International/National : Un Human Rights Committee Issues 48 Human Rights Recommendations for Mexico

On November 7th, at the end of Mexico’s sixth periodic review of the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations (UN) issued 48 recommendations.

Among the main ones, the Committee gave the Mexican State a period of two years to “advance in the process of formation of the National Guard as a civil institution.” It expressed concern “for the militarized nature of law enforcement in general, including the National Guard, and for the lack of a clear timetable on the withdrawal of military force in civic security tasks.”

On the other hand, it lamented the lack of progress in the case of the forced disappearance of the 43 students of the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa (Iguala, Guerrero, 2014) and urged to “strengthen the research capacity and independence of all the actors involved in the investigation, including prosecutors and experts, as well as ensuring the consolidation of the accusatory system and the autonomy of the institutions of law enforcement.”

A third recommendation, also with a period of two years to assess progress, is the situation of vulnerability of journalists and human rights defenders. The Committee requested that more resources be allocated towards the prevention of aggressions towards these two sectors as well as an exhaustive investigation in case they occur.

Another concern raised is the mistreatment of migrants, including cases of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, enforced disappearances, extortion, trafficking, murder and other crimes, in a context of increased migration flows from Central America to the United States and pressures from US government to the Mexican government to stop them. It expressed concern about the widespread use of detention many times by force. It also said it was concerned about the implementation of the Migrant Protection Protocols, which require that asylum seekers in the United States remain in Mexican territory during their processing.

On a positive note, it valued the approval of laws such as the Law to Prevent, Investigate and Punish Torture or the Law on the Forced Disappearance of Persons (both from 2017), although it regretted their slow application. In the case of the General Victims Law, it considered its implementation “insufficient” and therefore urged “the State party to provide the bodies responsible for applying the General Victims Law with the necessary resources, adequate training and effective control mechanisms so that victims of human rights violations promptly receive comprehensive reparation… The State party must also ensure, even through legislative reforms, a fast and efficient procedure to achieve legal recognition of the quality of victims.”

For more information in Spanish:

Comité de Derechos Humanos Observaciones finales sobreelsexto informe periódico de México (CCPR, 7 de noviembre de 2019)

Señala ONU violación de derechos de migrantes en México (La Jornada, 7 de noviembre de 2019)

ONU le da dos años a México para desmilitarizar la Guardia Nacional y resolver caso Ayotzinapa (Animal Político, 7 de noviembre de 2019)

La ONU-DDHH pide desde Ginebra a México desmilitarizar la Guardia Nacional y apurar caso de los 43 (Sin Embargo, 7 de noviembre de 2019)

Desmilitarizar la Guardia Nacional y resolver caso Ayotzinapa pide ONU a México (Radio Formula, 8 de noviembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

International/National: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ends Mexican Visit while African Migrants Protest in Tapachula (October 7, 2019)

Internacional/Nacional: Alta Comisionada de la ONU para Derechos Humanos expresa preocupación ante varios pendientes en derechos humanos en México (5 de septiembre de 2019)

National/International: UNO Presents Diagnostic of Protection Mechanism of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (September 2, 2019)

National: Consultative Council on Mechanism for Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (April 11, 2019)

National: Mechanism for Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists Reviewed (March 31, 2019)

National/International: UNHCHR Condemns Murders of Defenders and Journalists in Chiapas and Baja California and Questions Efficacy of Government Protection Mechanism (January 31, 2019)

National/Chiapas: INM offers public apology to four indigenous migrants from Chiapas

@Proceso

On November 7, in the Hall of Fine Arts in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, the National Institute of Migration (INM) offered a public apology to four Tzeltal indigenous people from Chiapas who were detained, tortured and almost deported by INM elements. In 2015, the two men and two women were on their way north, looking for work in one of the country’s several industrial crops. Presenting their birth certificates and their electoral identification at a checkpoint in San Juan del Río, Querétaro, “INM agents told them they were false, took them to a migratory station and told them they were Guatemalans; they mistreated them so that they would admit to being from Guatemala”, explained María Fernanda Pincus, director of the Legal Clinic of the University program of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). One of the victims was still a minor at the time of the arrest.

