National: AMLO – We Won’t Build Dams at El Paso de la Reina, Boca del Cerro or La Parota

Photo @ HydroReview

On January 20th, having been questioned in his morning press conference about a complaint of burglary and harassment in recent days by elements of the Navy against Marco Antonio Suastegui, one of the leaders of the opposition to La Parota dam in Guerrero, the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rejected that it is among his plans to reactivate the La Parota project.

“No work can be done against the will of the people. La Parota is opposed and that dam is not going to be built. As we are not going to build other dams, I would tell you that we are not going to build the Paso de la Reina dam in Oaxaca and the Boca del Cerro dam in the Usumacinta in Chiapas. The only one that we are going to finish because its expansion has already begun, is that of Chicoasen (…) no new dam will be started, but we will seek to modernize the existing ones. ”

Regarding the issue, the senator of On January 20, after being questioned in his morning conference about a complaint of raid and harassment in recent days by elements of the Navy to Marco Antonio Suastegui, one of the leaders of the opposition to La Parota dam in Guerrero, the president Andrés Manuel López Obrador rejected that it is among his plans to reactivate the La Parota project.

“No work can be done against the will of the people. La Parota is opposed and that dam is not going to be built. As we are not going to build other dams, I would tell you that we are not going to build the Paso de la Reina dam in Oaxaca and the Boca del Cerro dam in the Usumacinta in Chiapas. The only one that we are going to finish because its expansion has already begun, is that of Chicoasén (…) said that no new dam will be started, but it will seek to modernize the existing ones”, the president said.

Regarding the issue, the MORENA senator, Ricardo Monreal, announced on the same day that he decided not to present an initiative to reform the Constitution and the Federal Injunction Law “to prevent the protection of public works that benefit the community” . According to Proceso magazine, “the MORENA member considers that the current federal government has promoted important projects from the beginning, which have been stopped by suspensions granted through injunctions, causing damage to economic and social progress.”

Through his Twitter account, the senator announced that “he had prepared initiatives to reform the Injunction Law, which were reviewed in the past by other means; After talking with groups and specialists, I decided not to present them, to look for a consensus project on the subject. You must listen and accept changes.” 

For more information in Spanish:

Morena en el Senado va por reforma para evitar que amparos frenen proyectos de AMLO (El Proceso, 19 de enero de 2020)

Monreal desiste de sus reformas al amparo para blindar los proyectos de AMLO (Expansión Política, 20 de enero de 2020)

López Obrador descarta retomar proyecto de presa La Parota, en Guerrero (El Proceso, 20 de enero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Vocero del CECOP presenta queja contra policías estatales que pretendían detenerlo (December 17, 2019)

Chiapas: “La Voz del Pueblo” informa que el Ayuntamiento de Huehuetán no otorga ningún tipo de autorización a las empresas para la construcción de hidroeléctricas en el municipio (July 16, 2019)

Nacional/Internacional: “Gobierno debe frenar abusos de empresas públicas y privadas”: Grupo Focal de la Sociedad Civil sobre Empresas y DDHH (July 5, 2019)

Guerrero: 16 CRAC PC and CECOP Prisoners Released (June 17, 2019)

Celebrará Dia Internacional de Acción Contra las Presas y a Favor de los Ríos, el Agua y la Vida, Y otras formas de resistencia (March 12, 2019)

Guerrero: 500 Persons Displaced after Confrontations in Zirandaro

@Quedratin Guerrero

After different clashes between criminal groups in the municipality of Zirandaro, about 500 people were displaced. The first displacement occurred after clashes on January 13th when, according to official government data, 143 people, 100 from Guayameo and 43 from Zirandaro, fled the violence.

The Guerrero State Government reported that the services of the Guerrero DIF were made available to grant them food, blankets, mats and other items.

The newspaper El Sol de Acapulco reported that on January 20th, “a new confrontation with bullets in the community of Pandacuareo (…) this wave of violence extended to the communities of El Pino, La Parota, La Calera and San Rafael ( …) Municipality of Zirandaro, increased the number of displaced and forced classes to be suspended in schools of five communities of that mountain area of ​​Tierra Caliente, so as not to endanger the safety of teachers and students.”

According to a recent report by the Jose María Morelos y Pavon Human Rights Center that works with victims of internal forced displacement, some 6,500 people have been forcibly displaced due to violence in the state.

