Guerrero/International: New Hearing of Ayotzinapa Case with Inter-American Commission for Human Rights

On May 8th, during the hearing held in the context of the 168th Period of Sessions of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) that took place in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, prior to a report on the case that the IACHR will publish and to a visit to Mexico next July, relatives of the 43 Ayotzinapa student teachers who disappeared in Guerrero in 2014, and their legal representatives warned that the federal government intends to shelve the investigation before a possible alternation in the presidency of the republic this year. “These men know that their corrupt government is on the way out and they are afraid that the next government will want to get to where it [the current government] stops in our case. For that reason they want to close each line by acting like they are investigating,” said the father of one of the disappeared.

During his speech, Santiago Aguirre, deputy director of the Prodh Center, said that, “there are four signs that confirm our worst fears that the sole priority of this administration is to close the case given the high probability that those who made the historical truth will soon leave their positions of power.” These signs include: “the rejection of the federal government of the UN report, which documented torture of those allegedly basically responsible for the official theory; the filtering and misrepresentation of messages of the alleged perpetrators -provided by the DEA- with the purpose of exculpating state and federal officials; the failure of the Attorney General in his deficiency to make new accusations; and the refusal to comply with the psychosocial diagnosis.”

Commissioner Ernesto Vargas, of Colombian origin, emphasized his concern over the disqualifications against Jan Jarab, representative in Mexico of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. He insisted on the concern that the office has discovered a “pattern of torture” that “can ruin the investigation.” It is worth mentioning that faced with the most recent questions from the Mexican government, the UNCHR defended the findings of the report “Double Injustice. Report on Human Rights Violations in the Investigation of the Ayotzinapa Case”, published last March, which includes allegations of torture and cover-ups in the Ayotzinapa case. It also reiterated its call to the Mexican authorities to implement their recommendations, in order to clarify the facts, guarantee justice, provide reparations to the victims and “guarantee the non-repetition of these tragic events.”

The representatives of the Mexican State in Santo Domingo were led by Ambassador Miguel Ruiz Cabañas, who presented the progress of the investigations made by the Attorney General’s Office on the leaks of information provided by the United States government of conversations of those implicated in the Ayotzinapa case. According to the person in charge of the Special Office for the Iguala case, of 5,000 images obtained, it was decided to explore 360 ​​places in search of the youths, of which, from November to last April, 325 were reviewed “without tangible results”. He also mentioned that 31 people have been considered responsible for having participated in the events, of which 16 would have open proceedings in progress for carrying weapons, organized crime, kidnapping and crimes against health [sic].

For more information in Spanish:

Alertan de intención de cerrar el caso Ayotzinapa ante probable alternancia presidencial (Centro ProDH, 8 de mayo de 2018)

En audiencia de la CIDH, activistas alertan contra carpetazo al caso Ayotzinapa (Proceso, 8 de mayo de 2018)

Este gobierno ya se va y quiere cerrar el caso Ayotzinapa, acusan padres de normalistas desaparecidos (Animal Político, 8 de mayo de 2018)

Caso Ayotzinapa en la CIDH: padres de los 43 exigen no olvidar a los jóvenes (CNN México, 9 de mayo de 2018)

La ONU-DH en Ginebra defiende informe sobre Ayotzinapa y reitera llamado a acatar sus recomendaciones (Proceso, 9 de mayo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Internacional/Guerrero: Exigen que la PGR agote todas las líneas de investigación que surgen de nueva información en caso Ayotzinapa (18 de abril de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional/Internacional : Nuevos informes sobre caso Ayotzinapa (15 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero: PGR buscará cerrar caso Ayotzinapa antes de diciembre (6 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / México – Nacional: Ayotzinapa: Caravana Rompiendo el Silencio y el Olvido (3 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / Nacional-México: Ayotzinapa a 40 meses de la desaparición de los 43 sigue la “indolencia” del gobierno (30 de enero de 2018)

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National: 20,390 Forcibly Displaced in 2017 – Over 329,900 in the Last 12 Years

(@CMDPDH)

On May 2nd, the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH in its Spanish acronym) published a report on forced internal displacement in Mexico that indicated that in 2017, the climate of violence that prevails in the country caused 25 internal forced mass displacement events in nine states of the Republic, which affected 20,390 people. In the last 12 years at least 329,917 people have had to flee their homes, a figure that is “extremely conservative” as it only includes the cases in which entire communities have had to move. The CMDPDH estimates the figure could exceed one million people, although it affirms that the government has not published figures due to not wanting to “recognize the scale of the problem and the existence of an armed conflict.”

