Chiapas/International: Solidarios de la Voz del Amate Seeks Alliances with Other Processes in Latin America

Alberto Patishtan (@El Sie7e de Chiapas)

In a press conference that was held in San Cristóbal de Las Casas on December 4th, members of the Solidarios de la Voz de Amate organization announced that on December 8th they will participate in the Observatory of Rights of Peoples “The Worthy Fight of the Latin American Peoples, is the Libertarian Air of the Peoples of the World” in which they will share the struggle for political prisoners and unduly imprisoned in Chiapas.

Former prisoner Alberto Patishtan (who was in jail from 2000 to 2013) said they intend “to raise our voice of struggle and resistance, for the government to listen to us that we are not alone in the demand for our rights.” He recalled that “nine colleagues who have been in criminal proceedings for several years without sentencing and others who have already been sentenced with evidence that was manufactured by public ministries” are still imprisoned in Chiapas. He affirmed that “the government from political operators has studied the criminal records, they realized the irregularities, but even so due to lack of will and arrogance they do not want to free our companions in struggle for many years.” He denounced that “with sacrifice they have demonstrated their innocence by exposing their bodies and their lives, by means of a hunger strike and fasting inside the prisons, where they stopped eating for several days, even so the government does not want to yield. It’s not about competition, it’s about the freedom of poor and innocent Indians.”

For more information in Spanish:

Buscan presos alianza de apoyo con el resto de Latinoamérica(El Sie7e de Chiapas, 5 de diciembre de 2019)

Pueblos latinoamericanos se reuniran en Oaxaca para alzar su voz de lucha (Prensa Libre, 5 de diciembre de 2019)

Buscan presos políticos alianza de apoyo con el resto de Latinoamérica (Noticias Primera Plano, 4 de diciembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Exigen libertad para las 9 presos solidarios de la Voz del Amate (6 de noviembre de 2019)

Chiapas:Presos del Cerss 5 son amenazados de ser reubicados si no detienen su protesta (6 de septiembre de 2019)

Chiapas: After over 100 Days on Hunger Strike, Prisoners Need Appropriate Medical Attention and Continue to Demand Freedom (June 27, 2019)

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Chiapas: Plantón y Ayuno en Solidaridad con Presos en Huelga de Hambre (a 84 días de su inicio), 6 de junio de 2019

Oaxaca: CEDHAPI Denounces “Extrajudicial Execution” of Indigenous Defender

@Facebook

At the beginning of December, the Center for Human Rights and Advice to Indigenous Peoples (CEDHAPI in its Spanish acronym) denounced the “extrajudicial execution” of the indigenous defender Catalino Barradas Santiago, at the hands of elements of the municipal police of Santos Reyes Nopala, on the eve of the elections for municipal president (by customary law) in that community.

The president of CEDHAPI, Maurilio Santiago Reyes, indicated that the events occurred on November 30th and that two people were also injured in the attack, while a third was arrested and imprisoned in the Puerto Escondido prison, of whom “it is known that he was tortured by the municipal police of Santos Reyes Nopala,” he said. He also stated that a group headed by the mayors of San Pedro Mixtepec and Santos Reyes Nopala, respectively, continues to intimidate opponents with weapons to maintain control of the municipality.

He finally said that on December 2nd, when the body of Barradas Santiago was being waked, a group of armed people went to shoot at the house where the wake was held.

Given what happened, the CEDHAPI requested the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to issue an urgent action in the case of the detained person, and the Human Rights Ombudsman of Oaxaca and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, to issue precautionary measures. It also urged the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE in its Spanish acronym) to investigate the extrajudicial execution of the human rights defender, observer of the legality of the municipal president’s elections in Santos Reyes Nopala.

For more information in Spanish:

Denuncian “ejecución extrajudicial” de un defensor indígena cometida por la policía municipal de Santos Reyes Nopala (Página 3,mx, 5 de diciembre de 2019)

Denuncian “ejecución extrajudicial” de defensor indígena en Oaxaca (Proceso, 4 de diciembre de 2019)

Asesinado por policías (NVI Noticias, 4 de diciembre de 2019)

Policías municipales asesinan en Oaxaca al defensor indígena Barradas Santiago (Contralínea, 3 de diciembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: International Organizations Call for Release of Fredy Garcia of CODEDI (November 24, 2019)

Oaxaca/International: WOAT Warns about State Inaction in Disappearance Case of Ernesto Sernas Garcia (October 17, 2019)

Oaxaca: Murder Attempt on CODEDI Member (September 26, 2019)

Oaxaca: Denuncian criminalización por liberación de ordenes de aprensión contra sindicalistas del sector salud e integrantes de Sol Rojo (16 de agosto de 2019)

International/National/Chiapas: Eighth Anniversary of Banavil Displaced, Seeking International Monitoring of Problem of Internal Forced Displacement

Victims of internal forced displacement @SIPAZ

Eight years after their forced internal displacement (FID) and the forced disappearance of Alonso Lopez Luna, a Tseltal family from the Banavil community, Tenejapa, continues to seek solutions to their demands.