Accompanied by the Municipal President of San Cristóbal, Jerónima Toledo Villalobos, Francisco Garduño Yáñez, commissioner of INM, apologized to the legal representative of the victims, Gretchen Kuhner, for the violation of their human rights and the “damage to the image, honor and dignity“, of the 4 people. “They were not present at the ceremony because they want to maintain a private life, but it was very important that a public apology be made because it is not something that happens only to them; they said we don’t want it to happen to us, but neither to other people”, said María Fernanda Pincus. According to Gretchen Kuhner, the victims accept the apology.

As consequence and in an administrative process, two deputy directors, an agent, a coordinator and two heads of department were punished with suspensions between 15 and 30 days. “Through me, the Institute is committed to guaranteeing measures of non-repetition, so that the acts that violated the human rights of these people do not happen again”, Garduño Yáñez said. He added that the end of non-repetition “translates into prevention through the sensitization of public servants attached to the INM, on issues related to indigenous communities and the urgency of its members to migrate to other parts of the country.” According to María Fernanda Pincus, in addition, there will be “reparation of the damage in economic terms, because they were going to work in the north of the country as agricultural day laborers and they will be paid what they missed earning in those days.”

Mario Peña, also from the Legal Clinic of the UNAM’s University Program on Human Rights, pointed out that “there are no conditions to know who are Mexicans and who are foreigners. We have noticed that people in vulnerable conditions with little command of Spanish are more affected and that they are not provided with an interpreter of their language in migration procedures”.

For more information:

Pide el INM disculpas a indígenas tzeltales por agresión en retén (La Jornada, November 7, 2019)

El INM ofrece disculpa pública a indígenas chipanecos confundidos con migrantes (El Proceso, November 7, 2019)

Ofrece INM disculpa pública a 4 indígenas de Chiapas (El Heraldo de México, November 7, 2019)

Ofrecen disculpa pública a tzeltales torturados en 2015 (EL Universal, November 8, 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/International: Effort to Protect Migrants “Lasted a Few Months”, UNHCHR (November 7, 2019)

Chiapas: Migration Authorities Stop Migrant Caravan in Tapachula (October 17, 2019)

National/International: CSOs Denounce Poor Conditions in Provisional Migration Centers in Chiapas (October 13, 2019)

Chiapas: African Migrants Clash with National Guard in Tapachula (October 8, 2019)

International/National: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ends Mexican Visit while African Migrants Protest in Tapachula (October 7, 2019)

National/International: Mexico and US Reevaluate Migration Agreement after Three Months; Disagreement over Desired Outcomes (September 23, 2019)

International/National: UNO Calls for Evaluation of National Guard as Migratory Control in Mexico (September 2, 2019)

Chiapas/National/International: Overcrowding at Huixtla Migration Detention Center Denounced

@Cuarto Oscuro

In a statement published on November 4th, the Human Rights Observation and Monitoring Collective in Southeast Mexico reported that, after conducting several monitoring visits in the central migration corridor of Chiapas, it confirmed “a series of conditions and events of great concern”, among them, the overcrowding of 66 people in the Huitxtla Migration Detention Center (center initially planned for a maximum of 30 people) while “food, access to drinking water and health care are deplorable.”

“The situation of the Detention Center in Huixtla is not an isolated event,” they said, but similar cases occur in Tuxtla Gutierrez and Comitan de Dominguez.

They also observed cases of family separation after the mass detention of October 12th on the coast of Chiapas and an increase in the detention of unaccompanied children and adolescents despite the fact that they should not legally remain in detention centers.

More broadly, they expressed that “there is particular concern about the dynamics that have been consolidated since the signing of the Mexico-United States agreement on the indefinite detention of people who are“ rescued “by police forces and who must then remain in detention until the prosecution determines the cases, without any guarantee of access to the recognition of victims and information on the judicial and administrative processes of migration.”

For this reason, they demanded that the National Migration Institute suspend “the prolonged and indefinite detention to which it is subjecting people”, respect for the right of asylum, attention to the needs of physical and mental health care and respect for “the standards of treating people deprived of their liberty, completely eliminating the practices of keeping people overcrowded, without adequate food, water or health care, and without considering due process.”

