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

 

 

 

International/National: Over 100 Guatemalan Campesina Families Take Refuge at Mexican Border

Displaced from Laguna Larga, Guatemala in Campeche (Photo @Radio Pozol)

Since June 2nd, some 120 families of Guatemalan campesinos (between 500 and 700 people) have fled the Laguna Larga community in the Peten area of ​​Guatemala to the Mexican border, where they set up an improvised camp near the El Desengano ejido, Municipality of Candelaria, Campeche on the border line between Guatemala and Mexico. Their forced displacement occurred after the announcement of a massive eviction and the mobilization of more than a thousand members of the National Civil Police (PNC in its Spanish acronym) and the Guatemalan army.

On the Government of Guatemala’s part, according to a Prensa Libre article, the eviction is based on “an eviction order issued by a court in Peten, (where) the National Council of Protected Areas CONAP argues for the conservation of Biosphere as a pretext, but denies and hinders any process or alternative that resolves the recognition of the population that lives within Laguna Larga, Sierra Lacandona and Laguna del Tigre. “

On June 7th, civil organizations conducted an observation and documentation visit and reported “the critical conditions of the camp and the nearly 100 families housed there, and that a preliminary census counts about 450 people. They are conditions that allow us to speak of a humanitarian emergency, which endangers the lives and integrity of children and, in general, of women and all the people settled there.”

They denounced “the grave breaches of the Guatemalan and Mexican governments in the face of a situation of forced displacement and the evident violation of human rights committed by the Guatemalan Army and its government against the population of Laguna Larga, evicted and besieged by security forces of both countries.” They also questioned that “the Mexican government is not responding to the gravity of the situation. Certain food and medical aid, which has been provided by the civilian population rather than by the government, is far from addressing the emergency, to overcome the risk conditions for the vulnerable population under their responsibility.”

For more information in Spanish:

Cientos de campesinos guatemaltecos se instalan en municipio de Campeche (La Jornada,5 de junio de 2017)

Activistas reportan éxodo de 700 guatemaltecos a México (Proceso, 5 de junio de 2017)

Desplazados guatemaltecos quedan varados en línea fronteriza de Campeche (Desinformémonos, 5 de junio de 2017)

Alarma y preocupación ante condiciones de la comunidad Laguna Larga, Petén desplazada forzadamente en la frontera con México (Red TdT, 8 de junio de 2017)

Organizaciones documentan negativa del gobierno a brindar recursos a los desplazados de Guatemala (Desinformémonos, 9 de junio de 2017)

Chiapas: Rodrigo Guadalupe Huet Gomez Murdered

Cruzton community demands investigation into the murder of Rodrigo Guadalupe Huet Gomez Photo: @Chiapas Denuncia Publica

In a statement published on June 1st, residents of the Cruzton community in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza demanded justice in the case of the murder on May 22nd of Rodrigo Guadalupe Huet Gomez, an adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, in that community.

They indicated that on that same day, several adherents were ambushed by “a heavily armed group with high-caliber weapons from New Guadalupe Victoria [that] began a shootout that lasted four and a half hours, we had to take refuge between the trees, and stones to protect our lives” (sic).

As soon as the shootout subsided, Rodrigo Guadalupe got up to “observe and received a shot to the left side of his head our compañero managed to say they hit me I need help” (sic). An ambulance was called from Venustiano Carranza, and this was stopped in Colonia Guadalupe Victoria. They then called an ambulance from Teopisca, which was accompanied by a civil defense van, but “both units were stopped approximately 100 meters from our compañero Rodrigo Guadalupe Huet Gomez.” They were intercepted “by three heavily armed individuals and around these people there were more armed individuals in firing position” (sic). Rodrigo Guadalupe died in the meantime.

Regarding the event, the community of Cruzton demanded that they investigate and punish responsible material and intellectual authors responsible for these of these facts, as well as the disarmament of the identified group so that threats and harassment cease. “That the group that ambushed us be disarmed to end the threats and harassment in our community.”

