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)

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Chiapas: Six Prisoners Resume Indefinite Hunger Strike in San Cristobal and Comitan Prisons

@SIPAZ

On May 13th, a press conference was held by the organizations The Voice of Indigenous in Resistance (La Voz de Indigenas en Resistencia), The True Voice of Amate (La Voz Verdadera del Amate) and Viniketik in Resistance (Viniketik en Resistencia), their families, the working group No Estamos Todxs and the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights to announce the resumption of an indefinite hunger strike by six people “in the absence of an adequate response from the government.” Six indigenous prisoners had begun a hunger strike on March 15th this year, demanding their immediate release and denouncing the conditions of life inside the prison in terms of food, health, security and justice. Shortly after, another seven prisoners joined the strike.

In a subsequent press conference, on April 12th, they announced that their hunger strike became a partial fast while a negotiating table with the government was opened. However, this process did not prosper: “We make public that our relatives and we have been the object of mockery and object of lies on the part of the Government by named: Ismael Brito Mazariegos together with the President of the Reconciliation Table, because last April 15th they asked our relatives to lift the hunger strike in exchange for the review of our files and followed by our freedom, but we gave an “show of trust” demonstrating our trust by making the strike a fast, eating every three days, so that a period of 20 working days was given. The Reconciliation Board emphasized that it would take them ten days, but like any official they do not care about our physical health, but we have not seen satisfactory answers from them.” The prisoners added that “they have faced discrimination and have witnessed that the government did not comply with the necessary measures to guarantee access to justice” and that “they do not have an adequate defense, because they are in a situation of cultural, social and economic marginalization.”

In addition, they questioned the absence of an “in-depth investigation” of the accusations of torture and fabrication of files that is “an everyday practice” and “habitual with which it locks people up and that immediately dismantles all that discourse of ‘Rule of Law’ with which fill the mouth and bags (sic.).”” The State seeks to perpetuate torture with its denial,” they denounced.

The conference took place 18 days after the presentation of the “Alternative Report of Civil Society Organizations of Mexico” before the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UN) on torture in Mexico. This report confirms that “there are structural causes, scale and specific characteristics of torture committed against indigenous people and peoples.” The UNCAT will present its conclusions on May 17th.

For more information in Spanish:

Comunicado de regreso a la huelga de hambre ante la falta de respuesta adecuada del gobierno (Grupo de trabajo No estamos Todxs el 14 de mayo de 2019)

Inician presos huelga de hambre en Chiapas (El Universal el 13 de mayo de 2019)

Reos indígenas reinician huelga de hambre; alegan detención ilegal y tortura (El Proceso el 14 de mayo de 2019)

Denuncias por tortura no se investigan en Chiapas (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas el 13 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Little Progress 60 Days after Start of Hunger Strike in Various Sate Prisons (May 15, 2019)

Chiapas: Press Conference for Prisoners on Hunger Strike (May 7, 2019)

Chiapas: Chiapas Prisoners Enter Fourth Week of Hunger Strike (April 8, 2019)

Chiapas: Thirteen Prisoners on Hunger Strike (March 24, 2019)

National: Mothers Demand Whereabouts of their Disappeared on 7th National March for Dignity

On May 10th, Mother’s Day in Mexico, thousands of mothers of missing persons marched, accompanied by national and international organizations, in several cities of the country, among others in Mexico City, Puebla, Colima, Morelos, Colima, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Guerrero, to demand justice.

In Mexico City, the VIII March for National Dignity arrived at the Angel of Independence, in the capital of the country, with the demand to put an end to the disappearances, the installation of state search committees and specialized prosecutor’s offices, and the creation of an International Extraordinary Mechanism on Forensic Identification in the case of the more than 26 thousand unidentified persons. The request list also included the strengthening of the National Search System, in which families of the victims, including those of migrants, participate; application of a reparations system with a human rights perspective “and not the administration of victims”; the implementation of the General Law on Disappearance in all states; guarantees for the proper functioning of the Foreign Support Mechanism for the search and investigation of cases of migrants who disappeared in Mexico, and for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to accept the competence of the UN Committee on Forced Disappearances (CFD) to analyze individual cases, among other demands.