For more information in Spanish:

Confirman 143 desplazados por enfrentamientos en Zirándaro (Eje Central, 18 de enero de 2020)

Unas 143 personas se han desplazado de Zirándaro y Guayameo por violencia (El Economista, 20 de enero de 2020)

Violencia desplaza a habitantes de Zirándaro (El Sol de Acapulco, 22 de enero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Organizaciones Civiles denuncian agresión y robo contra defensores del Centro Regional de Defensa de los Derechos Humanos José María Morelos y Pavón (6 de enero de 2020)

Guerrero: Visita SIPAZ a desplazados de Leonardo Bravo y Zitlala (2 de mayo de 2019)

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)

Guerrero/Nacional : Siguen llegando más desplazados guerrerenses a plantón instalado frente a Palacio Nacional en la Ciudad de México sin que se vean avances en respuesta a sus demandas (14 de marzo de 2019)

Nacional/Guerrero: Red TDT se pronuncia sobre la situación de desplazados de Guerrero y avances en la política nacional en cuanto a DFI (28 de febrero de 2019)

Guerrero: Tlachinollan Highlights Need for Coordinated Action to Dismantle Criminal Organizations after Murder of Ten Indigenous in Alcozacan

Photo@ Milenio

On January 17th, after a conflict between the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities-Founding Peoples (CRAC-PF) and the community police who call themselves the Peace and Justice Group, ten Nahua indigenous people from the town of Alcozacan, municipality of Chilapa de Álvarez, in Montaña Baja in Guerrero were murdered. The CRAC-PF blamed the attack on Los Ardillos crime group.

According to La Jornada, David Sanchez Luna, coordinator of the House of Justice in Rincon de Chautla, reported that the ten indigenous people were “members of the group Sensacion Musical that had come to play at a party in the town of Tlayelpa,” and that some of them were members of the CRAC-PF. Other media, among them Animal Politico, reported that according to testimonies of the relatives of the victims “none was a musician (…) all were roadies who were hired to load the instruments, although two were hired as drivers and the youngest was the son of the manager of the musical group.”

Due to these events, the CRAC-PF installed a blockade on the federal highway that goes from the municipality of Chilapa de Alvarez in order to demand that the state government hand over the bodies of the ten indigenous people. In this regard, on January 19th, the State Attorney General’s Office reported that they handed over five of the ten bodies to the relatives. They also asked the federal or state governments “to respond to the request that the National Guard remain within the limits of Chilapa and Jose Joaquín de Herrera.”

Similar demands were made by the CRAC-PF after, according to information from the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center, since December 19th, 2018 the situation in the area around Chilapa became more violent, due to the emergence of community police who call themselves the Peace and Justice Group, in the Nahua community of Paraíso de Tepila, municipality of Chilapa. This resulted in a confrontation between the two groups that resulted in deaths on both sides.

This conflict received more attention at the national level when on May 12th, a group of children from the Rincon de Chautla community, in the municipality of Chilapa, announced their incorporation to the CRAC-PF to defend themselves against Los Ardillos. A week later, women from the Rincon Tapila village, also in Chilapa, reported that they opted to do the same.

The latest reported events were a new complaint from the CRAC-PF in which they announced that on January 20th of this year, Cenobio Morales Bolaños, a member of his organization, was taken at the place known as La Pasadita, municipality of Jose Joaquín of Herrera, bordering with Chilapa.

Despite interventions by the government, Tlachinollan said that “the murder of the ten musicians from Alcozacan, unfortunately is part of this flow of violence that the authorities of the three levels of government have allowed to increase, calling into question their commitment and impartiality for the adequate attention of this conflict (…) what worries most is that the state authorities have not taken strategic decisions to contain this violence.

It considered that the approach of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador “that it is necessary to calm down the country and work on a more comprehensive strategy that addresses the causes of violence, requires interventions at the highest level in order to contain this criminal avalanche. You cannot postpone responses in the medium and long term; it is necessary to implement coordinated actions to dismantle this criminal structure.”

For more information in Spanish:

CRAC-PF bloquea vía en Chilapa; exige los cuerpos de 10 ultimados (La Jornada, 19 de enero de 2020)

Emboscan y matan a 10 de la CRAC-PF de Guerrero (La Jornada, 18 de enero de 2020)

OPINIÓN | La cruda realidad: balazos, no abrazos (Tlachinollan, 20 de enero de 2020)

Los 10 sepelios de Alcozacán, Guerrero: la comunidad que se resiste al crimen (Animal Político, 20 de enero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Organizaciones Civiles denuncian agresión y robo contra defensores del Centro Regional de Defensa de los Derechos Humanos José María Morelos y Pavón (6 de enero de 2020)

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)

Guerrero: Visita SIPAZ a desplazados de Leonardo Bravo y Zitlala (2 de mayo de 2019)

National/Guerrero: Agreement to Reintroduce Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts in Ayotzinapa Case. Number of Disappeared Increases in the Country

Photo @ Televisa News

On January 8th, parents of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa and the federal government agreed to reinstate the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE) in the investigation of the Iguala case.

