Guerrero: New Stage in Investigation of Ayotzinapa Case – Creation of Special Investigation Unit with Omar Gomez Trejo as Head

Photo @ teleSUR

On June 26th, Agreement A/010/19 was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation, with which the Special Investigation and Litigation Unit for the Ayotzinapa case was created.

“The agreement establishes that the Special Unit will be responsible for the investigation and prosecution of the crimes committed in Iguala, Guerrero, in September 2014, until the conclusion of all the criminal proceedings related to the events that led to the disappearance of the 43 students from the ‘Raúl Isidro Burgos’ Normal School.”

On the same day, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR in its Spanish acronym) reported that the teacher Omar Gomez Trejo would occupy the ownership of the new unit.

“For the relatives of the disappeared students and for the organizations that accompany them, the announcement means the beginning of a new stage in the criminal investigation (…) in particular, the appointment of the new head is a reason for hope.” This is due to his knowledge of the case and his long career in human rights organizations.

As a first initiative, the head of the Special Unit for Investigation and Litigation of the FGR and the Commission for Truth and Access to Justice for the Ayotzinapa case, agreed to design a work plan to guarantee progress such as, “the integration of all the archives of investigation linked to the case and that, depending directly on the Attorney General, would guarantee substantive progress in the investigation and clarification of the Ayotzinapa case”, the Government Secretariat stated.

For more information in Spanish:

Inician nueva etapa en investigación del caso Ayotzinapa (Aristegui Noticias, 28 de junio de 2019)

Omar Gómez se reúne con unidad especial del Caso Ayotzinapa (Milenio, 28 de junio de 2019)

Comunicado FGR 313/19 Se crea por Acuerdo, Unidad Especial de Investigación y Litigación para el caso Ayotzinapa (Fiscalía General de la República, 26 de junio de 2019)

Familiares y organizaciones saludan inicio de una nueva etapa en la investigación del caso Ayotzinapa (Tlachinollan, 28 de junio de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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/National: Decree Establishes Truth Commission for Ayotzinapa Case (December 19th, 2018)

Guerrero/National/International: CNDH and IACHR Ayotzinapa Reports (December 14th, 2018)

Guerrero/National: Ayotzinapa, Four Years On… (October 1st, 2018)

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National/Guerrero: VIDEO of Torture in Ayotzinapa Case Belies “Historic Truth”

@nytimes

In recent days, a video showing acts of torture against Carlos Canto Salgado during his detention in the case of Ayotzinapa was made public by several media outlets.

According to information from Aristegui Noticias, “Canto was arrested by elements of the Federal Ministerial Police and the Secretariat of the Navy (SEMAR in its Spanish acronym); his case is one of 34 cases in which the UNHR found “strong elements of conviction” that indicate the commission of acts of torture, in addition to other human rights violations.”

“In response to accusations like that of the UN, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR in its Spanish) – now the Attorney General of the Republic – denied having built the so-called “historical truth” based on torture and affirmed that it only verified vexations in two cases,” different human rights centers reported. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Attorney General’s Office to relaunch the investigation of the case, as well as to definitively dismiss the so-called “historical truth”.

The video “confirms that the investigation of the disappearance of the student teachers resorted to practices that violated human rights” and shows “that the internal investigation of the officials who have diverted and obstructed justice is pending.”

It should be recalled that the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH in its Spanish acronym) in its recommendation on Ayotzinapa regarding Canto Salgado “expressly concluded that there was no evidence that he had been subjected to asphyxiation or electric shocks, despite the abundance of evidence and despite the repeated complaint of the detainee himself.” The video also proves that the CNDH “covered up this practice with a recommendation that is not reliable”, the organizations SERAPAZ, Tlachinollan, Fundar and CentroProdh indicated.

“It is time to break the chain of complicity and cover-ups around the Ayotzinapa case, and to focus the Mexican State’s efforts on truth and justice for all those involved with strict adherence to human rights,” said Jan Jarab, representative of the UNHR in Mexico.

