International/National: Economic Inequality is “Out of Control” – OXFAM Report

@Oxfam

On January 20th, in the framework of the World Economic Forum that will take place in Davos, Switzerland, in the coming days, Oxfam presented its annual report entitled “Time for Care.” The document focuses on the growing global inequality as well as the differentiated impact it has on women.

This report reports that globally, the 22 richest men have more wealth than all women in Africa, while 2,153 millionaires enjoy more wealth than 60% of the global population that, in total numbers, means 4.600 billion individuals. The organization stressed that “billions of dollars are in the hands of a small group of people, mainly men” adding that “economic inequality is out of control.” The global pattern is also reflected in Mexico, where the six richest people in the country have more than half of the Mexican population that represents 62.5 million people living in poverty or extreme poverty.

In addition, “women and girls are the ones who benefit least from the current economic system,” said Amitabh Behar, head of Oxfam in India. According to the report, the current economic system is “imperfect and sexist”, which is reflected in the unpaid work of women. Such work includes the care of children, elderly or disabled people and / or the maintenance of the home, among other tasks. In Mexico, women do an average of four more hours of this type of work, equivalent to 1.7 billion pesos or “almost twice the annual mining production”. “We are saving the State millions of pesos that it would have to invest in social spending to be able to create better security systems,” said Rocío Stevens, director of campaigns and communication at the Mexican headquarters of Oxfam.

The organization demands a National Care System financed by progressive wealth taxes. Forcing the richest 1% of the country to a 0.5% tax on their assets, which could generate approximately 92 million pesos and double the budget of the Institute of Health for Welfare (INSABI). “Not even by investing all the taxes that the Mexican State collects could we reach a satisfactory level (of social expenditure) because Mexico collects about 16 percent of GDP [gross domestic product],” said Diego Vazquez, the agency’s research manager. Therefore, it is also positioned in favor of a tax reform in the country and criticizes that the policies promoted by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are minimal compared to what is necessary. “We are not against austerity in terms of savings, of avoiding waste, of making the activity of the State and of public spending efficient, but fundamentally women who are in the lowest income are more highly dependent on the services of the State. The women who are in the highest ten percent are not the ones who were affected by the closure of the nurseries of the Mexican Social Security Institute,” Stevens concluded.

The report underlines that “our economic system is built by rich and powerful men,” said Paul O’Brien of the Political and Defense Division of Oxfam, who stressed that “the richest are clearly manipulating our economy by themselves, starting with the US billionaire president.”

For more information in Spanish:

Tiempo para el cuidado (Oxfam el 20 de enero de 2020)

Trabajo no remunerado en mujeres, eleva desigualdad en México: Oxfam ( La Jornada el 20 de enero de 2020)

Seis mexicanos, con más riqueza que 50% de la población (La Jornada el 21 de enero de 2020)

Desde Davos, Oxfam alerta por la situación de la mujer (El Universal el 21 de enero de 2020)

Los multimillonarios son más ricos que la mitad del planeta: Oxfam (Tiempo México el 20 de enero de 2020)

Oxfam: Los 22 más ricos tienen lo que todas las mujeres de África. “La desigualdad está fuera de control” (Sin embargo el 20 de enero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

International/National: Rise in World Inequality Crisis – 42 People Have the Same Wealth as 3.7 Billion Poor (Oxfam Report) (February 8, 2018)

Oaxaca/Chiapas/National: Oxfam Presents Inequality Report (April 9, 2016)

Mexico: poverty increases in the country, especially in urban areas. Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Guerrero continue to have the great number of poor. Campaign for the ratification of PF PIDESC (December 14, 2011)

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)

Chiapas/International: Caravan of 4,000 Reaches Southern Border – Stopped by National Guard

@El Universal

On January 20th, a caravan of approximately 4,000 migrants arrived, mainly from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras to the southern border of Mexico. The migrants had left San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on January 15th.