The report states that the states of Guerrero (seven cases), Sinaloa (five), Chihuahua (three), Chiapas (three) and Oaxaca (three) concentrated practically all mass displacement episodes registered in 2017. Chiapas was the entity where the phenomenon affected the largest number of people: 6,090, most of them originating in the municipalities of Altos de Chalchihuitan and Chenalho. 60.44% of the people affected were indigenous and the vast majority lived in rural areas

Of all the factors that led to forced displacement, the majority of them were caused by armed organized groups. Other causes were political violence, social conflict and territorial disputes and, to a lesser extent, the implementation of extractive mining projects.

The CMDPDH regretted that in Mexico the issue of forced internal displacement remains an issue without diagnosis, without public policies or official responses: “Internally displaced people do not have a framework of protection, they are like a kind of legal limbo where nobody confers them rights. The displaced people are left at the mercy of the will of local governments.” In addition, although it acknowledged the existence are two local laws, in Chiapas and in Guerrero, lack of regulations has prevented their proper enforcement to date.

For more information in Spanish:

Informe 2017 : Desplazamiento interno forzado en México (CMDPDH, informe completo, 2 mayo de 2018)

La violencia provocó el desplazamiento forzado de 20 mil 390 personas en 2017: CMDPDH (Proceso, 2 de mayo de 2018)

Más de 20 mil desplazados en México durante 2017; la mayoría, indígenas: Informe (Aristegui Noticias, 2 de mayo de 2018)

En 12 años, 329.9 mil víctimas de desplazamiento forzado en el país (La Jornada, 3 de mayo de 2018)

Los conflictos territoriales y la violencia llevan al éxodo a más de 12.000 indígenas en México (El País, 3 de mayo de 2018)

Por la violencia, más de 325 mil personas han dejado sus hogares a la fuerza en México (Animal Político, 3 de mayo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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

Chiapas: SIPAZ visitó a personas desplazadas de Chalchihuitán (20 de abril de 2018)

Guerrero: De la civilidad truncada a la desaparición de la razón, informe final de la Misión de Observación al Estado de Guerrero (16 de abril de 2018)

Chiapas: Plantón desplazados ejido Puebla, Chenalhó (10 de abril de 2018)

Chiapas: Otro conflicto agrario en los límites de Chenalhó provoca desplazados en el municipio de Aldama [blog incluye antecedentes] (27 de marzo de 2018)

Chiapas: desplazados de Chalchihuitán denuncian condiciones en las que se siguen encontrando(23 de marzo de 2018)

Chiapas : sin condiciones de seguridad regresan a casa más de 4000 desplazados en Chalchihuitán (4 de enero de 2018)

SIPAZ: BOLETÍN URGENTE – Reactivación del conflicto agrario entre Chenalhó y Chalchihuitán : violencia generalizada e impunidad (16 de diciembre de 2017)

Guerrero/National: “43 X 43 in the Heart Day” Begins

On April 20th, the 43 X 43 in the Heart Day started, taking into account that April 26th will mark 43 months since the disappearance of the 43 students of the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa in Iguala, Guerrero. One of the main demands is to ask President Enrique Peña Nieto (EPN) to comply with the agreements he signed with relatives of those who disappeared in October 2014. At that meeting, EPN had committed himself to getting to the bottom of the matter until he found the students. However, “43 months after the disappearance of our children, there are no concrete advances, on the contrary, they intend to close our case,” they reported. Some of the actions are being carried out in Mexico City and others in Guerrero itself.

Meliton Ortega, spokesperson of the Nos Faltan 43 collective explained that “we want the Mexican government to comply with the four lines of investigation of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE). Today it has been proven that there is transfer of drugs from Iguala to Chicago and we demand that this line be broadened.” He announced to the candidates for the Presidency of the Republic that they will maintain their protests while the case is unsolved: “Now that the election is on the doorstep, the government does not even intend to offer advances along the lines of investigation we have demanded (… ) That is why we say that the case should not be closed, as the government of Enrique Peña Nieto claims. What he did during 2017 was just killing time.”

For the same reason, on April 24th, students’ relatives tried to reach the official residence of Los Pinos to demand an audience with EPN, and demand that the case be solved before the end of his term. However, their attempt was blocked by more than 400 elements of the capital city police, which generated tension that resulted in a confrontation that left six demonstrators and two uniformed personnel injured.

