Chiapas: The Center for Women’s Rights Denounces Lack of Due Process and Access to Justice in Cases of Violence against Women and Femicides

Photo: @CDMCH

On June 26th, 2017, the Center for Women’s Rights of Chiapas (CDMCH in its Spanish acronym), announced that the state government has failed both to implement the urgent measures and the basic agreements taken in the different sessions of the Inter-Institutional and Multidisciplinary Group, established since the Declaration of a Gender Violence Alert of (GVA) in Chiapas, more than half a year ago now. It is worth mentioning that on November 18th, 2016, the GVA was declared in the state of Chiapas.

 The CDMCH stated that, “We denounce in particular the most recurring acts and omissions that we continue to document in our day-to-day work as Rights Defenders before the bodies responsible for procuring and administering justice in Chiapas.”

Specifically, they showed “Omission by the Operators of the system to their duty to preserve the life, physical integrity, rights and interests of women in situations of violence” as well as “Omission in the application of the Protocol of Operative and Technical Action in the Investigation of the crimes of homicide and femicide.”

The Center for Women’s Rights in Chiapas reported that “These patterns of action and omission are just some of the most common that we observe in a systematically, directly by the cases that we have accompanied we have documented these faults in prosecutors such as Bachajon, Yajalon, Ocosingo and San Cristobal; similarly in other Districts, without the Indigenous Public Prosecution taking on the responsibility conferred, we document negligent attention to indigenous people of municipalities such as Salto de Agua, Palenque, Margaritas and Teopisca.”

 Therefore, the CDMCH assured that “we will remain vigilant to the actions that the State implements to meet its obligation to safeguard the life and integrity of women in the state.”

For more information in Spanish:

Omisiones ante Alerta de Violencia de Género en Chiapas (26 de junio de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Centro de Derechos de la mujer de Chiapas denuncia amenazas (8 de diciembre de 2015)

Guerrero : emiten Alerta de Género en 8 estados (24 de junio de 2017)

National/International: Espionage of Journalists and Activists in Mexico

Photo: @SinEmbargo

On June 19th, The New York Times (NYT) published a report entitled “We are the new enemies of the State: espionage of activists and journalists in Mexico” in which they reported that Mexican journalists and activists have been spied on with software acquired by the government, called Pegasus.

Pegasus software infiltrates phones and other devices to monitor every detail of a person’s daily life through their cell phone: calls, text messages, emails, contacts and calendars. You can use the microphone and phone cameras for surveillance. The company said they sell this application “exclusively to governments on the condition that it is used only to combat terrorists or criminal groups and drug cartels” and that only a federal judge can give permission to monitor private communications by demonstrating that there is a well-founded case to make that request. According to several ex-officials of the Mexican intelligence services “it is very unlikely that the government has received such judicial approval to hack the phones of activists and journalists.”

Eduardo Guerrero, a former member of Mexico’s National Security and Research Center, questioned: “How would it be possible for a judge to authorize monitoring of someone dedicated to the protection of human rights?”

There is no definitive evidence that the Mexican government was responsible because “Pegasus software leaves no trace of the hacker who used it. Even the maker, the NSO Group, points out that you cannot determine exactly who is behind the specific hacking attempts. But cyber experts can verify when the software has been used on a target’s phone, leaving them little doubt that the Mexican government or some corrupt internal group is involved.” In addition, the NSO Group said that, “the program can only be used by government agencies in which the technology has been installed.”

According to Animal Politico newspaper, among the targets are:

– “Agustin Pro. Center [for Human Rights]. During the period of attacks, the directors of the center were actively involved in the documentation and defense of serious cases of human rights violations such as the disappearance of Ayotzinapa student teachers or the alleged extrajudicial execution committed by the Army in Tlataya.”

– “Carmen Aristegui and her son, as well as Rafael Cabrera and Sebastian Barragan, received intrusion attempts via SMS from April 2015 until the middle of 2016. Months after the publication of the report of La Casa Blanca and during the dissemination of other articles of possible corruption. “

– “Carlos Loret de Mola. He was the target of at least eight intrusion attempts since August 2015, the month in which the journalist published the first column of several related to the alleged extrajudicial execution in Tanhuato.

– “On May 25, 2016, Salvador Camarena, director of the journalistic research area of ​​this organization, received an attempted intrusion. It was a day after that organization in collaboration with Animal Political revealed the report The Ghost Companies of Veracruz that ended with the resignation and subsequent arrest of former governor Javier Duarte.