Arriving at the Rodolfo Robles International Bridge, which connects Ciudad Hidalgo in Chiapas and Tecún Uman in Guatemala, at 4:30 a.m., they announced in a statement that “we are going to ask the Mexican authorities to give us free passage, we just want to arrive to the United States, we don’t want to stay here, let’s go calmly, without violence.”Upon submitting a formal request for free passage to the National Migration Institute (INM) and receiving a negative response a few hours later, they went to the Suchiate River to cross the border illegally. Agents of the National Guard (GN) were already waiting for them on the other side and the migrants were forced to return. However, some managed to break the fence of the elements of the GN with stones, sticks and pushes. In the chaos that ensued, several mothers lost their children and some people suffered nervous breakdowns. “We are desperate from the heat that is affecting us too much and more than anything else for the children,” said one of the migrants, adding that “I ask Lopez Obrador to listen to his conscience.”

Most of the migrants were already arrested at the border itself or shortly after crossing, but a group of approximately 400 people managed to advance about five kilometers to the Ignacio Zaragoza community, where they were held by another military siege. ”The caravan was mostly contained,” said a Federal Police officer. Due to the use of tear gas and force, several minors and adults were injured and intoxicated. Hostal La 72 in Tenosique, Tabasco, “noted numerous search operations by the INM and the army. We take care of people injured by attacks received by stones thrown by the military.” In addition, the Human Rights Observation and Monitoring Collective of Southeast Mexico documented that the authorities do not make clear the necessary immigration procedures. “They deceive us, they are deporting those who agreed to register,” said one of the migrant women.

In the end, many of the migrants from that caravan returned to the shelter in Tucan Uman, where they stayed before attempting to cross the border with Mexico. They again affirmed their determination to reach the United States: “We are not going to give up, we cannot return to Honduras because the Maras kill us.”

For more information in Spanish:

Frenan a migrantes que intentaron cruzar a México por río Suchiate (Milenio el 20 de enero de 2020)

“No nos vamos a rendir”, advierte Caravana Migrante (El Universal el 21 de enero de 2020)

Caravana migrante espera en frontera de Guatemala; intentarán ingreso masivo a México (Aristegui Noticias el 19 de enero de 2020)

Guardia Nacional impide el paso de caravana migrante en frontera con Guatemala (El Economista el 20 de enero de 2020)

Gobierno mexicano disuelve la caravana migrante, detuvo a más de 400 (Chiapas Paralelo el 21 de enero de 2020)

Tensión en la frontera sur por falta de claridad de las autoridades migratorias: ONGs (La Minuta el 20 de enero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Civil Organizations Report on Observation Mission in Tapachula (November 24, 2019)

Chiapas: Migration Authorities Stop Migrant Caravan in Tapachula (October 17, 2019)

Chiapas: African Migrants Clash with National Guard in Tapachula

(October 8, 2019)

International/National: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ends Mexican Visit while African Migrants Protest in Tapachula (October 7, 2019)

Chiapas: Federal Police Attack Migrants and Journalists at Migration Center in Tapachula (September 2, 2019)

Chiapas/National/International: Human Rights Organizations Demand End to Child and Adolescent Migrant Detentions (May 26, 2019)

National/International: CNDH Requests Special Measures for Migrants (May 8, 2019)

International/National: UNHCHR Calls on Mexican State to Increase Efforts to Effectively Implement General Law on Forced Disappearance of Persons

Photo @ novedadesaca.mx

On January 14th, the Office in Mexico of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) called on the Mexican State in a statement to redouble efforts to advance the effective implementation of the General Law for Matters of Forced Disappearance of Persons, Disappearance committed by Individuals and on the National Persons Search System.

Two years after the entry into force of this law, the UNHCHR announced that “the publication of new official information and public recognition of the problem are advances. Likewise, it has observed progress in the institutional consolidation of the National Search Commission and the formation of the majority of the state commissions.”Two years after the entry into force of this law, the UN-DH announced that “the publication of new official information and public recognition of the problem are progress. Likewise, it has observed progress in the institutional consolidation of the National Search Commission and in the formation of the majority of the state search commissions.”