In this regard, the Undersecretary for Human Rights, Population and Migration, Alejandro Encinas, said that one year after the Commission for Truth and Justice was created in the Ayotzinapa case, there are no “tangible results”, despite the fact that the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has “punctually fulfilled” its commitments to the fathers and mothers of the 43 disappeared student teachers, he told Proceso magazine.

In an interview, Paulo Abrao, Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, recalled that the IACHR’s proposal “has been the reintegration of the IGIE, as well as some of its former members being part of the Technical Assistance Group” and he stressed that “there was an evaluation” and talked about the progress of the initiatives taken (by the Commission headed by Encinas), “which are very positive, but it is necessary to accelerate the processes to achieve the objective, which is the location of the students.”

Rosales Sierra, a lawyer for the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center the, said that “the participation of the IGIE in its previous stage, acting in the field, with broad powers to provide evidence, full adjunct powers, which they previously had, was transcendent, but only on paper, but it did not have the facilities to exercise them.” However, “we cannot put the expectations of the case in the IGIE, it is up to the government, the presidential Commission, the FGR and the special prosecutor’s office to work for the clarification, they have the burden of investigations.”

Regarding the issue of disappearance, the Secretary of the Interior (SEGOB) announced in recent weeks that during “the first year of the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador 9,164 people were reported missing, of which only 43 percent were located; so there are 61,637 missing throughout the country.” He reported that the figures presented “are not yet final since at least 11 state prosecutors are still systematizing and updating all their information.”

Foe more information in Spanish:

Acuerdan reinstalación del GIEI en caso Ayotzinapa (El Universal, 8 de enero de 2019)

Encinas reconoce que no hay “resultados tangibles” en caso Iguala (Bajo Palabra, 8 de enero de 2019)

Encinas: en caso Ayotzinapa, se cumplen compromisos y hay avances (Milenio, 8 de enero de 2019)

En caso Ayotzinapa no hay “resultados tangibles”, admite Encinas (el Proceso, 8 de enero de 2019)

En México hay 61 mil 637 desaparecidos: Segob (Milenio, 6 de enero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Actions by The Other Forgotten of Ayotzinapa Announced (January 4, 2020)

Guerrero: Attorney General Will Investigate Ayotzinapa Case “Almost from Scratch” (September 25, 2019)

Guerrero/National: Reactions to Liberation of 24 Involved in Ayotzinapa Case (September 23, 2019)

Guerrero/National: Relatives of the 43 Student Teachers Disappeared in Iguala in 2014 Meet AMLO (September 23, 2019)

Guerrero: New Stage in Investigation of Ayotzinapa Case – Creation of Special Investigation Unit with Omar Gomez Trejo as Head (July 8, 2019)

National/Guerrero: VIDEO of Torture in Ayotzinapa Case Belies “Historic Truth” (June 27, 2019)

Guerrero: Attorney General and SEDENA Denounced for Lack of Interest in Solving Ayotzinapa Case (May 17, 2019)

Guerrero/National: More Information Published on Role of Army in Ayotzinapa Case (March 15, 2019)

Guerrero/National: Commission for Truth and Access to Justice in Ayotzinapa Case Set Up. Federal Judge Orders Investigation into Possible Responsibility of Attorney General Employees for Irregularities (January 22nd, 2019)

Guerrero: Director of Diario Alternativo Receives New Threats

Photo @SDP News

On January 4th, alleged members of an organized crime gang threatened Julian Chepe, general director of Diario Alternativo, by telephone.

In an interview, Julian Chepe said that “a person asked for my name and mentioned that he was looking for the director of Diario Alternativo. When I told him it was me, he asked me if I had been invited to a meeting by the municipal president of Marquelia and I told him that I had not been informed. It was then he began to tell me that I had to align with them, that it was not convenient for me not to do so because they could destroy me and my family. The person who communicated identified himself as a member of the Nueva Generacion Jalisco Cartel,” Articulo 19 reported.