The parents of the 43 also denounced the police harassment to which they were subjected, since at the end of the demonstration, police followed them to where they are staying to carry out the activities that will continue in Mexico City and there they remained several hours possibly to “arrest the student leaders and the parents of the 43 on charges of vandalism.”

The next day, the parents of the 43 had planned to speak at the Ministry of the Interior to request an audience with minister Alfonso Navarrete, who has not received them since he took office. On the 26th, marking one more month of the disappearance of the student teachers, a march from the Angel of Independence to the capital’s Zocalo.

For more information in Spanish:

Granaderos impiden a padres de los 43 llegar a Los Pinos (La Jornada, 25 de abril de 2018)

Más de 400 policías intentaron encapsularnos para detenernos: padres de los 43 (Desinformémonos, 25 de abril de 2018)

Por las elecciones, olvidan a normalistas desaparecidos: padres de los 43 (Proceso, 23 de abril de 2018)

Los 43 latidos del corazón de México (Tlachinollan, 23 de abril de 2018)

Inició jornada “En el corazón 43 x 43” para exigir la aparición de los normalistas de Ayotzinapa (Desinformémonos, 21 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Internacional/Guerrero: Exigen que la PGR agote todas las líneas de investigación que surgen de nueva información en caso Ayotzinapa (18 de abril de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional/Internacional : Nuevos informes sobre caso Ayotzinapa (15 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero: PGR buscará cerrar caso Ayotzinapa antes de diciembre (6 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / México – Nacional: Ayotzinapa: Caravana Rompiendo el Silencio y el Olvido (3 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / Nacional-México: Ayotzinapa a 40 meses de la desaparición de los 43 sigue la “indolencia” del gobierno (30 de enero de 2018)

Guerrero : Caso Ayotzinapa: reunión con el Consejo de la Judicatura Federal y 5ta visita oficial del Mecanismo de Seguimiento de la CIDH (8 de febrero de 2018)

Guerrero / Nacional-México: Ayotzinapa a 40 meses de la desaparición de los 43 sigue la “indolencia” del gobierno (30 de enero de 2018)

International/Guerrero: Demands for Attorney General to Exhaust All Lines of Investigation Following New Information in Ayotzinapa Case

On April 12th, the newspaper Reforma reported that intercepted telephone conversations between members of the Guerreros Unidos de Chicago cartel and “armed en from Iguala” show that the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Normal Rural School in 2014 was ordered from the United States. According to the text revealed by the newspaper, the heads of that criminal organization gave orders from Chicago to involve police in the detention of students.

According to the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center (PRODH in its Spanish acronym), an organization that accompanied the families of the students, “the messages show the weakness of the so-called “historical truth” of the PGR [Attorney General]. Particularly we refer to the message published with the words: “60 packages already saved and others with San Pedro”, assuming that the word “packages” refers to people, the message was sent on September 27th at 3:28 pm, which is in clear contradiction with the official theory: according to the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) at that time the students would have been executed and incinerated, while the message is clear that at that time they had “saved” packages.

The civil organizations Serapaz, the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, Fundar and the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, noted that what was published by Reforma corroborates that the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) was right to urge the Mexican State to open and exhaust the line of investigation related to the transfer of drugs from Mexico to the United States, specifically from Iguala to Chicago.

The PRODH Center stated that, “almost 43 months after the events, the messages confirm that the case cannot be closed and that the official explanation that has been given is unsatisfactory. In light of the revelation of Reforma, we demand that the PGR exhaust all lines of investigation that emerge from the messages, avoiding a hasty closure with electoral overtones and that the scrutiny of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the collaboration of the North American agencies are increased.”

For more information in Spanish:

Caso Ayotzinapa: Nueva Información de telefonía muestra falencias de versión oficial e impide dar por concluido el caso (Centro Prodh, 12 de abril de 2018)

Guiaron narcos desde Chicago ataques en Iguala (Reforma, 12 de abril de 2018)

Mensajes entre ‘Guerreros Unidos’ muestran “debilidad” de “verdad histórica” del caso Ayotzinapa: Centro Pro (Aristegui, 12 de abril de 2018)

Conversaciones entre líderes de Guerreros Unidos revelan que fueron hasta 60 los desaparecidos en Iguala (Animal Político, 12 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero/Nacional/Internacional : Nuevos informes sobre caso Ayotzinapa (15 de marzo de 2018)

 

Guerrero: PGR buscará cerrar caso Ayotzinapa antes de diciembre (6 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / México – Nacional: Ayotzinapa: Caravana Rompiendo el Silencio y el Olvido (3 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / Nacional-México: Ayotzinapa a 40 meses de la desaparición de los 43 sigue la “indolencia” del gobierno (30 de enero de 2018)

