Oaxaca: 17 Men Pose as Transgender to Register as Candidates

Photo @ Colectivo por la Ciudadanía de las Mujeres (Women’s Citizenship Collective)

On May 7th, the Women’s Citizenship Collective and women belonging to the muxe and trans community, originating from different regions of the state of Oaxaca, demanded in the framework of a press conference the cancellation “of the records of the men who illegally registered their candidacy to participate in the electoral contest, occupying spaces destined for women.”

17 of the 19 candidatures registered by the Electoral Institute and of Citizen Participation of the State of Oaxaca (IEEPCO in its Spanish acronym) of the self-affirmed transgender candidates were identified as fraudulent. These male candidates are not part of “the trans or muxe community of Oaxaca, and contrary to this, in most cases, their marital relationship and the procreation of children with women is publicly known”, according to the press release. They also state that “even some of the candidates are seeking re-election as municipal presidents and during their previous positions they did not declare to be transgender.”

All this occurred in order to evade the requirement of gender parity and place men in non-corresponding spaces. Since Article 16 of the Guidelines on Gender Parity 2018 states that: “In case of nomination of transgender, transsexual, intersex or muxes, the nomination will correspond to the gender to which the person is self-assigned and said candidacy will be taken into account in compliance with the principle of gender parity.”

Only two registered candidatures were accepted by the LGBTI community and the Women’s Citizenship Collective, since they are candidates, “who in addition to self-affirming as muxes, socially name themselves with those names in their daily lives (…) and in addition, their daily statements and actions reaffirm and consolidate that muxe identity as part of the free development of their personality.”

For more information in Spanish:

Comunicado de prensa  | Exigen cancelar registros de hombres que usurpan espacios de mujeres trans (Colectivo por la Ciudadanía de las Mujeres, 7 de mayo de 2018)

Hombres se hicieron pasar por transgénero para ganar candidaturas en Oaxaca, acusa Colectivo (Proceso, 7 de mayo de 2018)

Hombres simulan ser trans para ocupar candidaturas de mujeres (Cimacnoticias, 7 de mayo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: Mujer transgénero recibe su credencial de elector de una representación del INE (8 de agosto de 2017)

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National: CNI Will not Support any Presidential Candidate and Calls on Peoples to Organize

Marichuy in Oventik (@SIPAZ)

At a press conference in Mexico City on May 2nd, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym), the Indigenous Council of Government (CIG in its Spanish acronym) and its spokesperson, Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez, “Marichuy”, announced that they will not “seek or accept any alliance with any political party or candidate” before the elections on July 1st. They said that they will not call to vote or to abstain, but will continue looking for “all those below to dismantle the pestilent power from above”: “Vote or not vote, get organized. We will walk building the keys to heal the world.”

In a statement written after the second working session of the CIG, held on April 28th and 29th in Mexico City, they gave indications as to what they learnt when trying to collect signatures across the country so that Marichuy could participate as an independent candidate for the presidency: “We hear the pain of all the colors that we the Mexico of below are” and “we made our political proposal grow from below, from where the struggle of many native peoples, their problems and their proposals were made visible.” They affirmed, on the other hand, that “the electoral process is a great cesspit in which those who could falsify thousands of signatures and who have the billions of pesos that allow them to coerce and buy the vote contend, while most of the people of Mexico is torn between poverty and misery”; and that “the original peoples and those who walk below and to the left do not fit into their game; not because of our color, our race, our class, our age, our culture, our gender, our thinking, our heart, but because we are one with Mother Earth and our struggle is that it does not turn everything into a commodity.”

They asked “all of us who are the people of Mexico, the compas of the networks of support for the Indigenous Council of Government in all the states of the country, the compañeras and compañeros who made up the Hour of the Blossom of the Peoples Civil Association to continue consulting and evaluating us, making assessments, finding and walking the new paths that we decide, always organizing, even if they vote or do not vote for any candidate. Your words, feelings and proposals matter to us.” Finally, they revealed that in the month of October they will hold a General Assembly of the National Indigenous Congress, to know the results of the assessment of the original peoples grouped in the CNI, and to advance in the next step.

