International/National/Chiapas: Director of Internal Displacement Monitoring Center Highlights Problem in Mexico

Camp for displaced persons from Colonia Puebla in SCLC @AlexandraBilak

On July 24th, Alexandra Bilak, director of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC in its Spanish acronym), visited displaced people from Puebla ejido in the municipality of Chenalho.

The IDMC is an internationally recognized organization that publishes figures and analysis on internal forced displacement (FID). This organization visited the camp where FID victims are currently living in San Cristobal de Las Casas.

Excelsior newspaper reported that during her visit Bilak “heard testimonies of women and men who are going through this process, as part of a global report. She also noted the conditions in which these families are, in order to know the methodology with which they are cared for and to support the states that are engaged in the matter.”

On the visit, Bilak highlighted that it is a great injustice that they have been displaced for three years “with limited services and under constant threat of new violence.”

During her visit to Mexico, she also met with the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB in its Spanish acronym), the Mexican Commission for Assistance to Refugees (COMAR in its Spanish acronym), the United Nations and other international organizations. She stressed that a first step to address internal displacement in Mexico is to have reliable figures on the phenomenon, which currently do not exist. Without these figures, Bilak pointed out that the magnitude of the problem is not known, nor how it affects children, or is related to sexual violence.

In addition, she drew attention to the lack of an official government authority to monitor internal displacement and attend to those affected. In her presentation, Bilak also posed challenges and advances on the adoption of a general law on the subject that could be based on the experience of other countries, and request the support of organizations for the elaboration of this.

The coordinator of COMAR, Andres Ramirez Silva, “stressed that the institution in charge, for example, serves foreigners who request shelter, but there is no institution that cares for the internally displaced in Mexico (…) emphasized that the general law in the matter, will have to create the budget and the structures that see to the phenomenon, as well as clarify the role that COMAR will play in the issue of internal displacement, since its operational capacity has been limited to foreign flows.”

For more information in Spanish:

“Crimen Desplazó en México a 380 mil personas” El Universal, 24 de julio de 2019.

Realiza IDMC informe de desplazados en Chiapas Excelsior, 25 de julio de 2019.

Urgen en México leyes y recursos para atender desplazamiento forzado Mi Punto de Vista, 23 de julio de 2019.

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Interceptan hombres armados a integrantes del CDH Ku’untik y un desplazado del ejido Puebla. (June 24, 2019)

Nacional/Internacional: Piden CIDH y ONU crear ley para atender a víctimas de desplazamiento forzado (April 18, 2019)

National: Deputies Declare Forced Displacement a Crime (April 15, 2019)

Nacional/Chiapas: la Comisión de Pueblos Indígenas de la Cámara de diputados exhorta a diversas autoridades a resolver la problemática causada por el Desplazamiento Forzado Interno (February 19, 2019)

Chiapas: State Congress asks the government to address the issue of forced displacement; displaced people from Colonia Puebla return to San Cristóbal de Las Casas (October 30, 2018)

Chiapas: Nace la organización “Coordinadora de Personas Desplazadas del Estado de Chiapas” (July 25, 2018)

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Chiapas: Frayba Denounces Intensification of Attacks against Indigenous Peoples since December 2018

On May 27th, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights published a bulletin warning that, “aggressions against peoples, communities and organizations have intensified as part of a strategy to contain civil and peaceful resistance in defense of territory.” Two years after the Constituent Assembly of the Indigenous Council of Government (CIG in its Spanish acronym), of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym).

It illustrated the statement by referring to the six indigenous defenders who have been murdered so far in 2019, as well as mentioning the CNI’s own denunciations since December 2018 with situations of “dispossession, forced displacement, arbitrary detention, forced disappearances, threats, harassment, criminalization and attempts of executions.”

Frayba denounced that “this logic of war against the peoples that build autonomy, is reproduced in the increase of militarization of Zapatista territories, especially the incursions, flights and espionage of the Mexican Army to the headquarters of the Junta de Buen Government Toward Hope, in La Realidad Caracol (Official Municipality of Las Margaritas). This containment is deepened by the presence of the National Guard in the region, which increases risks to the integrity and security of the population.”

