Oaxaca: 17 Men Pose as Transgender to Register as Candidates

Photo @ Colectivo por la Ciudadanía de las Mujeres (Women’s Citizenship Collective)

On May 7th, the Women’s Citizenship Collective and women belonging to the muxe and trans community, originating from different regions of the state of Oaxaca, demanded in the framework of a press conference the cancellation “of the records of the men who illegally registered their candidacy to participate in the electoral contest, occupying spaces destined for women.”

17 of the 19 candidatures registered by the Electoral Institute and of Citizen Participation of the State of Oaxaca (IEEPCO in its Spanish acronym) of the self-affirmed transgender candidates were identified as fraudulent. These male candidates are not part of “the trans or muxe community of Oaxaca, and contrary to this, in most cases, their marital relationship and the procreation of children with women is publicly known”, according to the press release. They also state that “even some of the candidates are seeking re-election as municipal presidents and during their previous positions they did not declare to be transgender.”

All this occurred in order to evade the requirement of gender parity and place men in non-corresponding spaces. Since Article 16 of the Guidelines on Gender Parity 2018 states that: “In case of nomination of transgender, transsexual, intersex or muxes, the nomination will correspond to the gender to which the person is self-assigned and said candidacy will be taken into account in compliance with the principle of gender parity.”

Only two registered candidatures were accepted by the LGBTI community and the Women’s Citizenship Collective, since they are candidates, “who in addition to self-affirming as muxes, socially name themselves with those names in their daily lives (…) and in addition, their daily statements and actions reaffirm and consolidate that muxe identity as part of the free development of their personality.”

For more information in Spanish:

Comunicado de prensa  | Exigen cancelar registros de hombres que usurpan espacios de mujeres trans (Colectivo por la Ciudadanía de las Mujeres, 7 de mayo de 2018)

Hombres se hicieron pasar por transgénero para ganar candidaturas en Oaxaca, acusa Colectivo (Proceso, 7 de mayo de 2018)

Hombres simulan ser trans para ocupar candidaturas de mujeres (Cimacnoticias, 7 de mayo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: Mujer transgénero recibe su credencial de elector de una representación del INE (8 de agosto de 2017)

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Oaxaca: Cautionary Measures after Journalist Receives Death Threat on Facebook

(@Artículo 19)

“On May 1st, the reporter of Piñero de la Cuenca digital media, Juan Alberto Carmona Contreras, better known as Betillo, was threatened with death on Facebook by unknown persons in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, as well as being harassed by unknown people outside of his home”, the organization for freedom of expression Articulo 19 reported.

Given the elements of context and concern, the organization stressed that “the threat that circulated on Facebook was accompanied by the dissemination of a photograph that was taken of the reporter in December 2017 when he was threatened by public officials of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR in its Spanish acronym). At that time, a police agent was annoyed with the reporter while covering an fireworks operation in Loma Bonita, Oaxaca and, according to the report of the journalist to Articulo 19, the public official stated: “I’ll get you, even if I lose my job and it’s not a threat, it’s a promise.”

For this reason, and from that date, Carmona Contreras requested the intervention of the Federal Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. However, Articulo 19 stressed that, “it have not been enough to stop the aggressions against him.”

In view of the most recent events, the Ombudsman for Human Rights of the People of Oaxaca issued precautionary measures in favor of the reporter and opened file DDHPO/CA/504/(01)/OAX/2018.

For more information in Spanish:

Amenazan de muerte a periodista de Oaxaca en redes sociales (Artículo 19, 6 de mayo de 2018)

Defensoría de Oaxaca emite medidas cautelares para periodista amenazado de muerte en Facebook (Proceso, 7 de mayo de 2018)

Dictan medidas cautelares a reportero de El Piñero, quien anteriormente fue amenazado por agente de la PGR (Página3.mx, 7 de mayo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: Denuncian la desapareción de un periodista en el Istmo de Tehuantepec (23 de enero de 2018)

Nacional/Internacional: relatores de la ONU y la CIDH sobre Libertad de Expresión llaman a México a redoblar esfuerzos para proteger a periodistas (7 de diciembre de 2017)