For more information in Spanish:

Falta lo que falta (CNI, 2 de mayo de 2018)

El CNI no buscará ninguna alianza política… el proceso electoral “es un gran cochinero”, dice “Marichuy” (Proceso, 2 de mayo de 2018)

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“No vamos a apoyar a ningún candidato”: CNI (La Jornada, 2 de mayo de 2018)

Marichuy dice que su movimiento no apoyará a ningún candidato: “esta elección es un cochinero” (Sin Embargo, 2 de mayo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/Nacional : Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar? (27 de abril de 2018)

Nacional : CNI convoca al “siguiente paso en la lucha” (17 de marzo de 2018)

Nacional: CNI denuncia ataque contra la caravana del CIG. (22 de enero de 2018)

Nacional: Marichuy critica trampas del INE a su candidatura (26 de octubre de 2018)

Nacional: Marychuy se registra como candidata independiente a la Presidencia de la República (18 de octubre de 2017)

National/International: Mexico – First Country to Ratify TPP-11

(@Convergencia)

On April 24th, the Chamber of Senators ratified in plenary session the Integral and Progressive Treaty of Transpacific Association (TPP-11) with 73 votes in favor, 24 against and four abstentions. With this, Mexico became the first country of those that make up this agreement to ratify it. For the treaty to effectively enter into force, it will be necessary for it to be ratified by at least 5 other countries.

The Mexican business sector greeted this new agreement: “Today, businessmen are convinced that its entry into force will benefit Mexican companies, workers and consumers by generating a more competitive and dynamic economy, for the benefit of Mexican families. The countries that are part of the CPTPP constitute 14% of the annual production of the entire world, with which they become one of the largest free trade zones at an international level. This agreement opens the doors to ten Pacific economies to Mexican producers and entrepreneurs, who will have preferential access to these markets. Therefore, new opportunities are created for the generation of formal and better paid jobs in our country.”

In return, the Convergence of Social Organizations and Citizens “México mejor sin TLCs” (Mexico Better Without FTAs), which brings together 200 social organizations, campesinos, trade unions, human rights organizations and academics, demanded in a statement “that this Treaty not be ratified and negotiated in our name without transparency and without public participation.” It said that it requested an “audience with the Presidency of the Senate Board of Directors to express its appreciations and alternatives to the contents of the Treaty that compromise human rights and the care of the land, unfortunately to date we have not been received which deepens concerns.”

It criticized the fact that in less than a month, the senators intend to approve TPP-11, “since it will affect various productive sectors and the guarantees of Mexicans in different areas, including labor and health, without having held public hearings as provided by the Law on the Approval of Commercial Treaties with all sectors involved.”

It attributed the hurry “to the fear of the current government that with the elections of July the composition of the Legislative Power changes and whoever wins the presidency does not endorse the TTP-11.” In addition, it finally noted with concern that “it is feared that with the same hurry and before the new government and the next legislature take office, they intend to approve the recently concluded modernization of the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Mexico as well as the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that should end in the first week of May.”

For more information in Spanish:

Piden a CNDH intervenga contra ATP por violar las leyes (La Jornada, 23 de abril de 2018)

México se convierte en el primer país en ratificar el TPP-11 (El Financiero, 24 de abril de 2018)

El sector privado celebra la ratificación en el Senado del Tratado Integral y Progresista de Asociación Transpacífico (CCE, 25 de abril de 2018)

Los pros y contras del TPP11 para México (Expansión, 25 de abril de 2018)

Por un modelo económico que ponga al centro los derechos humanos y el cuidado del medio ambiente (Convergencia “México mejor sin TLC’s”, 25 de abril de 2018)

Chiapas/National: Roundtable Discussion “To Watch, to Listen, to Speak: Forbidden to Think?”