For more information in Spanish:

EL INM MANTIENE HACINADAS A 66 PERSONAS EN EL CENTRO DE DETENCIÓN MIGRATORIA DE HUIXTLA (Colectivo de Observación y Monitoreo de Derechos Humanos en el Sureste Mexicano, 4 de noviembre de 2019)

Colectivo denuncia violaciones a derechos de 66 migrantes en Chiapas (La Jornada, 4 de noviembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/International: Effort to Protect Migrants “Lasted a Few Months”, UNHCHR (November 7, 2019)

Chiapas: Migration Authorities Stop Migrant Caravan in Tapachula (October 17, 2019)

National/International: CSOs Denounce Poor Conditions in Provisional Migration Centers in Chiapas (October 13, 2019)

Chiapas: African Migrants Clash with National Guard in Tapachula (October 8, 2019)

International/National: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ends Mexican Visit while African Migrants Protest in Tapachula (October 7, 2019)

National/International: Mexico and US Reevaluate Migration Agreement after Three Months; Disagreement over Desired Outcomes (September 23, 2019)

National/International: Effort to Protect Migrants “Lasted a Few Months”, UNHCHR

Jan Jarab (@Rompeviento)

On October 28th, in the framework of the inauguration of the 5th Regional Forum on Migration and International Protection, the representative in Mexico of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), Jan Jarab, said he sees setbacks in the initial efforts of the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) to protect the guarantees of migrants: “I want to acknowledge that such an attempt was made, but given the international situation it survived a few months, and today we have detained migrants again”, he said.

Deploying the return to a containment policy, Jarab expressed concern about the health and overcrowding conditions that persist in some of the migration centers: “Today we see a situation where we again even have children in detention, where there are difficulties in access to the right to health, and also the precarious conditions of extra-continental people who are on the southern border”, he said.

“When there is a policy focused on containment, on immigration control, what happens is that migrants in irregular conditions look for increasingly dangerous routes and face increasingly dramatic risks from organized crime, not only extortion but disappearances”, he also warned.

Within the framework of this same event, the president of the organization Without Borders, Ana Saiz, said that the number of detainees at the 53 immigration stations across the country is estimated at 150,000, plus another 50,000 returnees from the United States as part of the “Stay in Mexico” program. Saiz said that, “Mexico has never had such a violent policy against migrants.”

On this same date, the National Migration Institute (INM in its Spanish acronym) announced that it will strengthen the training, monitoring and evaluation of public management in immigration offices and centers in the country in order to sensitize its officials on the respect and safeguard of human rights, a program that will be carried out in coordination with the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (CONAPRED in its Spanish acronym).

For more information in Spanish:

Jan Jarab: sólo duró unos meses la política migratoria enfocada en derechos humanos (Proceso, 28 de octubre de 2019)

Retroceso de actual gobierno en protección de migrantes: ONU-DH (La Jornada, 29 de octubre de 2019)

INM refuerza acciones para el respeto a derechos humanos de migrantes (Regeneración, 29 de octubre de 2019)

INM sensibilizará a funcionarios para prevenir discriminación (La Jornada, 29 de octubre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Migration Authorities Stop Migrant Caravan in Tapachula (October 17, 2019)

National/International: CSOs Denounce Poor Conditions in Provisional Migration Centers in Chiapas (October 13, 2019)

Chiapas: African Migrants Clash with National Guard in Tapachula (October 8, 2019)

International/National: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ends Mexican Visit while African Migrants Protest in Tapachula (October 7, 2019)

National/International: Mexico and US Reevaluate Migration Agreement after Three Months; Disagreement over Desired Outcomes (September 23, 2019)

International/National: UNO Calls for Evaluation of National Guard as Migratory Control in Mexico (September 2, 2019)

Chiapas: Federal Police Attack Migrants and Journalists at Migration Center in Tapachula (September 2, 2019)

Chiapas/National/International: Human Rights Organizations Demand End to Child and Adolescent Migrant Detentions (May 26, 2019)

National/International: CNDH Requests Special Measures for Migrants (May 8, 2019)

Chiapas: Migration Authorities Stop Migrant Caravan in Tapachula

@Daniel Zacarias

On October 13th, 2019, elements of the National Migration Institute (INM in its Spanish acronym) as well as the Chiapas State Police and the National Guard launched an operation to stop a caravan of migrants, which started early in the evening.

Around five o’clock in the morning between 1,500 and 3,000 Central American, Caribbean and African migrants, including young people and children, left the “Miguel Hidalgo” central park of Tapachula, Chiapas, heading to Tijuana. They intended to make a stop in Mexico City and organize a meeting with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to ask for his help and accelerate their migration processes.

To date, the National Institute of Migration and the Mexican Commission for Assistance to Refugees (COMAR in its Spanish acronym) have not responded to their requests: they ask that they be granted an Office of Departure or regularize their stay one way or another. That is why thousands of migrants have been stranded for several months in the Tapachula immigration stations without employment and basic services.