“We do not want simulation, we will not endorse that they purge institutions when in reality they only recycle officials who are ignorant and responsible for the horror they should be fighting”, the women maintained, demanding from the current government “a State policy that recognizes truth and justice as urgent, necessary and non-negotiable.”

The representative of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), Jan Jarab, stressed that this date, which should be a day of joy, has become a day of mobilizations “a product of the tragedy that Mexico faces on regarding disappearance” with its more than 40 thousand disappeared. While acknowledging as a step forward a “change of attitude” in the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to have admitted the seriousness of the problem, Jarab warned that the emergency continues, so he urged the real construction of a search system throughout the country to “reduce the cloud of impunity.”

For more information in Spanish:

“Este día no es de fiesta”: Madres de desaparecidos marchan por justicia para sus hijos (Animal Político, 10 de mayo de 2019)

10 de Mayo en tiempos 4T: Madres de desaparecidos y su extenso pliego petitorio al Estado mexicano (Proceso, 10 de mayo de 2019)

El dolor por los hijos ausentes une a miles de madres por todo el país: unas marchan, otras buscan (Sin Embargo, 10 de mayo de 2019)

¿Dónde están nuestros hijos?, claman miles de madres en el país (La Jornada, 11 de mayo de 2019)

Otro amargo Día de las Madres en el México de los desaparecidos (CNN México, 11 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/International: World Network of Mothers of Disappeared Migrants Formed in Mexico (November 12, 2018)

National / International: Caravan of mothers of disappeared migrants arrives in Mexico

(November 1st, 2018)

Nacional : madres de desparecidos marchan en el Día de la Madre(11 de mayo de 2018)

National/International: “Caravan of Mothers of Missing Migrants” Arrives to Mexico

(December 27th, 2017)

México : Caravana de Madres de Migrantes Desaparecidos “buscando vida en caminos de muerte” (25 de noviembre de 2016)

National/International: Movement for Our Disappeared Calls for Special Mechanism for Forensic Identification and High-level Meeting with IACHR

(@mexico.com)

On May 9th, in the framework of the 172nd session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in Kingston, Jamaica, the hearing “Enforced Disappearances and Proposal for a Extraordinary Forensic Identification Mechanism in Mexico” was held, in which representatives of the Mexican State and civil organizations discussed the situation regarding this issue, whose toll is more than 40 thousand missing persons, 26 thousand unidentified bodies and more than 850 clandestine graves.

The Movement for Our Disappeared in Mexico denounced the situation of crisis and impunity and detailed the efforts of civil society in the absence of effective and coordinated government actions. It presented a series of proposals for the creation of an extraordinary forensic identification mechanism, which should have technical, economic and administrative independence. It also requested the installation of a high-level negotiating table for its creation, in which President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the Secretaries of the Interior, Foreign Affairs and Finance, as well as the national prosecutor of the Republic and the National Search Commissioner, would participate and the representatives of Central American countries with disappeared persons in Mexican territory. Finally, it asked the IACHR to establish, in agreement with the Mexican State, coordination with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) to establish a technical assistance scheme for the setting up construction, monitoring and evaluation of said mechanism.

For his part, the undersecretary of human rights, Alejandro Encinas, acknowledged the humanitarian crisis and argued that the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador have as a priority to address the problem of disappearances, for which there would be no limits of resources: “Today this is a full responsibility of the State that we are going to assume”, he stressed. He promised to release a diagnosis of the forensic system on May 13th but considered that there would be no need for a new mechanism of international assistance to address the forensic crisis. The head of the National Search Commission (CNB in its Spanish acronym), Karla Quintana Osuna, reported that “there are already 266 forensic centers in the country, in which 5,900 people of different specialties work, in addition to 40 genetic identification laboratories and only 35 specialists in this field, while in 21 states they have the same genetic identification markers, which would allow an exchange of information.”

