Guerrero: Gender Alert in Eight State Municipalities

(Photo @bajopalabra)

The Ministry of the Interior issued a Gender Violence Alert against Women (AVGM) through the National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women (CONAVIM in its Spanish acronym) in eight municipalities in the state of Guerrero: Acapulco de Juarez, Ayutla de los Libres, Chilpancingo de los Bravos, Coyuca de Catalan, Iguala de la Independencia, Jose Azueta, Ometepec and Tlapa de Comonfort.

The Secretary of the Interior reported that the state government will have a period of six months to design a work program and security measures that will be implemented before a gender alert, “with information accessible to the population, as well as designing and immediately implementing a strategy for the recovery of public spaces and the prevention of violence through the implementation of specific security measures in areas at risk.”

In June 2016, the Guerrero Association against Violence against Women had asked the federal authorities to issue a gender-based violence alert, due to high case statistics.

For his part, Governor Hector Astudillo Flores, who led the meeting with women, called “The Government of Guerrero, Committed to Women’s Rights” in Chilpancingo, and independently of the process coordinated by CONAVIM, announced seven urgent actions to eliminate and address all types of violence against women. He acknowledged that based on statistics, from 2009 to 2016 there were 744 cases of intentional homicides of women and girls; and since December 2010, when the crime of femicide was typified in the Guerrero Criminal Code, 142 cases of femicide have been registered.

Members of the Feminist Alliance of the state of Guerrero questioned, however, if the statements of Astudillo are part of a political and media ploy. They reported that so far in 2017 more than 50 femicides have been registered throughout the state .

 For more information in Spanish:

Emiten Alerta de Género en 8 municipios de Guerrero (SDP Noticias, 21 de junio de 2017)

Estas son las acciones para atender la violencia de género en Guerrero (Animal Político, 21 de junio de 2017)

Segob declara Alerta de Violencia de Género en ocho municipios de Guerrero (Animal Político, 22 de junio de 2017)

Alerta de género de Astudillo, cálculo político y mediático: feministas (Quadratin Guerrero, 23 de junio de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas : Campaña Popular contra la Violencia hacia las Mujeres cuestiona falta de avances de Alerta de Violencia de Género (28 de abril de 2017)

Chiapas: Sigue la violencia hacia las mujeres (24 de febrero de 2017)

Oaxaca: Registra Oaxaca 500 mujeres asesinadas durante el sexenio de Gabino Cué Monteagudo (12 de septiembre de 2016)

 

 

 

 

 

National: Federal Police Announce Protocol for Use of Force

Manelich Castilla Craviotto (@Primera Plana Noticias)

On June 14th, the Federal Police (FP) announced that it is preparing the publication of the first protocol on the use of force, in order to establish standards for training and protection of human rights during operations carried out by members of security forces.

Among others, it will be defined when the police can use the tests of physical control and those situations in which it is necessary to use defensive tactics, to reduce the use of firearms exclusively to when the life of a citizen or of a member of the forces is at risk and also to indicate in which cases it is indispensable to support the operations with video and photographs.

 Regarding the protocol, the Commissioner General of the Federal Police, Manelich Castilla Craviotto, explained that “it is a question of providing a normative framework that gives trust and legal certainty to all of those who risk their life in the street, their physical integrity and who on many occasions did not have a mechanism to defend their actions in dangerous circumstances.”

This announcement came a year after the repression of Nochixtlan, Oaxaca, in which nine people died. On June 20, 2016, one day after the events, the Federal Police and the State Police of that state gave a press conference to present the official version of the facts and assured that the agents were not armed. It was also ruled out that they were the first to shoot against the civilians. However witnesses and even federal police officers who participated in the operation gave testimonies which differed from those offered by the police commanders. In addition, no police involved have been investigated or punished to date, Animal Politico revealed.

 For more information in Spanish:

Policía Federal anuncia protocolo para uso de la fuerza pública (Crónico, 14 de junio de 2017)

A un año de Nochixtlán, Policía Federal anuncia protocolo para uso de la fuerza pública (Animal Político, 14 de junio de 2017)

Policia federal alista protocolo sobre uso de la fuerza (Milenio, 14 de junio de 2017)

Manelich Castilla Craviotto: Primer protocolo sobre el uso de la fuerza pública (Heraldo de México, 14 de junio de 2017)

La PF pondrá en marcha protocolo sobre el uso de la fuerza (Proceso, 14 de Junio de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Congreso local aprueba iniciativa sobre el “uso legítimo de la fuerza”(16 de mayo de 2014)

Nacional: Creación del Frente por la Libertad de Expresión y Protesta Social (12 de abril de 2014)

Oaxaca: Comité de Víctimas de Nochixtlán denuncia “intento de homicidio” contra dos de sus integrantes (7 de marzo de 2017)

Oaxaca: Organizaciones de Derechos Humanos presentan informe sobre represión en Nochixtlán (11 de julio de 2016)

Oaxaca/Nacional: Allanan casa de fotoperiodista que cubrió hechos en Nochixtlán (4 de septiembre de 2016)