However, “it is still necessary to continue promoting legislative harmonization and institutional consolidation. In this regard, there are 23 federated entities to pass their local legislation harmonized with the General Law; 28 do not have a harmonized law of special declaration of absence; seven must still form their prosecutor’s office specializing in crimes of disappearance and three have yet to create their local commission.”

It considered that in relation to a diagnosis that favors the design of better strategies for the attention and eradication of disappearances “it is worrisome that there is still no full collaboration in the matter between the federation and the states. An example of this is that not all state law enforcement agencies have sent updated or complete information on missing persons for their incorporation into the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons.”

It especially encouraged the state authorities to continue advancing “in the adoption of the programs, registries and databases established in the Law and to continue working to strengthen the search and research efforts, through institutional, budgetary and regulations. ”And to all the authorities involved in consolidating the operation of the Extraordinary Forensic Identification Mechanism.

Finally, it invited the Mexican State to strengthen the spaces for collaboration and technical assistance with specialized international organizations.National Search Commission and in the formation of the majority of the state search commissions. ”

However, “it is still necessary to continue promoting legislative harmonization and institutional consolidation. In this regard, there are 23 federated entities to pass their local legislation harmonized with the General Law; 28 do not have a harmonized law of special declaration of absence; seven must still form their prosecutor’s office specializing in crimes of disappearance and three have yet to create their local commission. ”

It considered that in relation to a diagnosis that favors the design of better strategies for the attention and eradication of disappearances “it is worrisome that there is still no full collaboration in the matter between the federation and the states. An example of this is that not all state law enforcement agencies have sent updated or complete information on missing persons for their incorporation into the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons.”

It especially encouraged the state authorities to continue advancing “in the adoption of the programs, registries and databases established in the Law and to continue working to strengthen the search and research efforts, through institutional, budgetary and regulations measures”, and to all the authorities involved in consolidating the operation of the Extraordinary Forensic Identification Mechanism.

Finally, it invited the Mexican State to strengthen the spaces for collaboration and technical assistance with specialized international organizations.

For more information in Spanish:

ONU-DH: a dos años de su entrada en vigor, es necesario redoblar esfuerzos en la implementación de la ley sobre desaparición de personas (ONU-DH, 14 de enero de 2020)

ONU-DH presiona para que gobiernos implementen ley sobre desaparición de personas (Proceso, 14 de enero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/Guerrero: Agreement to Reintroduce Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts in Ayotzinapa Case. Number of Disappeared Increases in the Country (January 14, 2020)

Guerrero: Body of Activist Arnulfo Cero Found in Hidden Grave More than One Month after his Disappearance in Tlapa de Comonfort (November 24, 2019)

International/National : Un Human Rights Committee Issues 48 Human Rights Recommendations for Mexico (November 12, 2019)

Nacional: Se lleva a cabo el coloquio “El Estado de la Búsqueda de Desaparecidos en Guerrero. Retos y perspectivas” (November 6, 2019)

National/Chiapas: CNDH Asks INM and COMAR for Precautionary Measures for 78 People Stranded in Tapachula

@SIPAZ

On January 10th, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) published a request addressed to the National Institute of Migration (INM) and the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR) expressing concern at the breach of the deadlines set by the Law in Regarding the procedures of immigration regularization.

According to records published by Andres Ramirez, head of COMAR, the number of asylum applications in Mexico in 2019 grew 2.6 times compared to the figures of the previous year. During the past 12 months, shelter applications were received from 70,302 people, mostly from Central American countries. The country from which most applications were registered was Honduras with an total of 30,045, followed by El Salvador (8,991) Cuba (8,677), Venezuela (7,662), Haiti (5,338), Guatemala (3,758) and Nicaragua (2,227).

