Mexico: Announcements and Actions for International Day of the Victims of Forced Disappearances

(@ONU-DH)

On August 30th, International Day of Victims of Forced Disappearances, hundreds of family members and friends of missing persons marched in Coahuila, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon and Baja California to demand that the authorities make progress in the search for their loved ones and punish those responsible for this crime.

In this same context, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-HR) in Mexico urged the Mexican State to recognize the competence of the United Nations Committee to oversee the Convention that deals with this issue to receive and to examine individual complaints of victims of enforced disappearances. Jan Jarab, UN-HR representative in Mexico reported that “despite the fact that eight years have passed since it ratified the International Convention for the Protection of Persons against this scourge, there are currently more than 30,000 disappeared in Mexico.” In this context, UN-HR reiterated its demand to the Chamber of Deputies to approve the general law on forced disappearance.

For the same reason, Amnesty International launched the campaign “Nothing is the same if someone disappears”, with an emphasis on the situation in Syria, Mexico and Spain. In the case of Mexico, the organization emphasized: “As of June 2017, according to the Government, 32,096 people were missing, without specifying how many had been forced to disappear. An emblematic case is the 43 students of Ayotzinapa who disappeared in September 2014. In April 2016, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts, appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, accused the Mexican Government of not following the key research lines, manipulating evidence, protecting officers suspected of participating in enforced disappearances, and torturing suspects to secure “confessions.” It has recently been verified that members of this group and of human rights organizations working on the case have been spied on with sophisticated programs available only to governments.”

On its part, the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH in its Spanish acronym) affirmed on the same occasion that disappearances still occur in Mexico and urged the Chamber of Deputies to approve the General Law on the subject at the next sitting.

The Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC in its Spanish acronym) issued a bulletin in which it denounced that “forced disappearance is part of the strategy used by the Mexican State to infuse terror in society and annihilate organizational experiences” and recalled that in Chiapas, “cases of forced disappearance, in the context of the Internal Armed Conflict, as a consequence of the implementation of the Chiapas Campaign Plan 94, committed by state agents and paramilitary groups that operated with the support, tolerance and acquiescence of the Mexican State, remain unpunished, creating conditions for their repetition.”

 For more information in Spanish:

« Amnistía Internacional lanza la campaña: Nada es igual si alguien desaparece » (Amnistía Internacional, 29 de agosto de 2017)

México: ONU-DH lanza campaña a favor de los derechos de las personas desaparecidas (ONU-DH, 30 de agosto de 2017)

Llama la ONU a México a reforzar la lucha contra desapariciones (La Jornada, 30 de agosto de 2017)

Desapariciones subsisten en México como consecuencia de la impunidad: CNDH (Proceso, 30 de agosto de 2017)

Urge en México una Ley General sobre Desaparición (CDHFBC, 30 de agosto de 2017)

Desapariciones forzadas en México, “crimen de Estado” (La Jornada, 31 de agosto de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ :

Guerrero: Foro sobre desaparición forzada (22 de agosto de 2017)

Nacional: Amnistía Internacional presenta su informe anual sobre la situación de derechos humanos en el mundo. México, “en una de las peores crisis de derechos humanos y justicia” (3 de marzo de 2017)

Nacional : cierre de año legislativo con agenda polémica en el Congreso (8 de diciembre de 2016)

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Oaxaca/National: Another Suspect Implicated in the Murder of Defenders Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakola Arrested

@Amnistía Internacional

On August 25th, Antonio Solano Vazquez, one of the alleged perpetrators of the ambush where human rights defenders Bety Cariño Trujillo, director of the Community Working Together Support Center at (CACTUS in its Spanish acronym) and Jyri Antero Jaakkola , a human rights observer of Finnish origin, were killed in April 2010 while participating in a humanitarian caravan in San Juan Copala, Oaxaca, was arrested in Sinaloa.

For seven years, relatives, social and human rights organizations as well as Euro-parliamentarians have questioned the Mexican government and Oaxaca’s lack of progress in the delivery of justice. With this arrest, six people have been arrested and seven arrest warrants are still pending.