It is important to remember that the main demands are in line with Recommendation CEDH / VGEAAI / 003/2017 of the State Commission of Human Rights of the State of Chiapas. This recommendation was approved on April 24th, 2017 by the Secretary General of the State of Chiapas.

The anniversary of the forced displacement of the family is commemorated a few days after the Joint Service of Characterization of Displaced Population (JSCDP) made an exploratory visit to Mexico (including a special visit to Chiapas), with the objective of “strengthening the technical capacities of the players that affect the attention of internal forced displacement; as well as contributing to quantitative and qualitative research work on the phenomenon in the country, in addition to establishing bases for a long-term strategy and joint work on prevention and care policies.” They concluded their visit by presenting recommendations to the Mexican State.

In addition, on November 22nd, organizations, victims of forced internal displacement, members of the academic sector, human rights defenders and journalists requested through a letter addressed to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, “which is included in the agenda for special procedures visits next year 2020, the visit of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, who has requested a visit to Mexico since 2015.”

For more information in Spanish:

Solicitud de visita a México de la Relatora Especial sobre los derechos humanos de los desplazados internos en carácter prioritario (CMDPDH, 22 de noviembre de 2019)

Participa CEAVE en mesa de trabajo para el Desplazamiento Forzado Interno (Fiscalia General del Estado de Chihuahua, 2 de diciembre de 2019)

Recomendación: CEDH/ 03/2017-R. (CEDH)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: A 7 años de los hechos violentos que suscitaron el desplazamiento forzado de familias de Banavil (7 de diciembre de 2018)

Chiapas: displaced families from Banavil return to their home to celebrate the Day of the Dead (November 3, 2018)

Chiapas: Banavil Displaced Families Remember the Death of Antonia Lopez Luna (March 5, 2017)

Chiapas: Desplazados de Banavil siguen exigiendo justicia tras 5 años de desplazamiento forzado (2 de diciembre de 2016)

Chiapas: Banavil Displaced Families Announce Provisional Return to their Community for Day of the Dead. (November 2, 2016)

Chiapas: Freedom for Juan de la Cruz Ruiz

Photo @Frayba

On December 3rd, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (also known as Frayba) announced through a press conference that it had presented an indirect injunction for the freedom of the torture survivor, victim of violations of due legal process and currently in arbitrary deprivation of his freedom, Juan de la Cruz.

The indigenous Tsotsil Juan de la Cruz Ruiz, a prisoner for more than 12 years accused of the crime of homicide, filed the injunction to request the protection of federal justice as since February 2016 there is a recommendation for freedom with suspended sentence issued by the Reconciliation Bureau, La Jornada reported.

At the conference Pedro Faro Navarro, director of Frayba, reported that the request for indirect injunction was delivered in the District Court of Injunction and Federal Trials in the State of Chiapas, of the Twentieth Circuit, based in the capital.

“In the aforementioned document, it is claimed that even when there is a recommendation for freedom with a suspended sentence, dated February 11th, 2016, Juan de la Cruz remains in unjust prison at the Center for Social Reinsertion for the Sentenced No. 5, in San Cristobal de Las Casas,” he added.

He also noted that the recommendation “was sent for specific processing before the Undersecretary of Executions of Criminal Penalties and Security Measures, which since February 12th, 2016 received and had to issue the freedom ruling.”

He said that Juan’s family and those “who accompany him in the defense of his rights” face harassment, threats, vigilance and intimidation, facts that were already denounced before the State Attorney General’s Office.

Frayba urged “the highest Court to grant the injunction and protection of federal justice and that the authorities responsible for resolving this case comply with the recommendation they have issued so that Juan is released immediately.”