According to Articulo 19, “the threat occurs after information about an armed attack on a taxi site on the Cuajinicuilapa – Acapulco route had been published.”

They highlighted that, “since 2017, Articulo 19 has documented 14 different attacks against members of this media, committed by different perpetrators such as members of organized crime; civil servants of Marquelia, San Luis Acatlan and Ometepec; as well as of supposed members of the Union of Peoples and Organizations of the State of Guerrero (UPOEG).”

Due to the documented background, the newspaper was incorporated into the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. “In spite of this, due to the nil or little coordination with authorities, as well as given the negligence of the Executive Commission of Attention to Victims (CEAV) and the Special Prosecutor’s Office to Assist Crimes Committed against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE), the aggressions remain constant, without seeking to guarantee access to justice and reparation for victims’ damage to date.”

At present, Julian Chepe does not have medical or psychological care, or legal advice, as for more than four months, the process to access the National Victims Registry (RENAVI) is in process.

“On the other hand, in September 2019 during the process of risk revaluation of the environment, the director learned that the investigation for the complaint filed before FEADLE for the deprivation of liberty that occurred on December 23rd, 2017 had been closed due lack of evidence, without the journalist having been notified of any diligence or decision by the authority.”

For all the above, Articulo 19 called on FEADLE, CEAV and the Protection Mechanism to fulfill their tasks to guarantee the integrity and security of the journalist.

For more information in Spanish:

Amenazan a director del medio Diario Alternativo en Guerrero (ARTICLE 19, 6 de enero de 2019)

Director de medio en Guerrero denuncia amenazas de muerte del crimen organizado (Animal Política, 6 de enero de 2019)

Director de medio en Guerrero denuncia amenazas de muerte del crimen organizado (MSN, 7 de enero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca/Nacional: Reportero de Oaxaca denuncia amenaza de muerte; Espacio OSC urge a crear un ambiente propicio y seguro para quienes defienden los derechos humanos, ejercen el periodismo y defienden la libertad de expresión en el país (11 de diciembre de 2019)

Oaxaca/Nacional: Nuevas agresiones a periodistas; se modificará mecanismo de protección, Encinas (9 de diciembre de 2019)

Nacional: CNDH urge a esclarecer crímenes contra periodistas en México; 90% de ellos en la impunidad, denuncia (4 de noviembre de 2019)

Nacional/Internacional: ONU presenta Diagnóstico del Mecanismo de Protección para Defensores de Derechos Humanos y Periodistas (28 de agosto de 2019)

Oaxaca: Asesinan fundador y director de radio comunitaria; es el decimo comunicador asesinado en el gobierno de López Obrador (13 de junio de 2019)

Oaxaca: organismos internacionales piden garantizar la seguridad de la periodista oaxaqueña Soledad Jarquín Edgar (7 de junio de 2019)

Guerrero: Actions by The Other Forgotten of Ayotzinapa Announced

@Jorge Gonzalez

On December 17th, at a press conference held at the headquarters of the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa, relatives of students who lost their lives in different events since 2011 announced the formation of the Committee for The Other Forgotten that will seek to obtain justice in their cases. This Committee is made up of relatives of Gabriel Echeverria de Jesus and Alexis Herrera Pino who were shot in Chilpnacingo in December 2011; of Freddy Fernando Crispin and Eugenio Alberto Tamarit, who were run over in the vicinity of Atoyac in January 2014; of Julio Cesar Ramirez Nava, Daniel Solis Gallardo and Julio Cesar Mondragon Fontes who were executed in Iguala on September 26th, 2014; and Filemon Tacuba Castro and Jonathan Morales Hernandez who were killed in October 2016, on the road that connects Tixtla with Chilpancingo, by alleged members of organized crime

They announced that as the first action they will move to Mexico City to request a hearing with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and the Under Secretary of Human Rights and Population, Alejandro Encinas, to present their demands. They claimed that despite having spent several years fighting for justice, no one has paid attention to them. They finally declared that “they will not leave in peace” those who are responsible for these murders: former governor Angel Aguirre Rivero, former Guerrero attorney Alberto Lopez Rosas, former federal public security head Genaro Garcia Luna and former president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa.

