICITUDES DE CONSULTAS INDÍGENAS EN MATERIA ELECTORAL (IEPC, 20 de marzo de 2020)

REALIZAN IEPC E INPI: FORO DE CONSULTA Y ELABORACIÓN DE LA PROPUESTA DE REGLAMENTO PARA ATENDER SOLICITUDES DE CONSULTAS INDÍGENAS EN MATERIA ELECTORAL (IEPC, 28 de noviembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Gobiernos Comunitarios de Chilón y Sitalá denuncian obstaculización de su derecho a la libre determinación (21 de noviembre de 2019)

Chiapas: Creciente polarización en Chilón ante posible cambio de modo de elección, del sistema oficial al por usos y costumbres (15 de agosto de 2019

Chiapas: Inicia INAH estudio cultural en Sitalá y Chilón para determinar posibilidad de pasar a elecciones municipales por la vía de los usos y costumbres (11 de mayo de 2019)

Chiapas: Rutilio Escandon Cadenas Presents First Government Reoprt

@State Government

On December 8th, Governor Rutilio Escandon Cadenas presented his first government report to the local Congress, mayors and special guests, including the Deputy Secretary of the Interior, Ricardo Peralta Saucedo, personal representative of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) at the event . He reported on the progress made in his first year of government, after winning the state elections on July 1st, 2018, as a candidate of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), Labor Party (PT) and Social Encounter (PES) around the following axes: effective and honest government; social welfare; education, science and culture; economic and competitive development, and biodiversity and sustainable development.

“In Chiapas there is governance and the rule of law prevails,” he emphasized, in addition to declaring that “we are a government that favors permanent dialogue with all social sectors and where there is justice for everyone.” He assured that “the ostentation of the rulers is over; the times of the onerous politicians for the state are over; today is the time to show love to Chiapas and the country, with respect to human rights and democracy.” He declared that, at the beginning of his administration, he found the state coffers almost empty, “but we are fulfilling the payment of the obligations contracted by previous governments, thanks to a policy of healthy public finances and fiscal discipline.” He said that one of the achievements as a result of the strategies of the Security Bureau, “is the recovery of invaded properties and real estate, as more than 32 thousand hectares have been rescued, between privately owned real estate and protected natural reserves.” He said that in Chiapas the incidence of crime fell and impunity is over. He said that “the tourist infrastructure generated revenues exceeding 18 million pesos, we hope to close with almost two million passengers by air in the state and with 300 million pesos we remodeled the Angel Albino Corzo airport and improved the road network.” He invited us to “maintain optimism and good disposition; to govern is to serve and work for the people.”

Some media published critical assessments regarding the performance of the Escandon Cadenas government in the area of ​​human rights and security. Regarding criminal incidence, although the governor presumed significant achievements, the Citizen Observatory of Chiapas (OCCH), in its report on criminality in the first year of the municipal government of Tuxtla Gutierrez, San Cristobal de las Casas and Tapachula, warned that the three demarcations recorded high impact crimes with rates above the national average. These media also noted that, of the 24 human rights defenders killed between December 1st 2018 to date, six were in Chiapas; and that there has been a “notable rebound” of intimidation and aggression towards the defenders of life and territory. They also stressed that in its Follow-up Report of Recommendations, Chiapas appears as one of the ten main authorities mentioned, including one on measures in favor of migrants in transit along the southern border of Mexico.

For more information in Spanish:

“En Chiapas prevalece el estado de derecho”: Rutilio Escandón (La Jornada, 8 de diciembre de 2019)

En Chiapas se terminaron los privilegios, dice Rutilio Escandón en primer informe de gobierno (SDP Noticias, 8 de diciembre de 2019)

Rutilio Escandón presenta su primer informe de gobierno (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 8 de diciembre de 2019)

Presenta Rutilio Escandón informe a un año frente al Gobierno de Chiapas (El Sie7e de Chiapas, 8 de diciembre de 2019)

Violaciones a derechos humanos destacan el Primer Año de Gobierno de Escandón Cadenas (Somos el medio, 8 de diciembre de 2019)

For more informatiion 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)

Oaxaca: CEDHAPI Denounces “Extrajudicial Execution” of Indigenous Defender

@Facebook

At the beginning of December, the Center for Human Rights and Advice to Indigenous Peoples (CEDHAPI in its Spanish acronym) denounced the “extrajudicial execution” of the indigenous defender Catalino Barradas Santiago, at the hands of elements of the municipal police of Santos Reyes Nopala, on the eve of the elections for municipal president (by customary law) in that community.