Roundtable discussion “To watch, to listen, to speak. Forbidden to think?”

From April 15th to 25th, the roundtable discussion “To watch, to listen, to speak: Forbidden to think?”, convened by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), was held at the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Indigenous Integral Training Center -University of the Earth (Cideci-Unitierra in its Spanish acronym) in San Cristobal de Las Casas. Academics, artists and activists participated in this event whose main objective was to take stock of the campaign of Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez, “Marichuy”, in her aspiration to be an independent candidate for the presidency of the Republic in the next elections in July as spokesperson for the Indigenous Council of Government (CIG in its Spanish acronym).

Subcomandante Galeano stated that, contrary to the criticism that this initiative would divide the vote of the left or that it was an instrument of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994), “if Marichuy did something, it was to lay bare the Mexican political electoral system in which illegality is rewarded with candidacies like those of Jaime Rodriguez ‘El Bronco’ and Margarita Zavala, who, even with accumulated false signatures, were granted registration”. He asserted that, “If everything is a game to divide the vote, why did the system not move to ensure registration? The truth is that there is no place for Marichuy, there is no place for the original peoples.” On the contrary, “those who violated all laws were left,” said Galeano. He stressed that, “The result of your mobilization, Marichuy, showed that the INE, is a” job placement agency.”

In a subsequent intervention, Subcomandante Galeano also warned that the economic powers of the capitalist system will do everything possible to stop the victory of presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. “We say that now the hydra is mad, goes for everything and everyone (…) Capital goes for everything and will not allow Lulas, Dilmas, Kirchner, Correas, Evos, or Lopez Obrador, or whatever you call anything that offers respite.”

On another note, “Marichuy” explained that, “There is a lot to do for this Mexico. They are waiting for us. We are going to have a meeting of councilors, and in this construction that awaits us we are many. We will not sit around thinking: ‘we did not do it’. We must continue to strengthen the work that is already being done by the peoples and communities.”

In this regard, Subcomandante Galeano affirmed that they will unconditionally support what the CIG decides, even if at a certain moment they decide to join a political party: “We support them unconditionally. What they decide. We will wait for you (for the consultation to take place) and listen in silence and respect (…) We can understand your reasons and we will support you. They will not receive attacks and criticism from us.” Marichuy and several other participants stressed, however, that the objective of their movement is the construction of autonomies in the different communities that join, “autonomies of government and in each of their development processes.” Galeano confirmed that, “this has nothing to do with the quest for power. For the EZLN this is the most important political initiative since the beginning of the war.”

Within the framework of the event, Dr. Pablo Gonzalez Casanova, 96 years old, was appointed commander Pablo Contreras of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (CCRI-EZLN). Commander Tacho explained the decision underlining that “To be a Zapatista one has to work and he has worked for the life of our peoples. He has not tired, he has not sold out, he has not given up.” He noted that, “If things go well, the Zapatista is rewarded with more work. (…) The gift that we are going to give [to Pablo Casanova] is more work.”

For more information in Spanish:

Cobertura completa del evento (incluyendo audios) :

Sigan bailando porque la lucha sigue – Arranca el Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” con concierto musiquero (Radio zapatista, 16 de abril de 2018)

¿Cumplimos o no cumplimos? – Día 2, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 17 de abril de 2018)

¿Revolución? ¿Reforma? ¿Lucha por la Vida? – Día 3, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 18 de abril de 2018)

¿Y la posibilidad de que ganemos es casi nula? – Día 4, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 19 de abril de 2018)

¿Y entonces, quiénes? – Día 5, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 20 de abril de 2018)

¿Juntxs ante el colapso? – Día 6, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 21 de abril de 2018)

¿Y cómo hablamos la verdad? – Día 7, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 22 de abril de 2018)

¿Escucharnos para sentirnos? – Día 8, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 23 de abril de 2018)

¿Heredar el deber y la memoria? – Día 9, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 24 de abril de 2018)

¿Un nosotrxs sin México? – Día 10, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 25 de abril de 2018)