– “Juan Pardinas and Alexandra Zapata of the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness were victims of intrusion attempts, in the period in which they promoted several investigations into alleged acts of corruption, and the promotion of ‘Law 3 of 3’, for officials to declare assets which they possess publicly. “

The federal government responded in “a three-paragraph statement to the editor of the New York Times, where it officially says that “there is no evidence” that Mexican government agencies are responsible for espionage and asked those spied on to report the alleged intrusion.” Faced with this response, journalists and defenders who had been spied on filed a complaint for possible illegal intervention of communications with the PGR but doubt that it will have results since the government would have to be judge and part of this case.

Activists demand the PGR investigate espionage – Periodico Proceso Photo: @Benjamin Flores

In protest over the case #GovernmentEspía, on June 23rd, journalists and human rights defenders were handed themselves over symbolically to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR in its Spanish acronym). Denise Dresser, a politician and participant in the demonstration, said: “Just as it criminalized those who are the eyes and the conscience of the country, we come to give ourselves up as criminals of the same type. In full solidarity with Carmen Aristegui, with Juan Pardiñas, Daniel Lizarraga and Salvador Camarena, and with the other journalists and activists who were spied on. We expect an independent, international, clean, autonomous and credible investigation. That is something the Mexican State cannot do it on its own.”

 For more information in Spanish:

5 claves para entender el caso del espionaje a periodistas con el software Pegasus (Animal Politico, a 20 de junio de 2017)

‘Somos los nuevos enemigos del Estado’: el espionaje a activistas y periodistas en México (The New York Times, a 19 de junio de 2017)

Proponen comisión especial para indagar espionaje a periodistas y activistas (Proceso, a 19 de junio de 2017)

En manos de PGR, denuncia por espionaje gubernamental a periodistas y activistas (Aristegui Noticias, a 20 de junio de 2017)

Activistas y periodistas en México son espiados con un software adquirido por el gobierno: NYT (Animal Politico, a 19 de junio de 2017)

Periodistas y defensores se entregan ante PGR en protesta por #GobiernoEspía (CentroProdh, a 26 de junio de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional: Cámara de Diputados aprueba cateos militares a domicilios y espionaje telefónico

Chiapas: EZLN denuncia sobrevuelos militares nocturnos sobre Caracoles zapatistas

Chiapas : Liberan a 236 normalistas detenidos por presuntos actos vandálicos en el marco de protesta contra reforma educativa

México: La CIDH exige una investigación sobre el caso de varias mujeres víctimas de abuso sexual en San Salvador Atenco en el 2006

 

National/Guerrero: Caravan in the South-Southeast in Search of the Ayotzinapa Disappeared

Photo @SIPAZ

33 months after the forced disappearance of 43 student teachers from the Raul Isidro Burgos Normal School and the murder of 6 others, their families continue to travel the country in their search and to demand justice. Since June 18th, they started a caravan in the South-Southeast of the Republic. The caravan started in Campeche and will pass through five states: Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Chiapas.

The aim of this caravan is that more than a thousand days after the attack on the student teachers, “in every corner of Mexico, it is known that the Mexican State, while still hiding the truth, is responsible, and that it not be forgotten”, said Felipe de la Cruz, a spokesman for relatives.

Relatives and friends of the victims as well as other students are asking the government to follow the four lines of investigation identified by the group of independent experts of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which, they are sure, will lead to the truth about what happened. The first request is to investigate the elements of the Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA in its Spanish acronym), who were, they propose, directly involved in the events. The other is the drug raid that was supposed to be the motive for the disappearance, as the young people allegedly had taken a bus loaded with drugs and money. The third is the detention of the federal and municipal police of Huitzuco, Guerrero, who took the 25 young people, because it has not been determined who is the “boss” who ordered their disappearance. The last line of research is cell phones. According to Aristegui Noticias, during their journey, participants were arrested by a patrol and violently taken off the bus on which they were traveling at the point of high-caliber guns, because they had passed a toll booth without paying: “It does not fit with disappearing our children, today they harass repress us for looking for them”, they said.

 For more information in Spanish:

Caso Ayotzinapa fue un crimen de Estado (La Jornada Maya, 26 de junio de 2017)

Ciudadanía se une a la marcha por Ayotzinapa de la caravana del sureste en Chetumal (Proceso, 25 de junio de 2017)

A punta de pistola, bajan de autobús a padres de Ayotzinapa (Aristegui Noticias, a 18 de junio de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:


Guerrero/ Nacional: Madres y padres de los 43 consideran no acudir a la reunión con la PGR y la CIDH (20 de abril de 2017)

Guerrero : padres de los 43 participan en audiencia de la CIDH (22 de marzo de 2017)

National/International: REMA Questions Report of UN Working Group on Corporations and Human Rights in Mexico

In a statement published on June 19th, the Mexican Network of Workers Affected by Mining (REMA in its Spanish acronym) claimed that the report presented by the United Nations Working Group on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations after its visit to Mexico in September 2016 is “condescending”, “insulting”, “onerous” and “overlapping” government bodies.