For more information in Spanish:

ONU pide nueva investigación de caso Ayotzinapa tras video de tortura de detenido (Aristegui Noticias, 24 de junio de 2019)

Video de tortura comprueba inacción de gobierno en caso Ayotzinapa: ONU (Milenio, 24 de junio de 2019)

Video confirma tortura en caso Ayotzinapa y acredita encubrimiento de CNDH: OSC (23 de junio de 2019)

Ayotzinapa: video demuestra uso impune de la tortura en la investigación (Comunicado de Prensa, 23 de junio de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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/National: Decree Establishes Truth Commission for Ayotzinapa Case (December 19th, 2018)

Guerrero/National/International: CNDH and IACHR Ayotzinapa Reports (December 14th, 2018)

Guerrero/National: Ayotzinapa, Four Years On… (October 1st, 2018)

Guerrero: 16 CRAC PC and CECOP Prisoners Released

@Red Noticias

On June 7th, the 16 members of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to the La Parota Dam (CECOP in its Spanish acronym) and the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities-Community Police (CRAC-PC in its Spanish acronym) were declared innocent. They had been arrested on January 7th, 2018, following violence in La Concepcion, in the rural area of ​​Acapulco, where six civilians and five community policemen were killed, The first thirteen were released on the same day, including the spokesman and leader of the CECOP, Marco Antonio Suastegui Muñoz. It is expected that the others will leave in the coming days.

In an interview with reporters, the lawyer of La Montaña, Tlachinollan Human Rights Center of, Vidulfo Rosales Sierra said that the judges ruled in favor, since the Public Prosecutor’s Office could not verify the full responsibility of the detainees. He stressed that the court expressed “its concerns about these extremely inadequate investigations, where there was torture, evidence was extracted illegally, where they were also in the Office of the Prosecutor for many days and the defense was not allowed to enter to speak with them, and in all that time, illegal evidence was obtained.”

Given the risk of fresh confrontation between the inhabitants of La Concepcion and the people who will be released, Vidulfo Rosales called for a reconciliation and pacification path that “is not only of the parties, but must also come from the State”, recognizing that there are many old grievances and disputes that exist in the area.

On the same day, in Chilpancingo, members of the Movement for the Liberation of the Political Prisoners of Guerrero were evicted by riot police when they blocked the Sol highway between Mexico and Acapulco precisely to demand the release of the prisoners who were innocent.

For more information in Spanish:

Liberan a comunitarios y miembros del Cecop (La Jornada, 7 de junio de 2019)

Liberaron a 16 defensores del agua en Guerrero (Regeneración, 7 de junio de 2019)

Dictan libertad absolutoria a los 16 detenidos de la CRAC-PC y CECOP (Quadratin, 7 e de junio de 2019)


Excarcelan a 13 opositores a La Parota (La Jornada, 8 de junio de 2019)

Policías desalojan a manifestantes de la Autopista del Sol (Proceso, 7 de junio de 2019)

Bloquea Movimiento por Libertad de Presos Políticos la Autopista del Sol (Quadratin, 7 de junio de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Urgent Action “No Dam, No Prisoners”, Demands Release of 16 Indigenous CECOP Members (March 14, 2019)

Guerrero/International: MEPs and International Organizations Express Concern over Criminalization of CECOP Members (February 13, 2019)

Guerrero: national and international organizations visit prisoners of the CECOP and the CRAC-PC (October 10, 2018)

Guerrero: Two Members of CRAC-PF and CIPOG-EZ Murdered

(@(@CRAC-PF)

On May 23rd, Bertoldo Morales Hilario and Isaias Xantenco Ahuejote, members of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities-Peoples’ Founders (CRAC-PF in its Spanish acronym), from the town of Xicotlan, municipality of Chilapa de Alvarez, were both kidnapped and killed. Both were promoters of the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero – Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ in its Spanish acronym), part of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym). Their bodies were found the next day in plastic bags on the Chilapa-Tlapa highway,

The CRAC-PF identified as alleged perpetrators members of the Peace and Justice group, which has links with Los Ardillos criminal gang and confirmed that residents of Xicotlan are holding Braulio Palatzin Tranquero, nephew of Tranquilino Tecorral Palatzin, one of the leaders of the Peace and Justice Group. According to the CRAC-PF, the residents warned that because the authorities do not solve the problems of insecurity they would do justice “by their own hand.”

For its part, the CNI recalled that “this artful crime is added to the recent murder of compañeros Lucio Bartolo Faustino and Modesto Verales Sebastian, councilor and delegate of the CNI-CIG, for which we denounce the terror policy that the narco-paramilitary groups, with the blatant help of the three levels of bad government, are implementing against the brothers of the CIPOG-EZ and all the indigenous territories of Mexico.”