For more information in Spanish:

Ante
la CIDH, urgen a crear mecanismo extraordinario de identificación
forense (Centro PRODH, 10 de mayo de 2019)

Demandan
Mecanismo extraordinario de identificación forense ante la CIDH(Contralínea, 9 de mayo de 2019)

Atender
emergencia forense en el país, prioridad del Gobierno de México,
reafirma Alejandro Encinas (Notimundo,

9 de mayo de 2019)

En
audiencias de la CIDH, proponen al Estado mexicano crear mecanismo
forense y mesa de “alto nivel” (Proceso,

9 de mayo de 2019)

Evaluarán
en la CIDH crisis por desapariciones en México (La

Jornada, 9 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/Guerrero: Disappearances Increasing in Mexico – CNDH. No Progress in Victor Ayala Tapia Case (May 11, 2019)

National/International: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Visits Mexico (April 11, 2019)

National/International: Centro Pro DH Urges Foreign Ministry to Accept UN Committee on Forced Disappearance (March 26, 2019)

Little Progress 60 Days after Start of Hunger Strike in Various Sate Prisons

Prisoners’ relatives (@“No estamos todxs” Working Group)

On May 7th, the “No estamos todxs” Working Group published a statement on the situation of prisoners on hunger strike almost 60 days after starting it.

It recalled that on March 6th, six prisoners in different prisons of the State of Chiapas initiated this action demanding “justice and immediate and unconditional release,” with seven more inmates initiating an indefinite strike three days later. At the same time, relatives and friends, ex-prisoners and different civil and social organizations began “dissemination, accompaniment and denunciation activities, adding to the same demands.”

The Working Group again denounced that “the legal processes of these people are plagued by irregularities and serious violations of their human rights. Arbitrary arrests without arrest warrants, humiliation of dignity, fabrication of crimes, statements extracted under torture, lack of translator, loss of files, violation of the right to an adequate defense, delays of up to 14 years in obtaining a sentence, lack of presence of the accusatory party, among others.”

Before the strike, the state government opened a dialogue process between March 20th and 29th to address the following issues: review and study of the files and files; improvements in the conditions of the strikers (ending isolation, degrading treatment, threats and coercion); as well as investigation and immediate, effective and adequate documentation of the cases of allegations of torture. The relatives left the negotiating table after that, noting in a press conference “the discrimination they felt on the part of government interlocutors and the lack of real interest in solving the demand for freedom.” They demanded the state and federal government to create a “suitable space, with competent authorities and decision-making capacity that could fully meet the demands of this process of struggle”

On April 10th, a new process of dialogue began in which the state government asked to review the files without additional “pressure” from the strikers. By that time, 20 people were participating in the process, and “symbolically” agreed to give the authorities 20 days to show progress, a deadline that ends on May 13th. Meanwhile the strikers decided to eat food every third day “so that their agency has the capacity to return to the hunger strike in case their demands are not heard.”

The Working Group affirmed that to date “beyond the administrative management of the conflict itself, there has been no progress in concrete responses. Alluding to the workload, the holiday period, the difficulty of the agenda and communication problems with other agents necessary for progress, they have been delaying the processes and avoiding giving concrete answers about the real situation of the evolution of the procedures to find a solution to the conflict.”

It is worried that, “there is nothing to suggest an exit other than the extreme action of a hunger strike demanding justice and freedom. Everything points to the integrity, health, safety, life of these people, as well as their freedom, it is not something that is on the agenda of the government. The changes, of which they boast so much in their speeches, do not seem to coincide with the reality of their actions and that the only alternative in the search for justice is to risk life to try to achieve it.”

For more information in Spanish:

A casi 60 días del inicio de la huelga de hambre en los penales del Estado de Chiapas y sin respuestas concretas en la resolución del conflicto (Grupo de Trabajo “No estamos todxs”, 7 de mayo de 2019)

Sin respuesta, presos indígenas se mantienen en huelga de hambre (Sie7e de Chiapas, 8 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Press Conference for Prisoners on Hunger Strike (May 7, 2019)

Chiapas: Chiapas Prisoners Enter Fourth Week of Hunger Strike (April 8, 2019)

Chiapas: Thirteen Prisoners on Hunger Strike (March 24, 2019)

Oaxaca: Rights Defender Shot Dead in Center of Capital

(@MX Politico)

On April 12th, Juan Quintanar Gomez, 53, a lawyer and human rights defender who advised indigenous communities in various agrarian conflicts (including Villa Sola de Vega), was shot dead near his office in the center of Oaxaca City.

The Center for Human Rights and Advice to Indigenous Peoples (CEDHAPI in its Spanish acronym) reported that Quintanar was transferred to a hospital in the capital in serious condition after receiving at least eight bullet wounds. It noted that in recent days he had received death threats.