In this context, Frayba demanded that the Mexican State: “Cease the attacks against peoples, communities and organizations that make up the National Indigenous Congress; justice for the defenders and communicators murdered in the country; and high militarization in Chiapas and Mexico.”

For more information in Spanish:

Contrainsurgencia a Pueblos Originarios que construyen la vida digna (CDH Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, a 27 de mayo de 2019)

Las agresiones contra pueblos originarios se intensifican: Frayba (La Jornada, 29 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Two Members of CRAC-PF and CIPOG-EZ Murdered (May 28, 2019)

Guerrero: CNI Denounces Kidnapping and Murder of Two Members (May 11, 2019)

Chiapas: denuncian dos comunidades choles de Salto de Agua amenazas, persecución y hostigamientos (El 22 de abril de 2019)

National: Third Assembly of National Indigenous Congress and Indigenous Council of Government (CNI-CIG) in Mexico City (March 14, 2019)

Chiapas : CNI denuncia amenazas y agresiones en la zona Norte (El 16 de agosto de 2018)

National: Deputies Declare Forced Displacement a Crime

@ MSN Photo

On April 10th, in the absence of a General Law on Internal Displacement, the Chamber of Deputies approved a ruling that reforms the Federal Criminal Code to categorize Internal Forced Displacement (DFI) as a crime.

The ruling of the Justice Commission by which article 287 is added and a Chapter III to the Eighteenth Title of the Federal Criminal Code was approved with a unanimous vote of 429 votes in favor.

Article 287 says that “one commits the crime of internal forced displacement, who individually or collectively, through violence or any other means or coercive act, made against a person or group of people, causes them to leave their place of residence.

A penalty of six to twelve years in prison and 300 to 600 days of fine will be imposed on the person who commits the conduct contemplated in the previous paragraph.

The penalty will be increased by up to half when the crime is committed against a child, adolescent, human rights defender and journalists.

Internal displacement shall not be understood as the movement of the population carried out by the authority when its purpose is the security of the same or by judicial order.”

With the approval, the ruling was turned over to the Senate of the Republic to continue with its constitutional process.

For more information in Spanish:

Se sancionará penalmente a quien propicie el Desplazamiento Forzado Interno (Canal del Congreso, 10 de abril de 2019)

Dictamen de la Comisión de Justicia a la iniciativa que adiciona el artículo 287 Bis y un capitulo III al título decimoctava del Código Penal Federal, referente al desplazamiento forzado interno (Gaceta Diputados, 10 de abril de 2019)

Desplazamiento forzado es tipificado (El Economista, 10 de abril de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: desplazados de la Sierra llegan a un acuerdo con el gobierno y dejan su plantón en la Ciudad de México (29 de marzo de 2019)

Nacional: Comisión Mexicana en Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos (CMDPDH) organizó eventos sobre el Desplazamiento Forzado Interno (19 de febrero de 2019)

Nacional/Chiapas: la Comisión de Pueblos Indígenas de la Cámara de diputados exhorta a diversas autoridades a resolver la problemática causada por el Desplazamiento Forzado Interno (19 de febrero de 2019)

Chiapas: Organizaciones Civiles llaman a que se implementen las recomendaciones de la CNDH, en cuanto al Desplazamiento Forzado en Chalchihuitán (15 de febrero de 2019)

National: Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights Organizes Events on Internal Forced Displacement

Photo @ CMDPDH

On February 15th, 18th and 19th, the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH in its Spanish acronym) held three events in Mexico City in which they presented “two books that integrate complementary approaches to forced internal displacement. Between the invisibility and the abandonment, in its quantitative and qualitative angle, they have as an objective to provide this generation with a comprehensive diagnosis of forced internal displacement in the country.”

Jose Antonio Guevara Bermudez, Executive Director of the CMDPDH, stressed that there is no diagnosis about the phenomenon and the statistics that exist “do not allow us to be certain of its size.” However, they raised the need “to officially recognize forced internal displacement in Mexico, in order to design a public policy to care for the victims and prevent the structural violation of human rights.”

They also organized the “To Defend is to not Forget” Magisterial Conference, in which the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) was present; the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons; the Representative in Mexico of the Office of the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights and representatives of the Coordinator of Displaced Persons of the State of Chiapas, among others.