For more information in Spanish:

Para más información vea esta conferencia de prensa, en el Museo de la Ciudad de Tuxtla. (Chiapas Paralelo, 3 de diciembre de 2019)

Tras 12 años preso, indígena tzotzil solicita protección de la justicia (La Jornada, 3 de diciembre de 2019)

Indígena preso en Chiapas pide protección de la justicia federal (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 4 de diciembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas:Presos del Cerss 5 son amenazados de ser reubicados si no detienen su protesta (6 de septiembre de 2019)

Chiapas: After over 100 Days on Hunger Strike, Prisoners Need Appropriate Medical Attention and Continue to Demand Freedom (June 27, 2019)

Chiapas: After over 100 Days on Hunger Strike, Prisoners Need Appropriate Medical Attention and Continue to Demand Freedom (June 27, 2019)

Chiapas: Indigenous Prisoner Released after 16 Years Awaiting Sentencing and 60 Days Hunger Strike (May 26, 2019)

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

Chiapas: Diego Lopez Mendez Freed, Prisoner and Member of Solidarios de la Voz del Amate (March 15, 2019)

National: One Year of AMLO Presidency

@Vertigo Politico

On December 1^st President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) offered an hour and a half message before a base filled with more than 100 thousand people, in Mexico City, in the framework of the celebration of his first year of government. He stressed that of the 100 commitments he made in 2018, he already fulfilled 89.

“It is unquestionable that in these first 12 months we have made great progress, but we are still in a transition process, the old still does not just die and the new is not born, but we are not playing, we are not simulating,” he said. He also affirmed that he hopes that in a year “the bases for the construction of a new homeland will already be established. By then, under any circumstances, it will be practically impossible to return to the time of opprobrium that the neoliberal or neoporfirio period meant.” He said that “when we complete two years of government the conservatives can no longer reverse the changes or not be so blunt, they would have to work hard and be very embarrassed to go back to the dark times of corruption, of the Leonine contracts, of the remission of taxes, of electoral fraud, of abandonment of young people, of racism, of contempt for the poor, and of “kill them in their steps” ”.

He listed a series of achievements including the reduction of fuel theft, the creation of 648 thousand new jobs, an increase of 16% of the minimum wage, an annual inflation of 3% the lowest since September 2016, the increase of 2% of the peso against the dollar, the coverage of government programs (half of Mexican households, use at least one program for welfare and in indigenous peoples, 95% of households already have at least one of the supports), among others.

On the issue of security, he questioned that “between 2006 and 2018 the rulers sought to solve insecurity and criminal violence through actions of military and police force, without addressing the substance of the problem,” a strategy that he considered “irresponsible” and that left a “dreadful balance” of dead, missing and a human rights crisis. “This absurd and deranged strategy will not be repeated,” he said.

National and international media especially question the entire AMLO administration for its inability to reduce violence when there were more than 28,000 violent deaths in the country between January and October. Another limitation that is being highlighted more is zero economic growth in this same term when AMLO promised in the campaign that it would be between 2 and 4%.

For more information in Spanish:

México: un año de AMLO en la presidencia (Vídeo, CNN México, 1ero de diciembre de 2019)

El peso mexicano tiene con AMLO su mejor desempeño en 5 sexenios para un primer año de gobierno (Sin Embargo, 1ero de diciembre de 2019)

AMLO reconoce seguridad y falta de crecimiento como pendientes de su primer año (Animal Político, 1ero de diciembre de 2019)

De los 100 compromisos que hice hace un año, he cumplido 89: AMLO (Aristegui Noticias, 1ero de diciembre de 2019)

A un año de gobierno, los aciertos y las fallas de la 4T de AMLO (Aristegui Noticias, 1ero de diciembre de 2019)

Un año de AMLO (El País, 1ero de diciembre de 2019)

Un año de AMLO: lo bueno, lo malo y lo feo (The Washington Post, 1ero de diciembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: AMLO Presents His First Government Report (September 10, 2019)

Nacional: AMLO cumplió 100 días en el poder; revisa avances en compromisos (12 de marzo de 2019)

National: Trans Persons Can Now Change their Birth Certificates across Mexico

@Portavoz Chiapas

On November 21st, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation declared unconstitutional the judgments that trans people have to make in order to achieve legal recognition of their gender identity.

In June of this year, the organizations Mexico Igualitario, CHEROS, Trans Solidarity Network, Gender without Borders, Union and Force of Trans Chihuahuan Women, PROtrans, Chihuahua Transgender Project, BITTTRANS Ciudad Juarez and Grupo Fanny Transgender Women decided to promote a thesis contradiction due to two different rulings on the same issue in the federal courts of the states of Chihuahua and Guanajuato.

As a result, the Second Chamber resolved the Contradiction of Thesis 346/2019 approving a jurisprudence that states that “the procedure for the adaptation or issuance of a new birth certificate must be carried out in the administrative process.” This decision will have mandatory effects throughout Mexican territory. It does not mean that the local laws of each state are invalid, rather it forces them to take the necessary measures to ensure that transgender persons can change their birth certificates without the need to take a long trial, the provision of evidence or the consent of third persons.