For more information in Spanish:

Conforman Los Otros Olvidados de Ayotzinapa para exigir justicia (La Jornada, 17 de diciembre de 2019)

Anuncian Los Olvidados de Ayotzinapa movilizaciones en CDMX (Quadartin, 17 de diciembre de 2019)

Protestan en Palacio Nacional por asesinato de 9 normalistas (Excelsior, 18 de diciembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Denuncian al Estado mexicano ante el Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos por muerte y tortura de normalistas de Ayotzinapa en 2011 (16 de diciembre de 2015)

Guerrero: a 2 dos años sigue impune el caso de Ayotzinapa (13 de diciembre de 2013)

Guerrero: Liberan a policías relacionados al asesinato de estudiantes de la Normal Rural de Ayotzinapa (27 de abril de 2013)

Guerrero: normalistas conmemoran primer aniversario de la represión en Ayotzinapa (13 de diciembre de 2013)

Guerrero: Body of Activist Arnulfo Cero Found in Hidden Grave More than One Month after his Disappearance in Tlapa de Comonfort

On November 20th, Guerrero Governor Hector Astudillo Flores reported that the body of the activist and leader of the La Montaña Popular Front (FPM in its Spanish acronym), Arnulfo Ceron Soriano, was found in a hidden grave in Tlapa de Comonfort. He had been missing since last October 11th. He regretted the murder and announced that they will find the perpetrators of the crime.

The tomb was located after the statements from Jorge Gomez ‘La Chiva’, designated as head of the “Plaza Tlapa”, who was arrested earlier this month in Morelos. He said that according to official reports, for a decade ‘La Chiva’ controlled the municipal police of that town, where “there is a criminal network made up of politicians and criminals who traffic drugs from La Montaña Guerrero to the states of Puebla and Morelos.”

Since the activist’s disappearance was reported, the La Montaña Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, along with other civil and social organizations, held the Trenpa Morenista mayor, Dionisio Merced Pichardo Garcia, and his cabinet chief, Marco Antonio Garcia Morales responsible. According to testimonies, “both politicians are colluded with organized crime.”

“We cannot ignore that the conditions of insecurity that prevail in Tlapa, the collusion of municipal authorities and other institutions with organized crime, as well as the lack of guarantees for human rights defenders and social activists in particular Arnulfo Ceron to carry out their work, led to the disappearance and the cowardly murder of the social defender,” Tlachinollan said in a statement after the discovery. He also denounced that “the constant disqualifications and smear campaigns faced by Arnulfo and other members of the Popular Front of the Mountain by municipal authorities were generating a permissible framework for their subsequent attack.” It urged “to deepen the investigations that will elucidate the motive of this planned crime and implement non-repetition measures.”

Other civil society organizations also reported that there was a lack of diligence and inter-institutional coordination among the authorities that intervened in the search for the defender, which meant that the search work carried out was started a month after the disappearance was reported. They asked the authorities to continue with their “work diligently, promptly and expeditiously,” as well as to consider the defense work carried out by Ceron Soriano in all the lines of investigation that are opened, taking into account the social, political and economic situation of the region, “particularly to inquire about the networks of macro-criminal power that operate in the state and municipality.”

For more information in Spanish:

Falta de coordinación interinstitucional en búsqueda de Arnulfo Cerón, denuncian organizaciones civiles (El Sol de Acapulco, 21 de noviembre de 2019)

Tlachinollan responsabiliza al alcalde de Tlapa ante la ejecución del activista Arnulfo Cerón (Proceso, 20 de noviembre de 2019)

Hallan el cadáver del activista Arnulfo Cerón en una fosa clandestina de Tlapa de Comonfort (Proceso, 20 de noviembre de 2019)

Hallan en fosa cuerpo del activista Arnulfo Cerón Soriano (Aristegui Noticias, 20 de noviembre de 2019)

Tras un mes desaparecido, encuentran el cuerpo del activista Arnulfo Cerón en fosa de Tlapa, Guerrero (Animal Político, 20 de noviembre de 2019)

El cuerpo del activista Arnulfo Cerón es localizado en una fosa clandestina en Tlapa, Guerrero (Sin Embargo, 20 de noviembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: A un mes de la desaparición del defensor de derechos humanos Arnulfo Cerón Soriano (13 de noviembre de 2019)

Guerrero: Siguen exigiendo la búsqueda con vida del activista Arnulfo Cerón Soriano a 19 días de su desaparición forzada (29 de octubre de 2019)

Guerrero: Denuncian desaparición de un activista en Tlapa de Comonfort. Asesinan integrante del Concejo Regional de Autoridades Agrarias en Defensa del Territorio en Malinaltepec (14 de octubre de 2019)