This is in the same region where on May 12th, a group of children from the community of Rincon de Chautla, from the municipality of Chilapa, announced their incorporation into the CRAC-PF to defend themselves from Los Ardillos. A week later, women from the Rinilla Tapila village, also in Chilapa, reported that they had chosen to do the same. As a result of this, the State Government went to the area four times to leave food supplies and to stop the participation of children in the self-defense process; but the demand for greater security was not met. “The children of the community of Rincon de Chautla in Chilapa are a sign of the abandonment of the authorities and are a call for help to address their problems”, said the director of the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center, Abel Barrera Hernandez. “The fact that they have drafted children is a example of the limit in which they find themselves in defenselessness. Placing children as a last resort to be able highlight a problem where the authorities have not attended is a sign of desperation, an expression of abandonment”, he said.

For more information in Spanish:

Asesinan a dos dirigentes de autodefensas en Guerrero (La Jornada, 25 de mayo de 2019)

ALTO A LA GUERRA NARCOPARAMILITAR CONTRA EL CIPOG-EZ (CNI. CIG, 25 de mayo de 2019)

Dos policías comunitarios que grabaron a niños autodefensas son asesinados en Guerrero (Sin Embargo, 25 de mayo de 2019)

Niños comunitarios, un llamado desesperado de auxilio: Tlachinollan (Bajo Palabra, 17 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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

 

Guerrero: Attorney General and SEDENA Denounced for Lack of Interest in Solving Ayotzinapa Case

On May 14th, during a protest by the parents of the 43 disappeared students of the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa in Iguala in 2014, it was reported that in “five months of government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the Ayotzinapa case continues stalled because the FGR and the SEDENA have no interest in solving it.”

The spokesperson for the parents, Meliton Ortega Garcia, urged the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR in its Spanish acronym) to appoint the special prosecutor for the Iguala case and the National Defense Secretariat (SEDENA in its Spanish acronym) to deliver the evidence and information they have in their possession about the attack on the the students.

According to Vidulfo Rosales Sierra, lawyer of the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center, “there is a commitment with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and with Undersecretary Alejandro Encinas, although there are federal government institutions that are not walking hand in hand with the instruction given by the head of state, such as the FGR, which to date has not designated the Special Prosecutor for the Ayotzinapa case. As long as the prosecutor is not named, there will be no investigation. The same happens with the Mexican Army, which has information, but we do not know which and the relevance it has.”

According to La Razon, the relatives of the disappeared are conducting a first day in search of information in Iguala and asked the population to join in a “manner of solidarity to deliver information that they have the whereabouts of their children and that they will reserve their right to anonymity”

For more information in Spanish:

Padres de los 43: FGR y Sedena sin disposición para aclarar el caso (La Jornada, 14 de mayo de 2019)

A la FGR y Sedena no les interesa resolver el caso Ayotzinapa: padres (La Razón, 11 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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/National: Decree Establishes Truth Commission for Ayotzinapa Case (December 19th, 2018)

Guerrero/National/International: CNDH and IACHR Ayotzinapa Reports  (December 14th, 2018)

Guerrero/National: Ayotzinapa, Four Years On…  (October 1st, 2018)

National/Guerrero: Disappearances Increasing in Mexico – CNDH. No Progress in Victor Ayala Tapia Case

Photo @ CCTI

In April, Ismael Eslava Perez, first visitor of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH in its Spanish acronym), reported that “the disappearance of people in Mexico has not stopped and on the contrary, continues to increase throughout the country, with about 30,000 missing persons, 1,306 clandestine graves found and 3,760 bodies or remains found to date (…) due to the complexity of this problem in Mexico, the official figures are not precise, ranging from 30 thousand to more than 40 thousand people disappeared today , however what is a fact, is that the numbers do not descend, do not stop, and what is more, continue to increase.”

Forbes said it is important that “the political will be reflected in channeling resources necessary for the search, location, investigation and punishment of those responsible from the federal authorities, but particularly the states because there the largest number is missing”

The Mexican government has announced that, “in this 2019 a budget of more than 400 million pesos will be applied for searches.”

Many of the cases of forced disappearance in the country remain unpunished. One example is that of Victor Ayala Tapia who disappeared on September 14th, 2010 in the community of Papanoa, municipality of Tecpan de Galena, in the state of Guerrero. Ayala Tapia belonged to the organization Hermenegildo Galeana Free Front, a campesino organization that promotes productive projects with its partners that negotiated with a mango processing factory to locate it in Papanoa.