The COMAR delegation in Tapachula, Chiapas, is where most of the applications are delivered, so there are a large number of cases not yet dealt with, so migrants are stranded in the city. In its communiqué published on January 10th, the CNDH specifically referred to the cases of 78 people who, unable to leave Tapachula, face an increase in the conditions of vulnerability of migrants who had to flee their countries as victims of forced displacement, internal conflicts and violations of their human rights.

It also denounced that in some cases they find it impossible to move forward in their process because the authorities ask them to install an email account. “These people, among whom there are women, girls and boys, denounced that the authorities require them to have an email account for notifications, but due to their condition they lack access to electronic and internet media.”

The CNDH requested that the procedures for the registration of applications be expedited and requested “to said authorities that the immigration regularization procedures and the applications for recognition be resolved with respect to the deadlines established by the Law”.

For more information in Spanish:

CNDH demanda al INM protección para 78 refugiados (El Sol de México el 11 de enero de 2020)

Solicitan medidas cautelares y respuesta a solicitantes de refugio varados en Tapachula (Chiapasparalelo el 12 de enero de 2020)

70.302 migrantes de países de todo el mundo solicitaron refugio en México durante 2019 (BIZ Republic)

Solicitud CNDH (10 enero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Civil Organizations Report on Observation Mission in Tapachula (November 24, 2019)

Chiapas: Migration Authorities Stop Migrant Caravan in Tapachula (October 17, 2019)

Chiapas: African Migrants Clash with National Guard in Tapachula

(October 8, 2019)

International/National: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ends Mexican Visit while African Migrants Protest in Tapachula (October 7, 2019)

Chiapas: Federal Police Attack Migrants and Journalists at Migration Center in Tapachula (September 2, 2019)

Chiapas/National/International: Human Rights Organizations Demand End to Child and Adolescent Migrant Detentions (May 26, 2019)

National/International: CNDH Requests Special Measures for Migrants (May 8, 2019)

Chiapas: Two Women Murdered in Tonala

Photo @ Digna Ochoa A.C. Human Rights Center

On January 10th, relatives of two victims of femicide in the municipality of Tonala, together with feminist and civil society organizations, carried out a peaceful mobilization to demand “justice for recent events linked to femicide, especially the two recent ones that affected women of that area.”

In the Palo Blanco community, María “N” was murdered when she returned home on January 4th. Fernanda “N”, also originally from Tonala and victim of murder, was found lifeless on the side of the road in Matias Romero, Oaxaca on January 6th.

“The intention is that all citizens, authorities and the press find out that we will not remain silent, cannot continue without doing anything, without taking preventive measures, we ask that the authorities act effectively to find the killers,” said Gabriela Gonzalez Hernandez, cousin of María “N”.

“We must denounce any aggression, nobody has the right to violate our lives … We ask that the authorities do their corresponding work and do not get carried away by corruption, a prompt response, because if that person remains free they will continue with their crimes,” she added. 

Previously, the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Chiapas (FGE) reported on the case of María “N”, that “the Police are carrying out the investigation to clarify the facts and disclaim responsibilities (…) initiated from the investigation folder 0003- 097-0701-2020, under the Protocol of Action for the Investigation of Femicide within the framework of the Alert of Gender Violence Against Women.”

For more information in Spanish:

Chiapas: María y Fernanda fueron asesinadas en una semana; familiares y organizaciones exigen justicia (Sin Embargo, 13 de enero de 2019)

Tonalá enfurece por doble feminicidio en una semana (Chiapas Paralelo, 12 de enero de 2019)

Investiga Fiscalía hallazgo del cuerpo sin vida de una mujer en Tonalá (FGE, 6 de enero de 2019)

Asesinan a joven de Tonalá (Sin Fuero, 8 de enero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: 126 Femicides One Year after Declaration of Gender Violence Alert (September 2, 2019)

Chiapas: Groups Denounce Increase in Femicides and Transfemicides in the State (August 27, 2019)