Nacional/Oaxaca: Red nacional de periodistas exige detener la violencia contra comunicadora (17 de octubre de 2017)

Nacional/Internacional: Espionaje a periodistas y activistas en México (27 de junio de 2017)

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)

National: First Presidential Debate – Proposals and Accusations

Photo @ Univision

On April 22nd, the first presidential debate took place, in which the five candidates for the presidency had a space to present their proposals and ideas to the voters. In the following days, the media offered different types of analyses and evaluations, about the positions and mutual accusations of the candidates. Proceso concluded that for them the debate “had a different value but a single goal. For the PRI, it was the hope of a better position, for the PAN, the opportunity to position itself in second place, for the independents to make themselves known and for the leader of Morena to protect and maintain the distance in the polls.” La Jornada had a more critical position in which it considered that “the issue of corruption during the debate between presidential candidates was the setting for a feast of accusations in which everyone denounced the dishonesty of others and eluded the accusations against their people.”

Several media agreed that Lopez Obrador, candidate for MORENA, was the “common target of the debate”, an issue that was echoed even in the international press according to Forbes Mexico, or that is reflected in titles like “All against AMLO” in Proceso. “One of the most controversial proposals of the night,” as La Jornada called it, was the proposal of independent candidate Rodriguez Calderon to cut off the hand of those who stole from a public service post.

Disinformemonos commented that from the point of view of activists and civil society organizations it regretted that “during the presidential debate last Sunday the candidates did not examine in depth measures to solve the human rights crisis in the country, but instead concentrated on attacking each other without explaining the proposals.” Rocio Culebro, executive director of the Mexican Institute of Human Rights and Democracy, and Fernando Rios, executive secretary of the TDT Network, added that “neither did they address issues such as victim assistance, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, abuses by the police and armed forces, femicides, violence against the press, forced displacement and torture.”

For more information in Spanish:

El debate devino en festival de acusaciones mutuas de corrupción (La Jornada, 23 de abril de 2018)

Así vio la prensa internacional el debate presidencial de México (Forbes México, 23 de abril de 2018)

Lamentan que candidatos no profundizaran sobre derechos humanos en debate presidencial (Desinformémonos, 24 de abril de 2018)

Todos contra AMLO (Proceso, 25 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional : arranca campaña electoral 2018 (6 de abril de 2018)

Nacional/Chiapas: El precandidato del PRI a la Presidencia inició su precampaña en San Juan Chamula (15 de dieciembre 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)

National/International: Civil Organizations Force Foreign Affairs to Publish Report of UN Sub-committee for the Prevention of Torture

Stop Torture (@Desinformemonos)

On April 12th, after four months in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE in its Spanish acronym) kept secret the report of the Sub-committee on the Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of the United Nations on its second visit to Mexico from December 12th to 21st, 2016, civil organizations forced the document to be made public through a request for access to information.

These organizations indicated that, “although the SPT recognized legislative advances regarding the prevention of torture in the country in the published report, it also reiterated that torture is a widespread practice and confirmed that the almost absolute impunity that prevails in cases fosters its repetition.” They stated that the Sub-committee noted that, “the lack of independence of the forensic services of the prosecutor’s offices translates into the concealment of acts of torture and documented that many persons deprived of their liberty do not denounce torture and ill-treatment for fear of reprisals.” In addition to the impunity, the Sub-committee noted its concern about “different forms of corruption and collusion between complex criminal groups and prison authorities and personnel.”

The organizations called on the Mexican State to fully comply with the recommendations made by the SPT, and include civil society organizations, and experts in its implementation.

“Among the recommendations made by the sub-committee to the Mexican State are ensuring that all authorities empowered to deprive the liberty of citizens are trained and fully apply the standards of rational and proportionate use of force with a human rights approach, instruct the State agents on the prohibition of the use of torture, adopt necessary measures to prevent it and sanction it, among others,” La Jornada concluded.