In the statement published by the promoters of the thesis contradiction they called “to include trans infancy and adolescents in regulatory and institutional changes that seek to guarantee the right to identity of trans people.”

Currently, only nine of the 31 Mexican states offer the possibility of an administrative procedure for the adaptation of records and the legal recognition of gender identity: Mexico City, Coahuila, Colima, Hidalgo, Michoacan, Nayarit, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosi and Tlaxcala. In the rest of the country, including Chiapas, the process that the trans population has to face involves legal, economic and social difficulties, as well as judgments that can take from six months to a year and a half.

In Mexico City, this process is much faster, but since the Chiapas institutions do not recognize the new documents, the trans person has to live a double identity upon return.

In the local Congress of Chiapas, there is still an initiative of law promoted by Deputy Aida Guadalupe Jimenez Sesma for several months that aims to modify the Civil Code so that trans people can make adjustments to their documents.

For more information in Spanish:

Personas trans podrán adecuar actas de nacimiento en Guanajuato y todo México sin juicio (Zona Franca el 26 de noviembre de 2019)

Ordenan reconocimiento a la identidad de género (Cuarto Poder el 27 de noviembre de 2019)

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En Chihuahua, personas trans pueden adecuar acta de nacimiento sin un amparo (Proceso el 26 de noviembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Meeting of Citizens’ Observatory of LGBT+ Population Rights with Government Representatives (October 7, 2019)

Chiapas: Exigen verdad y justicia por el asesinato de Aylin, mujer transexual y 7 otros casos de odio (3 de septiembre de 2019)

Oaxaca: State Congress Approves Marriage Equality Bill (September 10, 2019)

Chiapas: Organización defensora de la diversidad sexual recibe amenazas por su trabajo en el marco del Mes de Orgullo LGBTTTIQA+ (27 de junio de 2019)

Chiapas: alto a la violencia homofóbica (17 de mayo de 2018)

National: Senate Agrees to Guarantee Equal Rights to Same-Sex Couples (November 12, 2018)

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

National/International: “When Words Are Not Enough” – Amnesty International Report almost One Year after AMLO Takes Office

On November 27th, almost one year after the inauguration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) as the new president of Mexico, Amnesty International (AI) presented a report entitled “When Words Are Not Enough” in which it takes stock of progress made on the human rights crisis in the country.

“The government of President Lopez Obrador has shown a willingness to move forward partially on some initiatives, especially on the issue of disappearances in the country. However, after a year of his government, there are no substantial changes in the lives of millions of people facing a very serious human rights crisis that has lasted for more than a decade. The very high levels of violence that undermine the right to life, the torture that is still widespread, the alarming rates of violence against women, and a militarized security strategy more alive than ever, are a sign of the tragic reality in Mexico,” Erika Guevara Rosas, director for the Americas of Amnesty International, said.

Refarding advances, she considered that the decision of the government in August to recognize the competence of the Committee against Enforced Disappearances of the UN to review communications on individual cases, gave a solution to one of the repeated demands of relatives of missing persons and human rights organizations. “However, this measure has not yet been implemented.”

AI said it sees “a huge incongruity between what the government says and what it then does. It promises a more humane treatment for migrants and in need of international protection, but sends the National Guard to persecute and detain them. It says he will protect human rights defenders and journalists, but publicly discredits them. It is worrisome that human rights violations remain the rule in Mexico and not the exception,” Erika Guevara Rosas added.

Amnesty International concluded that “in order to achieve a substantial change in human rights, the government must stop blaming previous administrations for the situation and, instead, accept responsibility for what is happening in the present and seek solutions to address the serious debts pending in the matter, making sure that any policy of the current administration has human rights and its international obligations as a fundamental basis.”

For more information in Spanish:

Cuando las palabras no bastan (Amnistía Internacional, 27 de noviembre de 2019)

México: Amnistía Internacional alerta sobre la falta de avances en derechos humanos después de un año del nuevo gobierno (Amnistía Internacional, 27 de noviembre de 2019)

“Las palabras no bastan”, la evaluación de AI al gobierno de AMLO en materia de derechos humanos (Proceso, 27 de noviembre de 2019)

México mantiene crisis de derechos humanos en gobierno de AMLO según Amnistía Internacional (El Sol de México, 27 de noviembre de 2019)

Amnistía Internacional califica de “incongruente” la política de derechos humanos de López Obrador (El País, 28 de noviembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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

National/International: Attacks on Migrant Defenders in Central America, Mexico and U.S. Increase (October 1, 2019)

International/National: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Expresses Concern over Unresolved Issues in Mexico (September 22, 2019)