El corazón está listo – Día 11, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 26 de abril de 2018)

Cobertura en medios

“Los que violaron todas las leyes quedaron”: EZLN (Proceso, 16 de abril de 2018)

“Lo que Marichuy hizo fue exhibir, desnudar, el sistema político-electoral en México”: EZLN (Aristegui Noticias, 17 de abril de 2018)

Al tramposo lo premian, al justo (a Marichuy) lo castigan: EZLN; ya ven, ¿no que éramos de Salinas? (Sin Embargo, 17 de abril de 2018)

El sistema capitalista buscará frenar a AMLO, advierte el EZLN (Proceso, 19 de abril de 2018)

El EZLN apoyará a Marichuy y al CIG… aun si deciden sumarse a un partido político: subcomandante Galeano (Proceso, 20 de abril de 2018)

Pablo González Casanova, exrector de la UNAM, es nombrado comandante del EZLN (Proceso, 22 de abril de 2018)

González Casanova se convierte en el ‘comandante Pablo Contreras’ (La Jornada, 22 de abril de 2018) EZLN, “Marichuy, apoyo a los candidatos presidenciales”: o cómo los medios mutilan el mensaje (Regeneración Radio, 25 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional : CNI convoca al “siguiente paso en la lucha” (17 de marzo de 2018)

Nacional: CNI denuncia ataque contra la caravana del CIG. (22 de enero de 2018)

Nacional: Marichuy critica trampas del INE a su candidatura (26 de octubre de 2018)

Nacional: Marychuy se registra como candidata independiente a la Presidencia de la República (18 de octubre de 2017)

National: First Presidential Debate – Proposals and Accusations

Photo @ Univision

On April 22nd, the first presidential debate took place, in which the five candidates for the presidency had a space to present their proposals and ideas to the voters. In the following days, the media offered different types of analyses and evaluations, about the positions and mutual accusations of the candidates. Proceso concluded that for them the debate “had a different value but a single goal. For the PRI, it was the hope of a better position, for the PAN, the opportunity to position itself in second place, for the independents to make themselves known and for the leader of Morena to protect and maintain the distance in the polls.” La Jornada had a more critical position in which it considered that “the issue of corruption during the debate between presidential candidates was the setting for a feast of accusations in which everyone denounced the dishonesty of others and eluded the accusations against their people.”

Several media agreed that Lopez Obrador, candidate for MORENA, was the “common target of the debate”, an issue that was echoed even in the international press according to Forbes Mexico, or that is reflected in titles like “All against AMLO” in Proceso. “One of the most controversial proposals of the night,” as La Jornada called it, was the proposal of independent candidate Rodriguez Calderon to cut off the hand of those who stole from a public service post.

Disinformemonos commented that from the point of view of activists and civil society organizations it regretted that “during the presidential debate last Sunday the candidates did not examine in depth measures to solve the human rights crisis in the country, but instead concentrated on attacking each other without explaining the proposals.” Rocio Culebro, executive director of the Mexican Institute of Human Rights and Democracy, and Fernando Rios, executive secretary of the TDT Network, added that “neither did they address issues such as victim assistance, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, abuses by the police and armed forces, femicides, violence against the press, forced displacement and torture.”

For more information in Spanish:

El debate devino en festival de acusaciones mutuas de corrupción (La Jornada, 23 de abril de 2018)

Así vio la prensa internacional el debate presidencial de México (Forbes México, 23 de abril de 2018)

Lamentan que candidatos no profundizaran sobre derechos humanos en debate presidencial (Desinformémonos, 24 de abril de 2018)

Todos contra AMLO (Proceso, 25 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional : arranca campaña electoral 2018 (6 de abril de 2018)

Nacional/Chiapas: El precandidato del PRI a la Presidencia inició su precampaña en San Juan Chamula (15 de dieciembre de 2017)

National: 2018 Electoral Campaign Begins

2018 presidential candidates

90 days before the elections on July 1st, the election period for the 2018 presidential campaign formally began on March 30th, as well as elections to renew the federal legislative power in both chambers, various state congresses and mayoralties. According to the National Electoral Institute (INE in its Spanish acronym) there are 18,311 public positions contested, the first time so many are elected in a single electoral process. The funds to finance political parties, the organization of the elections and the budget of the electoral authorities will be almost 33 billion pesos, not counting the private funding that the candidates will have access to.