Chiapas: March in San Cristobal de Las Casas Following Another Femicide (August 25, 2019)

National: Over 424,000 on Mexican #Me Too (May 7, 2019)

Chiapas: Already Five Femicides in January (February 1, 2019)

Chiapas/National: Femicides on the Rise (May 24, 2018)

Chiapas/Mexico: EZLN, CNI and CIG Convene Actions in Defense of Territory and Mother Earth “We Are All Samir”

In a statement published on January 7th, the peoples, communities, organizations, groups and individuals who participated in the Forum in Defense of the Territory and Mother Earth that took place in the Zapatista caracol of Jacinto Canek in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, at the end of December, convened “Days in Defense of the Territory and Mother Earth – We Are All Samir” scheduled for next February.

In that statement, they stated that “capitalism is growing from war and the dispossession of all forms of life. The bad governments and the big capitalist companies, each of them with name and surname, try to make our struggles in defense of the territory and the Mother Earth invisible, even normalizing the murder of our brothers who defend them.” One of them was environmental activist Samir Flores Soberano, a native of Nagua people of Amilcingo, Morelos, who was killed a year ago, which is why his name has remained as a symbol of resistance in defense of the land.

“In Mexico, the acceleration of mining activity and the extraction and conduction of hydrocarbons, the creation of the National Guard in the logic of the Merida Initiative and the impulse, at whatever cost, of the large megaprojects (Trans-Isthmus Corridor Salina Cruz-Coatzacoalcos, the Maya Train, the Morelos Integral Project, the New International Airport of Mexico City) that seek to reorder the territories, populations and borders of North and Central America in a logic of dispossession and capitalist exploitation, place the defense of human life, the defense of the territories of our peoples and the defense of the land in a clearly anti-capitalist and anti-patriarchal perspective,” the statement said.

The activities planned for the Conference include:

February 20th, 2020: Various actions in Mexico and the World in Defense of the Territory and Mother Earth, for justice for our dead, our disappeared, our prisoners and against megaprojects of death.

February 21st, 2020: March for Justice For Our Brother Samir Flores Soberanes, for our dead, our disappeared, our prisoners and in Defense of the Territory and Mother Earth. Mexico City. Starting point: Offices of the Federal Electricity Commission in Reforma Avenue, 16:00.

February 22nd, 2020: Assembly in Defense of the Territory and Mother Earth, in the center of the Community of Amilcingo, Municipality of Temoac, State of Morelos, starting at 10 am.

For more information in Spanish:

CONVOCATORIA A LAS JORNADAS EN DEFENSA DEL TERRITORIO Y LA MADRE TIERRA “SAMIR SOMOS TODAS Y TODOS”:  Enlace Zapatista, 7 de enero de 2020

Convocan a Jornadas en Defensa del Territorio y la Madre Tierra “Samir Somos Todas y Todos” (Proceso, 7 de enero de 2020)

Anuncia EZLN Jornadas en defensa del territorio y la Madre Tierra (La Jornada, 7 de enero de 2020)

EZLN, CNI Y CIG convocan a Jornada de Resistencia Civil y Foro por la Madre Tierra; Chiapasparalelo, 7 de enero de 2020

EZLN anuncia marcha en CdMx en “defensa de la tierra”; Milenio, 7 de enero de 2020

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/National: Fourth Assembly of CNI-CIG Held in San Cristobal de Las Casas (January 13, 2020)

Chiapas/Nacional : CNI- CIG “vivimos la guerra del capital contra los pueblos del mundo”, convocatoria a la cuarta Asamblea Nacional (November 8, 2019)

Chiapas/National/International: EZLN Invitation to “Celebration of Life: December of Resistance and Rebellion” (November 10, 2019)

 National/International: CNI Mobilizations for Global Day of Struggle in Defense of Life and our Territories – “SAMIR FLORES LIVES” (October 17, 2019)