BOLETÍN URGENTE: REPRESIÓN MAGISTERIAL EN OAXACA (22 de junio de 2016)

Oaxaca: Fourth Encounter of Women Activists and Human Rights Defenders in Oaxaca

Photo @: SIPAZ

On June 15TH and 16TH, the Fourth Encounter of Women Activists and Human Rights Defenders of Oaxaca took place in the capital city of the state. About 70 women from different regions of the state of Oaxaca, the Mixteca, the Sierra Norte, the Isthmus, the Cañada, the Coast, the Sierra Sur and the Central Valleys, as well as representatives of international support organizations and a representative of the European Union in Mexico were present. The meeting aimed at the design of a comprehensive feminist protection strategy promoted by the Oaxaca Consortium for the Parliamentary Dialogue and Equality (Consortium) and various organizations that are part of the Mesoamerican Women Defenders Initiative (IM-Defensoras in Spanish), under the premise of strengthening the defense of the human rights of the various feminist, civil and social movements as well as strengthening alliances between the different struggles of women. They are currently involved in a variety of struggles, ranging from the defense of Earth and Territory, water, migrants, rejection of “death” mega-projects of and high electricity charges to requests for freedom for political prisoners and those unjustly imprisoned.

According to IM-Defensoras, the context in the state of Oaxaca is “adverse and dangerous for the defense of human rights where attacks have risen alarmingly, where impunity and the acquiescence of the state are a pattern.” In 2012, for example, the Consortium registered a total of 48 attacks against defenders in Oaxaca, while in 2016, that number rose to 320. The attacks are of different types: assaults, harassment, threats, slander, defamation and feminicides.

 For more information in Spanish :

Se consolidan procesos de articulación de mujeres defensoras en Oaxaca (Educa, 16 de junio de 2017)

Inicia el 4º Encuentro Estatal de Mujeres Activistas y Defensoras de Derechos Humanos de Oaxaca (Iniciativa Mesoamericana de mujeres defensoras de derechos humanos, 16 de junio de 2017)

 

National: “The Offensive of Those Above against the Movement from Below”, CNI Communiqué Reports Intensification of Repression

On June 12th, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym) published a new communiqué titled “The Offensive of Those Above against the Movement from Below” “to repudiate the repressive escalation against compañeros from our peoples where they have been nominating councilors for integration of the Indigenous Council of Government for Mexico, which represents for us an attack against the CNI and our proposal that we have launched throughout the nation.”

It denounced threats, attacks, arrests and a murder in four communities in Chiapas, a community in Queretaro, one in Morelos, one in the State of Mexico, one in Michoacan, one in Campeche, and the situation of Mayan indigenous people in Guatemala who are displaced in Campeche.

The CNI identified these events as part of “the intensification of the war against our peoples, the storm that flashes across the sky and now seeks to end hope for all Mexicans represented by the Indigenous Council of Government and our spokeswoman, of the use of attack groups and paramilitaries to strike at the struggle of the peoples that make up the CNI, of the criminalization and persecution of those who fight for a just world, from below and to the left.”

 For more information in Spanish:

La ofensiva de arriba, ante el movimiento de abajo (CNI, 12 de junio de 2017)

“Escalada represiva” contra pueblos del Congreso Nacional Indígena (Contralínea, 12 de junio de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas : Aumenta tensión en Tila (9 de junio de 2017)

Chiapas : Allanamiento y robo de información a integrante de Semilla Digna, parte del CNI (8 de junio de 2017)

Chiapas: Asesinan a Rodrigo Guadalupe Huet Gómez(6 de junio de 2017)

Nacional / Chiapas : El CNI conforma su Concejo Indígena de Gobierno y elige a su vocera (31 de mayo de 2017)

National/International: Organizations and Defenders Take Urgent Action

Photo: https://contactohoy.com.mx/onu-mexico-rechaza-reforma-por-derecho-a-la-vida-desde-concepcion-en-veracruz/

Civil society organizations and environmental advocates called for urgent action to be taken by companies and the State following the report presented by the UN Working Group on human rights and transnational corporations.

The organizations recalled that “companies do not report what they do to detect and prevent the negative consequences of their actions on human rights” and the Government “has not yet set clear guidelines nor set definite expectations for companies in relation to their responsibility to respect human rights in all their activities.” This is exemplified, among others, in the case of Rio Santiago River, which, according to the organizations, the companies “throw whatever they want and in whatever quantities they want” with impunity, complicity and protection of the authorities; they recalled that in the area of ​​Rio Santiago, where around 300 industries operate, more than 600 people have died from industrial pollution.

The UN report demands that the right to prior, free, informed and culturally appropriate consultation, in accordance with ILO Convention 169, be respected, stating that “consultations should be carried out as early as possible in the process of designing the projects and should leave open the possibility that some projects are not viable.” Against this, Civil Society reported that 32 of the 68 documented cases of abuse by companies violated the right to land and territory and in 28 cases, access to information.