REMA stated: “Certainly we did not expect a strong and categorical report that was in line with the very serious human rights violations that we have suffered in Mexico for several years, but we were surprised by such a level of diplomatic and condescending delicacy, overlooking repression and forgetting the disappeared, murdered and sick inhabitants, as well as to the ecosystems ruined by the companies and overlapped by the instances of government. In contrast, in their analysis it is practically concluded that the causes of this disaster are lack of consultation and non-alignment or, as they say, “harmonization” of laws.”

It claimed on the contrary: “Our denunciations and indications expressed the lack of respect of our right to the consent or not of their projects that seek the dispossession of our natural assets, but this does not mean that we were requesting the consultation from them as a solution, on the contrary, we emphasized that we have assumed what our constitution, the laws and international conventions and declarations say: the full exercise of our right to self-determination, therefore, we are the ones who are conducting our consultations, our assemblies, just to avoid that now, with fashion and the auspices of the guiding principles, these governments and companies violating rights, impose mechanisms and procedures as already happens in many countries, in addition to what has already been experienced in some places in our country.”

It indicated that the UN has “ceased to be a small hope for the people, while governments and companies are mocking their conclusions because they know that – even when fully applied – looting, dispossession, displacement of populations and the diversity of crimes inherent in all this will remain unpunished and legitimized because they fully complied with the recommendations of the UN Working Group.”

For all of the above, REMA concluded “THE PEOPLES AND MEMBERS OF REMA NEITHER NEED OR NEEDED OR REQIRED “APPROPRIATE MECHANISMS OF CONSULTATION”, BECAUSE WE OPPOSE THE IMPOSITION OF AN EXTRACTIVE MODEL THAT WORKS AGAINST LIFE. REMA DEMANDS TOTAL RESPECT FOR THE FREE DETERMINATION, AUTONOMY AND SELF-GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLES, ALL RECOGNIZED IN OUR MAGNA CARTA AND IN THE INTERNATIONAL TREATIES.”

 For more information in Spanish:

Informe del Grupo de Trabajo de la ONU sobre empresas y derechos humanos acerca de su misión a México (8 de junio de 2017)

Señalan en la ONU a empresas por atropellar los derechos humanos en México (Educa, 9 de junio de 2017)

COMUNICADO DE PRENSA “EL RELATO DE LOS RELATORES DE LA ONU” (REMA, 19 de junio de 2017)

Afectados por la minería cuestionan informe de relatores de la ONU (Contralínea, 19 de junio de 2017)

Informe de la ONU es “condescendiente” y “solapa” al gobierno: Red Mexicana de Afectados por la Minería (Desinformémonos, 20 de junio de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ :

Nacional/Internacional: Organizaciones civiles llaman a tomar acciones urgentes ante informe del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Derechos Humanos y Empresas (14 de junio de 2017)

Nacional: Visita oficial del Grupo de Trabajo de la ONU sobre empresas y derechos humanos a México (21 de septiembre de 2016)

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)

 

 

 

 

 

International: OAS Agrees to Launch American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

(Photo @OAS)

The 47th regular session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) was held in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico, on June 19th-21st, under the theme “Strengthening Dialogue and Prosperity.” Within this framework, the Plan of Action on the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted (which was approved in June of last year).

This plan will be implemented by the states over the next four years, in order to “contribute to the full recognition, exercise and enjoyment of the rights of indigenous peoples at national and hemispheric levels through the support of the Organization of American States and other instances of the inter-American system.

Animal Politico website said that before the discussion indigenous peoples “urged OAS member states to ‘respect for the self-determination and autonomy of our peoples over our territories and natural assets’, and the implementation of free, prior and informed consent over any matter that affects them. They also request that consultations not be made when there are already ‘agreements, permits, licenses and previous contracts because these consultations are part of a simulation'”.

For more information in Spanish:

Aprueban poner en marcha la declaración sobre derechos indígenas (La Jornada, 21 de junio de 2017)

El tema indígena en la cumbre de la OEA (Animal Político, 23 de junio de 2017)

PLAN DE ACCIÓN SOBRE LA DECLARACIÓN AMERICANA SOBRE LOS DERECHOS DE LOS PUEBLOS INDÍGENAS (2017-2021), OEA, junio de 2017

For more information from SIPAZ:

La ONU aprueba la Declaración de los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas (13 de septiembre de 2007)

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)