For more information in Spanish:

Comunidad Cruztón exige se investigue asesinato de Rodrigo Guadalupe Huet Gómez (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, a 2 de junio de 2017)

CNDH pide a Chiapas medidas cautelares para familia de activista (La Jornada, 27 de mayo de 2017) ONU-DH condena los asesinatos de activistas en Jalisco y Chiapas (ONU-DH, 23 de mayo de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: OSC publican informe “Violencia generalizada en la cabecera municipal de Venustiano Carranza”

Chiapas: Se agudiza situación en Venustiano Carranza; enfrentamientos con la fuerza pública y varias detenciones

Mexico/International: Amnesty International Launches New Global Campaign against Wave of Attacks on Human Rights Defenders

Amnesty International launched its “BRAVE” campaign to stop the wave of attacks against human rights defenders and journalists, highlighting that in 2016 they faced “unprecedented levels of persecution, intimidation and violence.” It emphasized that this trend is worldwide because in 2016 “the murders of activists rose by 80%, from 156 in 2015 to 281 a year later in 22 countries. (…) in 63 nations smear campaigns were unleashed against activists; in 68 more the defenders were detained for their work, and in 94 they were threatened.”

They stated that “of the 281 cases registered by Amnesty in 2016, 49 per cent of the victims were working on land, territory and environment issues, including many belonging to indigenous groups”, referring to the murder of Berta Caceres, in Honduras as an emblematic case in Latin America.

For Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International, “what we are witnessing today is an unbridled aggression by governments, armed groups, companies and other powerful players against the very right to defend human rights.”

For more information in Spanish: 

En un año, suben 80% los asesinatos de defensores de derechos humanos: Amnistía Internacional, Proceso, 17 de mayo de 2017

Amnistía Internacional denuncia la muerte de 281 defensores de derechos humanos en 2016, El País, 16 de mayo de 2017

Agresiones por parte de gobiernos, grupos armados y empresas contra el derecho de defender los derechos humanos denuncia AI, Sididh, 18 de mayo de 2017

Valiente: campaña internacional de Amnistía Internacional VIDEO

Valiente, Amnistía Internacional

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional/Internacional: México segundo país más violento del mundo (IISS); afirmación que refutan Gobernación y Relaciones Exteriores, (13/05/2017)

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)

Chiapas: Leader of CIAOC-H Executed in Comitan de Dominguez

Luis Hernandez Cruz, ex-federal deputy for the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) (Photo@Alfaro Noticias)

On May 4th, 2017, one of the leaders of the Historical Independent Center of Agricultural Workers and Campesinos (CIOAC-H in its Spanish acronym) was assassinated in Chiapas. His name was Luis Hernandez Cruz, who was a federal deputy for the PRD.

The campesino leader was executed by gunmen in a van in front of his home in the Magueyes neighborhood of the city of Comitan de Dominguez.

CIOAC-H, an organization to which Luis Hernandez Cruz belonged, is linked to different conflicts in the area, including clashes with the EZLN and the assassination of Jose Luis Solis Lopez (the Zapatista Galeano), in May 2014. “In particular, Luis Hernandez had had political differences with other campesino groups who singled him out for financing armed groups to dispute land in the Las Margaritas region,” Proceso highlighted.

The investigation continues.

For more information in Spanish:

Ejecutan a exdiputado federal del PRD en Chiapas (Proceso, 4 de mayo de 2017)

Matan a ex diputado del PRD en Chiapas; investiga Fiscalía (El Universal, 5 de mayo de 2017)

Asesinan a dirigente de la Cioac Comitán en Chiapas (La Jordana, 4 de mayo de 2017)

Asesinan a líder de la CIOAC a balazos (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 4 de mayo de 2017)

Ejecutan a ex diputado del PRD en Chiapas (El Milenio, 4 de mayo de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: “Grupo armado de la CIOAC-Histórica atacó” a comunidad en el municipio de Las Margaritas (26 de enero de 2016)

Chiapas: Desplazados del Poblado Primero de Agosto denunciaron escalamiento de hostigamiento, amenazas de muerte y desalojo (7 de enero de 2016)

Chiapas: Denuncian hostigamiento militar a la JBG zapatista de La Realidad (13 de marzo de 2015)

Chiapas: Agresión contra Bases de Apoyo del EZLN deja un muerto y 15 heridos zapatistas (6 de mayo de 2014)