In the end, the National Electoral Institute (INE) gave entry to four candidates for the presidency of the republic: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador representing the alliance of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), the Labor Party and the Social Encounter Party (PES); that of Ricardo Anaya, by the National Action Party (PAN), the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) and the Citizen Movement; that of Jose Antonio Meade on behalf of the Party of the Institutionalized Revolution (PRI), the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) and New Alliance; and, finally, that of Margarita Zavala, wife of former President Felipe Calderon (2006-2012), who contends as an “independent candidate”. In the immediate term, the surveys favor the candidates in the order in which they appear in this list.

For more information in Spanish:

Comenzó la campaña presidencial en México: estos son los candidatos (CNN, 30 de marzo de 2018)

López Obrador es favorito en las encuestas y tiene un 79% de probabilidades de ganar (El País, 31 de marzo de 2018)

5 razones que hacen históricas las elecciones presidenciales en México (Animal Político, 31 de marzo de 2018)

Arranca campaña electoral 2018 (Contramuro, 1ero de abril de 2018)

El arranque (Excelsior, 4 de abril de 2018)

National: CNI Calls for “the Next Step in the Struggle”

Marichuy, touring Chiapas (@SIPAZ)

In a statement published on March 16th, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym) called for the “next step in the struggle”, recognizing that its candidate for the presidency in the 2018 elections failed to gather sufficient support signatures to obtain the registration before the National Electoral Institute. It acknowledged that “obtaining enough signatures would have allowed us to take advantage of this space to continue to reveal the suffering and struggle of indigenous peoples, as well as pointing out the criminal nature of the system, to echo the pain and rage that ooze throughout the whole national territory, and to promote organization, self-organization, resistance and rebellion.” However, it said: “We did not achieve it, but we must continue on our path looking for other ways, methods and means, with ingenuity, creativity and audacity, to achieve what we want.” And it appreciated that “this stage was characterized by involving more people and sectors, beyond the indigenous peoples and the CNI, in a civil and peaceful, inclusive struggle, with a just cause, with a horizon of radical transformation of the reality that we all suffer, with legal, legitimate and honest methods, and this is something that none of the members of the institutional political class can say.

In the new stage that is opening up and beyond the electoral context, the CNI proposes “an analysis and assessment that, as was the whole process, be collective, participatory, inclusive, honest and truthful”, sending analysis and evaluations to the email assessments@congresonacionalindigena.org. They also announced that “the civil society organization “For the Blossoming of the Peoples”, the National Indigenous Congress, the CIG and the Zapatista brothers, will invite all to a series of public activities open to those involved in the process, to follow up on this fight that, we know, has just begun.”

For more information in Spanish:

Convocatoria al siguiente paso en la lucha (CNI, 16 de marzo de 2018)

Llama CNI a nueva etapa de lucha política (La Jornada, 16 de marzo de 2018)

El CIG: los saldos de la irreverencia (La Jornada, 15 de marzo de 2018)

El Congreso Indígena no va con AMLO, aún con Marichuy fuera; “es un candidato más del sistema” (Sin Embargo, 26 de febrero de 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional: CNI denuncia ataque contra la caravana del CIG. (22 de enero de 2018)

Nacional: Marichuy critica trampas del INE a su candidatura (26 de octubre de 2018)

Nacional: Marychuy se registra como candidata independiente a la Presidencia de la República (18 de octubre de 2017)

Nacional / Chiapas: El CNI conforma su Concejo Indígena de Gobierno y elige a su vocera. (31 de mayo de 2017)