Guerrero : Caso Ayotzinapa: reunión con el Consejo de la Judicatura Federal y 5ta visita oficial del Mecanismo de Seguimiento de la CIDH (8 de febrero de 2018)

Guerrero / Nacional-México: Ayotzinapa a 40 meses de la desaparición de los 43 sigue la “indolencia” del gobierno (30 de enero de 2018)

Guerrero: caso Ayotzinapa: se exige la entrega de vídeos del Palacio de Justicia de Iguala para conocer lo ocurrido (19 de enero de 2018)

Guerrero: Ayotzinapa, tercera audiencia de oficio en la CIDH: “el gobierno federal no quiere resolver el caso” (26 de octubre de 2017)

Guerrero/Nacional : A tres años de Ayotzinapa (2 de octubre de 2017)

Guerrero: tercera visita del mecanismo de seguimiento de la CIDH sobre le caso Ayotzinapa a casi tres años de los hechos (7 de septiembre)

Guerrero: Sesión de seguimiento de la CIDH del caso Ayotzinapa : avances nulos (10 de julio de 2017)

Guerrero/ Nacional: Madres y padres de los 43 consideran no acudir a la reunión con la PGR y la CIDH (20 de abril de 2017)

Guerrero: Judge Orders Guarantees for Rights to Water, Health and Dignified Treatment for 25 CECOP Prisoners

CECOP Prisoners (@Tlachinollan)

In the framework of the trial of 25 members of the Council of Ejidos and Opposition Communities to La Parota Dam (CECOP in its Spanish acronym) and the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities-Community Police (CRAC-PC in its Spanish acronym), arrested on January 7th 2018, in La Concepción and currently imprisoned in Las Cruces Prison in Guerrero, four days of court hearings were held at the beginning of April in which the conditions of their imprisonment were verified.

The Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center denounced several violations of their human rights, including the restriction of family visits and their lawyers, lack of health care, water and adequate food, as well as the unjustified isolation they suffered by some and overcrowding by others.

The Acapulco prison and the state authorities filed a motion for nullity arguing that these allegations would not have been made in accordance with law on the matter. For its part, the defense stated that the violations reported were urgent because many of them put health, dignity and life at risk.

The Judge who reviewed the case ruled to respect the right to dignified treatment, water and adequate conditions for the imprisonment of those prisoners, including the fact that the leader Marco Antonio Suastegui must have space for recreation like the other prisoners.

The Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center celebrated that in the new Accusatory Criminal Justice System and with the new National Law of Criminal Enforcement, an enforcement judge is responsible for monitoring and supervising the rights of persons deprived of their liberty as well as the circumstances of imprisonment, infrastructure, health and food in prisons: “Prison systems are a cornerstone in the justice system, but it is the area where there are serious violations of the human rights of persons deprived of their liberty. The lack of respect for rights and laws on the part of the authorities, as well as the idea of criminal law that sees the person deprived of liberty as a sick person who requires treatment, is nowadays in a situation of collapse in the prisons.”

For more information in Spanish:

Ordenan celda ‘digna’; agua, alimentación y visitas a presos de La Parota (Regeneración, 6 de abril de 2018)

BOLETÍN | Juez de ejecución ordena al Cerereso se garantice derecho al agua, a la salud y trato digno a los 25 del CECOP (Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinllan, 8 de abril de 2018)

Juez ordena que se garantice el derecho al agua y a la salud a los 25 del CECOP (Somos el medio, 8 de abril de 2018)

Los 25 presos del Cecop (La Jornada de Guerrero, 9 de abril de 2018)

Respeto a los derechos humanos de los 25 del Cecop (Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinllan, 9 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Acción urgente: Ejecuciones extrajudiciales y detenciones de policías comunitarios y de miembros del CECOP (10 de enero de 2018)

Guerrero: Heridos siete integrantes del Cecop (3 de mayo de 2016)

Guerrero: Liberan a vocero del CECOP, Marco Antonio Suástegui (24 de agosto de 2015)

National/Guerrero: CNDH Report Causes PGR Criticisms

Photo @ Milenio

On March 28th, the president of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH in its Spanish acronym) delivered his 2017 Activities Report where he took the opportunity to ask the Federal Government for the security that Mexico needs.