The president of CEDHAPI, Maurilio Santiago Reyes, indicated that the events occurred on November 30th and that two people were also injured in the attack, while a third was arrested and imprisoned in the Puerto Escondido prison, of whom “it is known that he was tortured by the municipal police of Santos Reyes Nopala,” he said. He also stated that a group headed by the mayors of San Pedro Mixtepec and Santos Reyes Nopala, respectively, continues to intimidate opponents with weapons to maintain control of the municipality.

He finally said that on December 2nd, when the body of Barradas Santiago was being waked, a group of armed people went to shoot at the house where the wake was held.

Given what happened, the CEDHAPI requested the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to issue an urgent action in the case of the detained person, and the Human Rights Ombudsman of Oaxaca and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, to issue precautionary measures. It also urged the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE in its Spanish acronym) to investigate the extrajudicial execution of the human rights defender, observer of the legality of the municipal president’s elections in Santos Reyes Nopala.

For more information in Spanish:

Denuncian “ejecución extrajudicial” de un defensor indígena cometida por la policía municipal de Santos Reyes Nopala (Página 3,mx, 5 de diciembre de 2019)

Denuncian “ejecución extrajudicial” de defensor indígena en Oaxaca (Proceso, 4 de diciembre de 2019)

Asesinado por policías (NVI Noticias, 4 de diciembre de 2019)

Policías municipales asesinan en Oaxaca al defensor indígena Barradas Santiago (Contralínea, 3 de diciembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: International Organizations Call for Release of Fredy Garcia of CODEDI (November 24, 2019)

Oaxaca/International: WOAT Warns about State Inaction in Disappearance Case of Ernesto Sernas Garcia (October 17, 2019)

Oaxaca: Murder Attempt on CODEDI Member (September 26, 2019)

Oaxaca: Denuncian criminalización por liberación de ordenes de aprensión contra sindicalistas del sector salud e integrantes de Sol Rojo (16 de agosto de 2019)

National: One Year of AMLO Presidency

@Vertigo Politico

On December 1^st President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) offered an hour and a half message before a base filled with more than 100 thousand people, in Mexico City, in the framework of the celebration of his first year of government. He stressed that of the 100 commitments he made in 2018, he already fulfilled 89.

“It is unquestionable that in these first 12 months we have made great progress, but we are still in a transition process, the old still does not just die and the new is not born, but we are not playing, we are not simulating,” he said. He also affirmed that he hopes that in a year “the bases for the construction of a new homeland will already be established. By then, under any circumstances, it will be practically impossible to return to the time of opprobrium that the neoliberal or neoporfirio period meant.” He said that “when we complete two years of government the conservatives can no longer reverse the changes or not be so blunt, they would have to work hard and be very embarrassed to go back to the dark times of corruption, of the Leonine contracts, of the remission of taxes, of electoral fraud, of abandonment of young people, of racism, of contempt for the poor, and of “kill them in their steps” ”.

He listed a series of achievements including the reduction of fuel theft, the creation of 648 thousand new jobs, an increase of 16% of the minimum wage, an annual inflation of 3% the lowest since September 2016, the increase of 2% of the peso against the dollar, the coverage of government programs (half of Mexican households, use at least one program for welfare and in indigenous peoples, 95% of households already have at least one of the supports), among others.

On the issue of security, he questioned that “between 2006 and 2018 the rulers sought to solve insecurity and criminal violence through actions of military and police force, without addressing the substance of the problem,” a strategy that he considered “irresponsible” and that left a “dreadful balance” of dead, missing and a human rights crisis. “This absurd and deranged strategy will not be repeated,” he said.

National and international media especially question the entire AMLO administration for its inability to reduce violence when there were more than 28,000 violent deaths in the country between January and October. Another limitation that is being highlighted more is zero economic growth in this same term when AMLO promised in the campaign that it would be between 2 and 4%.

For more information in Spanish:

México: un año de AMLO en la presidencia (Vídeo, CNN México, 1ero de diciembre de 2019)

El peso mexicano tiene con AMLO su mejor desempeño en 5 sexenios para un primer año de gobierno (Sin Embargo, 1ero de diciembre de 2019)

AMLO reconoce seguridad y falta de crecimiento como pendientes de su primer año (Animal Político, 1ero de diciembre de 2019)

De los 100 compromisos que hice hace un año, he cumplido 89: AMLO (Aristegui Noticias, 1ero de diciembre de 2019)

A un año de gobierno, los aciertos y las fallas de la 4T de AMLO (Aristegui Noticias, 1ero de diciembre de 2019)

Un año de AMLO (El País, 1ero de diciembre de 2019)

Un año de AMLO: lo bueno, lo malo y lo feo (The Washington Post, 1ero de diciembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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

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

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)