CEDHAPI demanded an immediate investigation of the attack and identification of those responsible. It also demanded from the authorities the immediate protection of the life and physical integrity of the lawyer, and other people from his work and family environment. It finally demanded that the government of Oaxaca guarantee the work of the human rights defenders in the state.

For more information in Spanish:

Intentan asesinar a abogado y defensor de derechos humanos (NSS Oaxaca, 12 de abril de 2019)

Atacan a balazos a defensor de derechos humanos en Oaxaca (El Universal, 12 de abril de 2019)

Condena Cedhapi agresión a defensor (NVI Noticias, 13 de abril de 2019)

Balean a Juan Quintanar, defensor de derechos humanos en Oaxaca (SDP Noticias, 14 de abril de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: asesinan a defensor del territorio e integrante de Corriente del Pueblo Sol Rojo (12 de abril de 2019)

Oaxaca: COOA inicia jornada de lucha ante “graves atropellos del Estado” contra los pueblos y organizaciones indígenas (9 de abril de 2019)

National/International: CNDH Requests Special Measures for Migrants

Laredo Morning

On April 15th, after the detection of situations contrary to the respect of the human rights of migrants located in the facilities of the National Migration Institute (INM in its Spanish acronym) at the Rodolfo Robles International Bridge, in the XXI Century Migration Station (EMSXXI in its Spanish acronym) and in the shelter installed in the municipality of Mapastepec, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH in its Spanish acronym) requested various federal authorities and the state of Chiapas for precautionary measures and the extension of others previously requested in favor of foreigners.

The CNDH requested the INM to provide urgent attention and assistance to the people housed in the EMSXXI where “a population of over 2,000 people was reported, which represents more than 200% of its capacity, which is for 960 people. To ensure a dignified stay with full respect for their human rights (…) it is also necessary to channel people in the context of migration to different migratory stations to reduce overpopulation, streamline administrative procedures of the people accommodated, explore alternatives in detention, mainly of people in situations of vulnerability and of applicants for refugee status, as long as the procedure is determined, to provide clear, accurate and sufficient information about deadlines and possible resolutions to those who initiated migratory procedures. Likewise, it is requested that in the EMSXXI there be sufficient medical personnel in all the schedules and specialists in pediatrics given the high number of minors.”

In the municipality of Mapastepec the CNDH documented that there are more than 3,000 migrants and that “the former were already registered, although the procedure has not been determined, prompting anger in some of them who said they had been duped by immigration agents who informed them that their procedures can last between 15 days, two or even six months, so the lack of specific information motivated a violent protest causing the Federal Police to intervene.”

Regarding migrants from Cuba, it was observed “that the majority has resorted to lawyers and managers to process injunction proceedings to avoid their deportation; however, the CNDH also learned that, as the same protection does not have effects that allow transit through Mexican territory, some decided to continue on their way to the United States of America, but several of these were assured by immigration agents and conducted to the United States to various migratory enclosures, including the EMSXXI itself. In the interviews that personnel of the CNDH made with those of Cuban nationality, they expressed their desire to desist from the injunction and to request Mexico’s recognition of refugee status.”

For more information in Spanish:

SOLICITA CNDH A AUTORIDADES FEDERALES Y ESTATALES DE CHIAPAS MEDIDAS CAUTELARES EN FAVOR DE PERSONAS MIGRANTES, POR CONDICIONES DE HACINAMIENTO, DEBIDO A SOBREPOBLACIÓN EN INSTALACIONES DEL INM, ASÍ COMO LENTITUD EN TRÁMITES MIGRATORIOS (CNDH, 15 de abril de 2019)

La CNDH solicita medidas cautelares por sobrepoblación en el INM de Chiapas (Proceso, 15 de abril de 2019)

Calculan más de siete mil migrantes en Chiapas (La Verdad, 15 de abril de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Grupo armado ataca a camiones que trasladaban a migrantes (4 de marzo de 2019)

Nacional: Juez de Amparo reconoce como Refugiados a Niñas, Niños y Adolescentes de las Caravanas Migrantes (21 de febrero de 2019)

International: IACHR Asks Honduras and Guatemala to Respect Human Rights (March 6th, 2019)

International/National: Registration of Humanitarian Visas for Migrants Closes (February 12th, 2019)

Chiapas: Menores de edad no acompañados implica reto legal (30 de enero de 2019)