Regarding the government of the current president Enrique Peña Nieto, it noted “Mexico has not experienced a significant and objective change towards greater respect and validity of human rights; nor has our democratic state of law been substantially strengthened, nor has the environment been changed positively, when millions of Mexicans confronted each other on a daily basis, characterized by the binomials of insecurity and violence, impunity and corruption, inequality and poverty.”

He also regretted that there were major attacks against women, journalists and migrants.

The CNDH “asserted that the law enforcement system “is overwhelmed” and warned that in the current six-year term of office the human rights situation is unfavorable, including the Iguala case, where crimes against students of the normal school of Ayotzinapa were perpetrated.”

On these allegations in the case of Iguala, the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) responded by means of a statement that “it does not correspond” to the CNDH to make inquiries into it and that this agency “cannot replace” the office of the Attorney General in its functions.

Given these criticisms of the PGR, the Office in Mexico of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) supported the CNDH’s actions and assured that “autonomous human rights organizations do not seek confrontation, but rather contribute to truth and justice.”

For more information in Spanish:

González Pérez demanda más seguridad a Peña Nieto (Sexenio, 10 de abril de 2018)

Desfavorable balance en derechos humanos: González Pérez  (La Jornada, 28 de marzo de 2018)

ONU respalda investigación de CNDH por caso Ayotzinapa (La Jornada, 4 de abril de 2018)

Molestia de la PGR, porque somos “incómodos”: CNDH (Vanguardia, 3 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero/Nacional/Internacional : Nuevos informes sobre caso Ayotzinapa (15 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero: PGR buscará cerrar caso Ayotzinapa antes de diciembre (6 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / México – Nacional: Ayotzinapa: Caravana Rompiendo el Silencio y el Olvido (3 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / Nacional-México: Ayotzinapa a 40 meses de la desaparición de los 43 sigue la “indolencia” del gobierno (30 de enero de 2018)

Nacional : EPN promulga Ley de Seguridad Interior. CNDH promoverá acciones de inconstitucionalidad. (29 de diciembre de 2017)

Guerrero/National/International: New Reports on Ayotzinapa Case

(@Serapaz)

On March 15th, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights presented the report “Double Injustice”, which analyzes the human rights violations that were committed in the context of the Ayotzinapa investigations (forced disappearance of 43 students from the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa in Iguala, Guerrero, in 2014). 129 people were arrested in this framework. The UN-HR analyzed 34 cases and found “strong evidence of the use of torture, arbitrary arrests and other human rights violations” during and after the arrests. Those involved in these abuses would be elements of the prosecution, the federal police and members of the Navy. For all of the above, the UN-HR urged the Mexican government to identify those responsible for these abuses, as well as their superiors, and bring them to justice. It also called on the prosecution and the judiciary to dismiss evidence obtained under torture.

In response to the report, The Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR in its Spanish acronym) said that it is “particularly concerned that the OHCHR report draws conclusions on situations that are currently under investigation, or that are under analysis by the Judiciary”, and specified that the tortures referred to were “exceptional.”

One day before, 41 months after the forced disappearance of the 43 students, several NGOs including Fundar, the Center for Analysis and Investigation, the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, La Montaña Tlachinollan Human Rights Center and Serapaz, presented the report “I just wanted dawn to come. Psycho-social impacts of the Ayotzinapa case”. They pointed out that “the study shows how these impacts have deepened over three years due to impunity, understood not only as the lack of investigation and punishment of those responsible, but also includes the actions of the authorities that have hindered the investigation and manipulated the truth.”

For more information in Spanish:

Autoridades torturaron a detenidos por caso Ayotzinapa para obtener confesiones: ONU (Animal Político, 15 de marzo de 2018)

ONU-DH sobre Ayotzinapa: al menos 34 casos de tortura y una ejecución extrajudicial (Proceso, 15 de marzo de 2018)

Excepcionales, los casos de tortura en caso Ayotzinapa: PGR a ONU-DH (Proceso, 15 de marzo de 2018)

Presentan informe de los “Impactos psicosociales del Caso Ayotzinapa” (Regeneración, 14 de marzo de 2018)

“Te van a ofrecer una cantidad muy alta” (Informe sobre #Ayotzinapa) Aristegui Noticias, 14 de marzo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: PGR buscará cerrar caso Ayotzinapa antes de diciembre (6 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / México – Nacional: Ayotzinapa: Caravana Rompiendo el Silencio y el Olvido (3 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / Nacional-México: Ayotzinapa a 40 meses de la desaparición de los 43 sigue la “indolencia” del gobierno (30 de enero de 2018)