 For more information in Spanish:

Cae otro de los presuntos asesinos de activistas asesinados en Oaxaca hace siete años (Proceso, 25 de agosto de 2017)

Detienen en Sinaloa a otro implicado en el asesinato de Bety Cariño y Jyri Jaakkola (Página3.mx, 25 de agosto de 2017)

Detienen en Sinaloa a asesino de activistas, Bety Cariño y Jiry Antero Jaakola; emboscados en Oaxaca (NVI Noticias, 25 de agosto de 2017)

Detienen a presunto homicida de Bety Cariño y el finlandés Jyri Jaakkola

(Contralínea, 26 de agosto de 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca : 7 años de impunidad en el caso de Bety Cariño y Jyri Jaakkola (28 de abril de 2017)

Oaxaca: Parlamentarias europeas vuelven a denunciar impunidad en el caso del asesinato de Bety Cariño y Jyri Jaakkola (2 de marzo de 2017)

Oaxaca/Internacional : Suman 5 detenidos en el caso del asesinato de Bety Cariño y Jyri Jaakkola (2010) (15 de octubre de 2016)

Guerrero: Forum on Forced Disappearance

Photo: @SIPAZ

On August 8th and 9th, in the framework of the 23rd anniversary of the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center, the Forum on forced disappearance entitled “Against Pain and Fear: A Cry of Hope” took place in Chilpancingo.

On this occasion, expert on forced disappearance, representatives of international and national organizations, as well as committees and relatives of missing persons participated to discuss the General Law on Forced Disappearances and Disappearances by Individuals and, and also to share their experiences and strengthen themselves with them in order to continue to search to find their loved ones alive.

The draft General Law on forced disappearances is the result of a proposal issued in 2015 by a large group of representatives of families of missing persons, civil society organizations, and academics with extensive experience in various human rights issues. Together they produced a document entitled “Essential Elements for the Development of the General Law on Missing Persons in Mexico” to guide the Mexican authorities on how to effectively implement a General Law to regulate the situation of missing persons in Mexico. The authors of this document are the protagonists of change, the fight for life and justice to find the whereabouts of their loved ones, reveal the truth, obtain a comprehensive reparation, prevent further disappearances in the country and end the pain which oppresses them.

 For more information in Spanish:

OPINIÓN | Lucha contra la desaparición forzada: un grito de esperanza (Centro de derechos humanos de la montaña Tlachinollan, a 10 de agosto de 2017)

Lucha contra la desaparición forzada: un grito de esperanza (La Jornada, a 09 de agosto de 2017)

http://www.animalpolitico.com/2017/05/ley-desaparicion-forzada/ (Animal Político, a 2 de mayo de 2017)

http://www.proceso.com.mx/486192/descorazonadora-ley-desaparicion-forzada

Chiapas: Preventative Prison for Three People from Chiapa de Corzo after EPN”S Visit

Photo: @ Isain Mandujano

On August 7th, after Enrique Peña Nieto’s visit to Chiapa de Corzo on the occasion of “International Day of Indigenous Peoples”, seven federal police, six women and one man were beaten and detained by villagers for 6 hours, after which were released.

According to Proceso magazine, “One of the trucks of the local AVC company that transported federal police was destroyed in front of the municipal presidency. The young men ransacked the unit and riot gear pack came out of it. Helmets, vests, kneepads, shields and other accessories that were aboard the bus were distributed as war trophies. With their faces covered, the young people turned to a federal police with a bloodied face. They took him to the square where he was taunted by the crowd. He was then taken to one of the neighborhoods to put him with six more who were previously captured.”

Following these events, on Saturday, August 12th, agents of the Attorney General of the Republic’s Office (PGR) and the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), began a search and arrested at least four people, allegedly involved in the riots on August 7th, “Although the state and federal governments were committed not to retaliate in exchange for the police being released – an event that happened around 2 of the morning of Tuesday 9th”, according to Proceso.