The president of the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH in its Spanish acronym), Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez, reported that in the last 17 years that organization issued about 300 recommendations for torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, based on more than 11,500 complaints. The CNDH found that “the gap between a phenomenon recognized as widespread and the few convictions for torture indicate that impunity for acts of torture is prevalent.”

For more information in Spanish:

Prevalece impunidad de actos de tortura en México, señala subcomité de la ONU (La Jornada, 18 de abril de 2018)

La CNDH emitió 300 recomendaciones por tortura y tratos crueles en los últimos 17 años (El Sur, 17 de abril de 2018)

La CNDH emitió 300 recomendaciones por tortura y tratos crueles en los últimos 17 años (Proceso, 16 de abril de 2018)

ONU confirma la práctica generalizada de la tortura en México (SIDIDH, 16 de abril de 2018)

Informe del Subcomité para la Prevención de la Tortura y Otros Tratos o Penas Crueles, Inhumanos o Degradantes (Subcomité de Naciones Unidas, diciembre de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Internacional/Nacional : Human Rights Watch publica informe sobre la situación de derechos humanos en México y el mundo (19 de enero de 2018)

Nacional: Senado aprueba Ley contra la Tortura (29 de abril de 2017)

Nacional/Internacional : « la tortura y los malos tratos siguen siendo generalizados en México » Juan E. Mendez (7 de marzo de 2017)

National: 84 Organizations and Collectives Oppose Gendarmerie at Southern Border

Photo@ChiapasParalelo

On April 10th, the Mexican government announced that it will multiply the number of troops of the National Gendarmerie on the southern border to reinforce security but maintaining the commitment to protect the human rights of Central American migrants who cross the country to the United States. This announcement came amid strong tensions with the United States after the Tweets from President Donald Trump before the advance through Mexican territory of the “Viacrucis Migrante” in which more than a thousand Central American migrants participated.

In a joint statement, 84 organizations, collectives and networks of 23 states of Mexico demanded that the plan be canceled because, they believe, “the increase in the forces of the State does not guarantee security and also affects the rights of the migrant and the local population.”

They claimed that this proposal obeys “the demand of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, for the federal government to stop the flow of migrants in Mexico as a condition to promote a renegotiation agreement on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).”

They denounced that, “this decision of the Mexican government shows that there is no comprehensive, defined or clear approach to human mobility, persisting in a strategy that criminalizes Central American forced migration. Rather, it takes place exactly on the same days as the deployment of the United States National Guard on our northern border to replicate this border reinforcement between Mexico and Central America. This decision, taken last April 3rd, is opposed to the message issued by President Peña Nieto in response to Trump on April 5, in which he made an alleged call for national unity in defense of the dignity and sovereignty of Mexico, a speech that was applauded by wide social sectors of the country, without contemplating concrete actions to revert the decision of Trump.”

They warned that “the decision to reinforce the southern border of Mexico, by sending agents of the National Gendarmerie, puts at serious risk the integrity of people in a context of human mobility, which will undoubtedly result in a further increase in violence, xenophobia and criminalization of migrants, refugees and those who defend them, as well as the population in general.”

For more information in Spanish:

¿Al estilo Trump? México aumenta el despliegue de gendarmes en la frontera sur para frenar la migración (Animal Político, 10 de abril de 2018)

Navarrete Prida se reúne con gobernador de Chiapas; reforzarán frontera sur (La Jornada, 11 de abril de 2018)

Pronunciamiento completo « Rechazamos el aumento de la Gendarmería Nacional en la frontera sur » (OSC, 14 de abril de 2018)

Repudian 84 colectivos envío de agentes de la Gendarmería a la frontera sur (La Jornada, 15 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas : Encuentro « Desde la Selva Lacandona, comunidades indígenas, organizaciones civiles y sociales dicen no al despojo, no al desalojo y no a la militarización » (7 de marzo de 2018)

Chiapas : Indígenas tseltales de Amador Hernández expulsan a 17 soldados por incursionar en su comunidad sin permiso (11 de enero de 2018)

Nacional : grave crisis de personas refugiadas en la frontera sur de México (3 de marzo de 2017)