For more information in Spanish:

Desplazados de Guerrero hacen plantón frente a Palacio Nacional (El Debate, 17 de noviembre de 2019)

La violencia provoca casi nueve millones de desplazados en México desde 2011 (El País, 15 de febrero de 2019)

Alarmante vulnerabilidad de periodistas en México: expertos (La Jornada, 18 de febrero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Organizaciones Civiles llaman a que se implementen las recomendaciones de la CNDH, en cuanto al Desplazamiento Forzado en Chalchihuitán (15 de febrero de 2019)

Chiapas: JBG de Oventik responsabiliza a gobierno de situación de violencia entre Aldama y Chenalhó (6 de febrero de 2019)

Chiapas/Nacional : emite CNDH recomendaciones a autoridades de Chiapas por desplazamientos forzados en Chalchihuitán y Chenalhó (18 de enero de 2019)

International/National: Registration of Humanitarian Visas for Migrants Closes

@SIPAZ

On February 1st, the National Institute of Migration (INM in its Spanish acronym) reported that the possibility of registration for migrants to obtain humanitarian visas was closed. This decision left hundreds of migrants on the border of Guatemala and Mexico, with no possibility of applying.

The Collective of Observation and Monitoring of Human Rights in Southeast Mexico, a network of 12 non-governmental organizations in Mexico that have been monitoring the situation, expressed their concerns emphasizing that “the people left on the Guatemalan side have been left without options, such that the Mexican State does not develop a comprehensive migration and refuge policy that guarantees the dignified and safe entry of the forcibly displaced persons who arrive at the southern border, in order to establish themselves in Mexico, to benefit from international protection, or to transit through the territory to reach the northern border.”

On another note, on February 3rd, a caravan of around 2,000 migrants, mostly with humanitarian visas, left Tapachula, Chiapas, many of them still with the idea of ​​reaching the United States. The visas they obtained allow them to move and work legally in Mexico. Very few are considering staying in Chiapas or southern Mexico.

The atention plan launched by the federal government had begun on January 18th, and allowed the delivery of almost 13,000 humanitarian visas, the vast majority of them to Central Americans, in particular to 9,000 Hondurans, according to the INM.

For more information in Spanish:

Migrantes no se quedan en Chiapas, con visa humanitaria avanzan a EEUU (Quadratin Chiapas, 3 de febrero de 2019).

Programa de tarjetas para migrantes no debe cerrarse: Solalinde (Quadratin Chiapas, 1 de febrero de 2019).

Las visas humanitarias en México: un imán para la nueva caravana migrante (The New York Times, 25 de enero de 2019).

Cierra INM registro de migrantes; entregará 12,600 visas humanitarias (La Silla Rota, 30 de enero 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: Sánchez Cordero advierte que la caravana de migrantes solo tendrá “acceso ordenado” a territorio mexicano (9 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).

International/Mexico: Xenophobic Violence Erupts Against Migrants in Tecun Uman

Photo @ El Universal

On the morning of January 27th, a group calling itself “United Ayutlecos” forcibly evicted Hondurans and Salvadorans from the central park of Tecun Uman, located in the municipality of Ayutla, Guatemala, “with sticks stones.”

The migrants were in the central park waiting to be able to apply for a Visitor Card for Humanitarian Reasons from the Mexican authorities, which would allow them to cross the country legally.

The Collective of Observation and Monitoring of Human Rights in Southeast Mexico, made up of 15 civil organizations, reported that due to the eviction “the displaced persons have been forced to flee to the border and cross the International Bridge. The Mexican authority has let all the people pass by, and the agents have quickly installed fences to block the path of the aggressor group. Around two thousand people have also taken refuge from the violence unleashed in the municipal shelter of Tecun Uman, creating an untenable situation and a permanent risk.” Other migrants fled the assailant group crossing the Suchiate River on the Mexican side to feel more secure.

They mentioned that, “the acts have been perpetrated under the permissiveness of the Guatemalan authorities, who did absolutely nothing to defend the persons attacked, whether they were migrants, journalists or human rights defenders.”