According to Meganoticias website, “The State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) reported that in the context of the initial hearing, the Control Judge determined that it was appropriate to impose the precautionary measure of preventive detention against three detainees resulting from the riots in the municipality of Chiapa de Corzo last August 7th.” Those three people remain imprisoned in the prison of “El Amate”.

It should be remembered that according to Aristegui Noticias: “From a day before their arrival, residents of Chiapa de Corzo expressed their rejection for the visit of the President and declared him a ‘persona non grata'”, where the Governor of Chiapas, Manuel Velasco Suarez, expressed his interest in replicating economic policy and in particular the Special Economic Zones to indigenous regions of Chiapas in his spech.

 For more information:

Pobladores retienen a siete policías federales tras visita de Peña a Chiapas (Proceso, 7 de agosto de 2017)

Detienen a presuntos instigadores de disturbios durante visita de Peña a Chiapa de Corzo. (Proceso, 13 de agosto de 2017)

Prisión preventiva a detenidos en Chiapa de Corzo. (Meganoticias, 14 de agosto de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Habitantes de Chiapa de Corzo rechazan visita de EPN en el Día Internacional de los Pueblos Indígenas. (SIPAZ, 8 de agosto de 2017)

México/Nacional: Diputados aprueban Ley Federal de Zonas Económicas Especiales. (SIPAZ, 18 de diciembre de 2017)

Chiapas : denuncian criminalización de defensores de la Madre Tierra en zona zoque. (SIPAZ, 1 de marzo de 2017)

Guerrero: Possible Breakthrough in Ayotzinapa Case

Photo@:SIPAZ

On July 5th, the correspondent for La Jornada in Guerrero, Sergio Ocampo said that, “in La Gavia … the unknown whereabouts of the 43 students of the Normal School of Ayotzinapa, who disappeared in Iguala in September 2014, could be revealed.”

Sergio Ocampo explained that the self-defense groups of the Movement for Peace of San Miguel Totolapan stated that, “between December 2016 and May 2017 they detained several members of Raybel Jacobo de Almonte, El Tequilero’s, gang, among them was a small group of gunmen who are nicknamed “The Matanormalists” [the Student Teacher Killers] […] They claim that under interrogation the killers told how they took about twenty young presumed student teachers in batches, from the municipality of Cocula, adjacent to the one of Iguala, through several towns until arriving at La Gavia, between the night of the 26th and the morning of September 27th, 2014, where they were murdered and buried. […] They even claimed they could point to the exact spot where they were buried.”

According to Sin Embargo, the parents of the 43 disappeared students from Ayotzinapa Normal School and their lawyer Vidulfo Rosales Sierra asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Mexican State during the hearing of the Special Follow-up Mechanism The IACHR in Lima, Peru, to open a new line of investigation on this version of Cocula on July 6th.

 For more information in Spanish:

La Gavia, posible clave del caso Ayotzinapa (La Jornada, a 5 de julio 2017)

Nueva pista del paradero de los 43 de Ayotzinapa en México (TeleSur, a 5 de julio de 2017)

Guerrero: periodistas recorren la ex “guarida” el ‘El Tequilero’, observan pueblo fantasma y hallan camioneta robada (Aristegui Noticias, a 6 de julio de 2017)

Padres de los 43 piden investigar si a sus hijos se los entregaron a “Los Tequileros” (SinEmbargo, a 14 de julio de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Sesión de seguimiento de la CIDH del caso Ayotzinapa : avances nulos (10 de julio de 2017)

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)

Guerrero: Relatives Organize Protests 34 Months after Ayotzinapa Tragedy

March for Justice for Ayotzinapa student teachers. Photo@: SIPAZ

July 26, 2017, marked 34 months since the forced disappearance of 43 students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Normal School in Ayotzinapa and the violent death of three others.