The UN Working Group also denounced that, “too often attacks on human rights defenders go unpunished, without investigations or effective sanctions being applied.” From the civil society they denounced that the existence of hired assassins and paramilitary forces on the payroll of companies that harass and fracture communities were ignored. Mario Luna, spokesperson for the Yaqui community of Sonora and opponent to the Independencia aqueduct, explained that, “we, in the exercise of our rights, have been criminalized, demonized.” Facing this, defenders and civil society demanded that both the State and the companies carry out the recommendations of the UN Working Group and that “the highest government officials and CEOs should make it very clear that intimidation and attacks against human rights defenders are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

CSO members and defenders pointed out that the UN report addressed very few cases and that it could talk more about how companies and authorities relate, labor rights, tourism projects, environmental impacts and the rights of indigenous peoples, in most cases defenders and guarantors of the environment.

For more information in Spanish:

Urge que Estado y empresas acaten informe sobre derechos humanos realizado por ONU: OSC (CentroProdh, a 13 de junio de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional: Visita oficial del Grupo de Trabajo de la ONU sobre empresas y derechos humanos a México

 

 

 

Guerrero: Attack on Proceso Correspondent

Ezequiel Flores Contreras (@Desinformémonos)

For the seventh time in four years since May 2013, Ezequiel Flores Contreras, the correspondent of Proceso in Guerrero, has been victim of intimidation by unknown and allegedly armed individuals who were in a green car on the night of June 9th. It was also reported that, the day before, people aboard the same vehicle were asking “where the Proceso correspondent lived.” It is worth noting that Ezequiel Flores mainly covers corruption, narco-politics, social conflicts and human rights in the state.

In response to the events, Flores Contreras requested support from the Human Rights and Journalists Protection Mechanism of the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB in its Spanish acronym), of which the journalist is already a beneficiary due to past attacks. According to the same journalist, “the federal authorities took approximately two hours to go to his home and protect the reporter, due to a lack of effective communication between the Mechanism and members of the Federal Police in the state. It was because of the delay that he had to look directly to the officials of the Federal Public Security Secretariat in Guerrero, who finally escorted him to his home.”

ARTICLE 19 has called on the SEGOB Protection Mechanism to carry out the “necessary measures to ensure the journalist’s safety in a prompt manner and according to the risk he faces. The lack of response and attention in time and form put the safety of Flores Contreras and other journalists at risk.” Furthermore, it demanded that the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Attention to Crimes Committed against the Freedom of Expression (FEADLE in its Spanish acronym), investigate crimes committed against Flores Conteras, possibly in connection with his journalistic work.

For more information in Spanish:

Corresponsal de Proceso en Guerrero denuncia actos de hostigamiento en su contra (Proceso, 11 de junio de 2017)

Continúan agresiones contra corresponsal de Proceso, en Guerrero (Artículo 19, 11 de junio de 2017)

Continúa hostigamiento a corresponsal de Proceso en Guerrero: Artículo 19 (Desinformémonos, 12 de junio de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero : Atacan a balazos a comunicadora originaria de Xochistlahuaca en Ometepec (5 de junio de 2017)

Nacional/Guerrero: Siguen ataques y homicidios de periodistas y defensores de Derechos Humanos (19 de mayo de 2017)

Guerrero : asesinan al periodista Cecilio Pineda (6 de marzo de 2017)

International/National: CSOs Warn European Union about Human Rights Crisis in Mexico with Modernizing of Global Agreement

On June 7th, 129 Mexican civil organizations warned that while Mexico “is plunged into an ever deeper human rights crisis recognized by all international human rights bodies”, negotiations for the “modernization” of the Global Agreement between Mexico and the European Union is speeding up.

In their statement, they pointed out that a new Global Agreement “with a commercial focus” may “deepen inequality, violence against defenders, journalists and the population in general; that is to say, it would deepen the human rights crisis in the country.”

As an alternative, they propose to work on a “Global Human Rights Agreement with concrete measures against impunity and corruption, with a strong democratic clause that should suspend cooperation in the event of serious violations of human rights and non-compliance with measures that improve governance before any new economic agreement. This agreement should also be applied in European society, since in recent times there are serious violations of human rights in these countries that concern us as Mexican society, for example, the migratory crisis in the old continent.”

In a similar vein, the German Coordination for Human Rights in Mexico and the National Network “All Rights for All” issued a letter to German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel requesting that during her visit to Mexico in the coming days she address the alarming human rights crisis with the Mexican government and make it a central axis for the development and future of bilateral relations between the two countries.

 For more information in Spanish:

Los riesgos del nuevo Acuerdo Global México-Unión Europea (Proceso, 7 de junio de 2017)

Un Acuerdo Global para el respeto de los derechos humanos en México (OSC, 7 de junio de 2017)

Más de 100 organizaciones de Alemania y México se pronuncian con motivo de la visita de la Canciller Federal alemana Angela Merkel a México del 9 al 10 de junio del 2017 (comunicado de prensa de OSC, 7 de junio de 2017)

Piden Ongs a Merkel tratar con gobierno mexicano crisis de DH (La Jornada, 8 de junio de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional/Internacional: Presentan conclusiones del Quinto Diálogo de Alto Nivel sobre Derechos Humanos Unión Europea – México (18 de abril de 2015)