According to information from the Collective Against Torture and Impunity (CCTI in its Spanish acronym), “eyewitnesses reported that approximately 100 meters from Victor’s home, a patrol car of the State Preventive Police was parked, moments before the van arrived that took Victor and continued circulating behind the colony to reappear when they took him.”

Nine years after the disappearance of Ayala Tapia there has been no progress in the investigation and the relatives remain in uncertainty.

For more information in Spanish:

Desaparición de personas aumenta en México: CNDH (Forbes, 19 de abril de 2019)

Caso: Víctor Ayala Tapia (CCTI, 4 de febrero de 2016)

De 2007 a 2016, alrededor de 30 mil personas desaparecieron en México (UnoTV, 19 de abril de 2019)

México: Detención-desaparición forzosa del Sr. Víctor Ayala Tapia (Organización Mundial Contra la Tortura, 8 de octubre de 2010)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: briefs – Support is requested in Radio Ñomndaa case; SCJN assumes responsability in the case of Rosendo Radilla; 4 months of disappearance for activist Victor Ayala (January 24, 2011)

Guerrero: briefs – NGOs present amicus brief to Inter-American Court on case of environmentalists; activist is detained (September 23, 2010)

Guerrero: CNI Denounces Kidnapping and Murder of Two Members

@Aristegui Noticias

On May 5th, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), the Indigenous Council of Government (CIG) and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) denounced “the kidnapping and murder of the Nahua council member of the Indigenous Council of Government Jose Lucio Bartolo Faustino and of the delegate of the National Indigenous Congress Modesto Verales Sebastian, of the Nahua indigenous communities of Xicotlan and Buenavista respectively.” The two victims participated on May 4 in a meeting with the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ) in the city of Chilpancingo, Guerrero, at approximately 3 pm. On their return trip they were attacked “by narco-paramilitary groups that operate in the region with the complicity and protection of the three levels of bad government, which with contempt and lies pretend to meet the demands of security and justice of the indigenous communities.”

The identities of the deceased were confirmed by the Prosecutor’s Office that initiated an investigation into the murder by firearm as the vehicle of Jose Lucio Bartolo Faustino and Modesto Verales Sebastian was found with bullet entry holes.

Both participated in the collection of signatures for the CNI presidency candidate, Maria de Jesus Patricio, Marichuy, as well as in mobilizations and meetings of the CNI/EZLN. In addition, they organized the Community Police in their communities “to resist violence, extortion and the imposition of the poppy cultivation by two criminal groups, Los Ardillos and Los Rojos, who control the municipal presidencies of the region with the complicity of the Mexican Army and the state and municipal police and even succeeded in imposing, at some point, one of its leaders as president of the Congress of the state of Guerrero.”

“We denounce the intensification of neoliberal repression against the peoples, nations and indigenous tribes that do not agree with their death plans in Guerrero and throughout Mexico, nor with the violence they use to impose them and repress, kidnap, disappear and assassinate those of us who decide to plant a new world from the indigenous geographies that we are”, the statement concluded.

For more information in Spanish:

COMUNICADO DEL CNI-CIG Y EL EZLN ANTE EL COBARDE SECUESTRO Y ASESINATO DE LOS COMPAÑEROS DEL CONCEJO INDÍGENA Y POPULAR DE GUERRERO – EMILIANO ZAPATA (Enlace Zapatista el 5 de mayo de 2019)

Dos activistas indígenas son asesinados en Guerrero; el CNI, vinculado al EZLN, culpa a AMLO (Sin Embargo el 5 de mayo de 2019)

“Narcomilitares” emboscan y asesinan a líderes del CNI en Guerrero (Grupo Fórmula el 6 de mayo de 2019)

Asesinan a dos activistas indígenas del CNI en Chilpancingo, Guerrero (Político el 5 de mayo de 2019)

Matan a dos integrantes del Congreso Nacional Indígena en Guerrero (Aristegui Noticias el 5 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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)

Chiapas: denuncia aumenta de violencia en los municipios de Sitalá y Chilón (El 6 de marzo de 2018)

Chiapas: A year since the “unjust” incarceration of communal defender from Salto de Agua: Chiapas Denuncia Pública (October 8, 2015)