In a statement entitled “Listen to my voice, 43”, the mothers and fathers of the disappeared declared that they were “firm and dignified in the struggle for the presentation of our children alive.” They stated, “We are not scared or discouraged by the threats, repression and lies of the government.” In a march on the Paseo de la Reforma they reiterated to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR in its Spanish acronym) their demand that they follow the four lines of investigation that would lead them to the whereabouts of their children: 1. the Mexican Army, 2. Huitzuco, 3. cell phones and 4. the transfer of drugs from Iguala to Chicago as a motive for the crime.

In the statement they also called for a massive participation in the “Listen to my voice 43” days of protest to be held from September 15th to 26th, in several states of the Country “for the presentation of the 43 alive and thousands more, for justice for the murdered, for the freedom of political prisoners, for the abrogation of structural reforms, against the dispossession of our lands and natural assets and against the rising cost of living.”

 For more information in Spanish:

Pronunciamiento Escucha mi voz 43 (Comité de Padres y Madres de los 43 y Comité Estudiantil Ricardo Flores Magón de la Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos de Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, a 26 de julio de 2017)

Padres de los 43 exigen al gobierno de Peña deje de sostener la “verdad histórica” (Proceso , a 26 de julio de 2017)

Padres de los 43 marchan en la CDMX (La Jornada en línea, a 26 de julio de 2017)

Gobierno y organismos internacionales silencian caso Ayotzinapa (TeleSur, a 26 de julio de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Sesión de seguimiento de la CIDH del caso Ayotzinapa : avances nulos (10 de julio de 2017)

Guerrero / Chiapas: Llega la Caravana de Ayotzinapa a San Cristóbal de las Casas (3 de julio de 2017)

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)

Oaxaca/Guerrero: Gun Attack on Nochixtlan Victims’ Bus

The attack happened in the early hours of Wednesday. Photo: @Victims Committee for Justice and Truth, June 19th, Nochixtlan

In the early hours of July 26th on a section of the Nochixtlan-Coixtlahuaca road, the bus carrying members of the Committee of Victims for Justice and Truth, June 19th Nochixtlan (Covic in its Spanish acronym), as well as teachers of Section 22 of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE), was attacked.

The Bus and its passengers was headed to Mexico City to participate in the commemorative march for the 34 months of the disappearance of 43 students of the Normal Rural School Raul Isidro Burgos, Ayotzinapa, Guerrero.

According to La Jornada newspaper, Covic leader Santiago Ambrosio said: “When they were traveling on the Oaxaca-Mexico highway, on the Nochixtlan-Coixtlahuaca section, a vehicle drove alongside the truck and several individuals started shooting at them. He said that the shots were aimed at the middle of the unit where the teachers and the Covic leaders were traveling and said that the attackers fired at them with the intention of hurting them, as the bullets struck the windows.”

He said: “There were also shots to the front of the truck and the driver was grazed by a bullet in the forehead, which forced them to cancel the participation of the victims of Nochixtlan in the mobilization for the 43 disappeared students of Ayotzinapa, as although there were no injuries, several suffered from nerves because of what happened.”

Covic was created to clarify what happened during the violent eviction on June 19th, 2016, when Federal and state police officers attacked parents and teachers of Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers blocking the Huajuapan de Leon-Oaxaca road, near Nochixtlan, in repudiation of the educational reform, an operation in which eight people died and 108 were injured.

 For more information in Spanish:

Balean en Oaxaca un autobús donde iban líderes de Nochixtlán y la CNTE (La Jornada, a 27 de julio de 2017)

Balean autobús de víctimas de Nochixtlán (Plumas Atomicas, a 26 de julio de 2017)

Agresión contra integrantes del Covic que se dirigían a marcha por Ayotzinapa (Surco Informativo a, 26 de julio de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: Persisten agresiones y hostigamientos hacia víctimas de Nochixtlán

Oaxaca: Comité de Víctimas de Nochixtlán denuncia “intento de homicidio” contra dos de sus integrantes

Oaxaca/ Nacional: La CNTE y la Segob acuerdan mesas de negociación