For more information in Spanish:

ESTALLA LA VIOLENCIA XENÓFOBA EN TECÚN UMÁN (CDH Fray Matiás, 27 de enero de 2019)

Vecinos de Ayutla, San Marcos expulsan a migrantes hondureños y salvadoreños y se lían a golpes (Prensa Libre, 27 de enero de 2019)

Hombres embozados desalojan a migrantes en Tecún Uman (El Universal, 28 de enero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/International: New Migrant Caravans Arrive at Border; Others Advance through Mexico (January 28th, 2019)

National/International: New Migrant Caravan Reaches Mexico (January 23rd, 2019)

National/International: 181 Countries Approve United Nations Global Pact for Refugees

(January 4th, 2019)

National/International: 164 Countries Approve UN Global Migration Pact (January 2nd, 2019)

International/ National: Tear Gas and Rubber Bullets Used Against Migrants at U.S. Mexico Border (November 27th, 2018)

National / International: First Migrant Caravan advances in Mexico; a person dies in the second caravan trying to enter; Trump announces operation «Faithful Patriot» to close US border (November 3, 2018)

Chiapas / National / International: Migrant Caravan about to enter Oaxaca (November 3, 2018)

National / International: Caravan of migrants from Honduras arrives in Mexico (October 22, 2018)

 

Chiapas: One Dead and Two Wounded in Latest Confrontation in Aldama – Chenalho Conflict

In the early hours of January 22nd, an attack by residents of Santa Martha, municipality of Chenalho, against their neighbors from Aldama who were going to their plots to work left one person dead and two wounded by bullets, as a result of the old conflict over the dispute of 60 hectares between the two municipalities, government sources reported.

As a consequence of this conflict, at least 2,036 people from communities bordering Santa Martha (Xuxch’en, Coco, Tabak and San Pedro Cotzilnam) are displaced in camps far from the disputed area.

According to the inhabitants of Aldama, in 2009, Santa Marta and Aldama signed an agreement to end the conflict, by which the inhabitants of the first community received from the state government one 1,300,000 thousand pesos. However, this agreement has been broken and the situation has been growing ever more violent since 2016.

In view of the most recent events, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights urged the Mexican State to “adopt effective measures to guarantee the life and personal integrity of the population of Aldama, especially of the communities located in the territorial limits with Manuel Utrilla , Chenalho, as well as the municipal seat; investigate, sanction, disarm and dismantle the armed groups of Santa Martha, Manuel Utrilla, Chenalho; address the humanitarian emergency of the displaced population in the Chiapas Highlands region, Mexico; and cancel arrest warrants that criminalize representatives of displaced families.”

For more information in Spanish:

Un muerto y dos heridos, saldo de agresión entre Chenalhó y Aldama (La Jornada, 22 de enero de 2019)

Nuevo ataque paramilitar en Aldama, Chiapas, un muerto y dos heridos (Regeneración, 22 de enero de 2019)

Un muerto y dos heridos deja añeja disputa de tierra entre tsotsiles de Aldama y Chenalhó (Alerta Chiapas, 22 de enero de 2019)

Acción Urgente : Persiste riesgo a la vida en comunidades desplazadas, en Aldama, Chiapas (CDH Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, 22 de enero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Se necesita atención al Desplazamiento Forzado Interno en Chenalhó y Aldama, ataque armado deja dos jóvenes heridos (14 de enero de 2019)

Chiapas: Sigue la violencia entre Aldama y Chenalhó (5 de enero de 2019)

AMLO sobre el caso de Desplazamiento Forzado Interno en el Municipio de Aldama, Chiapas. (18 de diciembre de 2018)

Chiapas: Frayba Denounces New Attacks in Aldama and Demands End to Violence
(November 19th, 2018)

Chiapas :Se mantienen amenazas y desplazamiento forzado en Aldama ; Frayba lanza acción urgente (October 14th, 2018)

Chiapas : Persiste riesgo a la vida de indígenas tsotsiles en Aldama, denuncia el Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas (April 26th, 2018)

Chiapas: Violence increases in the Highlands of Chiapas, 747 displaced and 3 dead in Aldama (May 10th, 2018)