The caravan moved rapidly along the state’s coastal highway that leads to the southern state of Oaxaca towards Huixtla, its first planned stop. It crossed two checkpoints guarded by State Police and the National Guard, one of them being the Viva Mexico bridge where they shouted “Goodbye, Tapachula!” in front of the public forces.

Around 4:30 p.m. 30 kilometers from the point of departure, at Xochiltepec community, the caravan was stopped by elements of the INM, the State Police and the National Guard. Migrants were surrounded by the authorities, causing them to flee among the bushes, pastures and agricultural crops. Before that, about 150 had been assured that they were behind the caravan and were transferred to the Siglo XXI Migration Station in Tapachula.

Luis Garcia Villagran, lawyer and activist for the rights of migrants, who accompanied the caravan said: “They came on us like there was a war, rather there is a sordid war here. I was with my wife and about 200 agents arrived, between Migration and National Guard. We showed them that they all brought documentation, that they were all shelter applicants. Then the pulling began, the pulling changed to beatings. They even took children to the hospital.”

However, the official INM statement states that its officials “convinced” foreigners to return to Tapachula using trucks provided by the authorities, or on foot along the road. It says that “with full respect for human rights [the INM] carried out actions to invite foreign people who made up the contingent that left the city of Tapachula to go to the Institute to know the options to regularize their stay in the country.”

It also said that all the migrants who participated in the caravan were transferred to the Siglo XXI Migration Station while the activist Irineo Mujica, president of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, said that about 300 were locked in Siglo XXI, another 280 in Tuxtla Gutierrez and a small Group of 90 in Huixtla. Cases of family separation were also recorded.

This caravan was the first mass migration movement since Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ratified an agreement with Donald Trump, president of the United States, which aims to contain illegal migration and occurred after numerous protests made by migrants in Tapachula, demanding that the authorities expedite their paperwork so that they can continue their journey to the United States.

For more information in Spanish:

Nueva caravana de migrantes sale de Tapachula, Chiapas (Multimedios, el 12 de octubre de 2019)

Frenan autoridades caravanas de migrantes (Cuarto Poder, el 13 de octubre de 2019)

Las autoridades mexicanas paran una caravana de casi 3.000 migrantes, incluyendo cubanos (14 y medio,l 13 de octubre de 2019)

Guardia Nacional bloquea caravana de migrantes africanos en Chiapas (Animal Político, 13 de octubre de 2019)

Migración detiene y encierra a solicitantes de refugio pese a tener papeles (Animal Político, el 14 de octubre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: African Migrants Clash with National Guard in Tapachula (October 8, 2019)

International/National: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ends Mexican Visit while African Migrants Protest in Tapachula (October 7, 2019)

Chiapas: Federal Police Attack Migrants and Journalists at Migration Center in Tapachula (September 2, 2019)

Chiapas/National/International: Human Rights Organizations Demand End to Child and Adolescent Migrant Detentions (May 26, 2019)

National/International: CNDH Requests Special Measures for Migrants (May 8, 2019)

National/International: CSOs Denounce Poor Conditions in Provisional Migration Centers in Chiapas

La Mosca Entrance (@Human Rights Observation and Monitoring Collective of Southeast Mexico)

On October 3rd, the Human Rights Observation and Monitoring Collective of Southeast Mexico issued a statement denouncing that the permanent authorization of the provisional center between Tuxtla Gutierrez and Chiapa de Corzo “El Cupape 2- La Mosca” since last June “ignores the minimum conditions to keep migrants and shelter applicants detained.” After visiting the detention center the day before, it noted that, “migrants and detained shelter applicants are without access to basic services, drinking water, sanitation, toilet paper, food and medical care.” It also reported that, “the general conditions of the place are a total lack of communication, misinformation and isolation.”

It stressed that there were “approximately 370 people of different nationalities from countries in Central America, Africa and Asia, who have been detained, some for more than two months”, and that the space is shared by “everyone without differentiating between women, men, families, girls, boys and adolescents and LGBTQ+ population”.

It urged the Mexican State to “respond with total respect and guarantee human rights towards the migratory and refuge crisis that exists in the country, especially on the southern border, including the definitive solution to overcrowding and inhuman conditions within the Migration Stations and Centers that are functioning in total disregard for regulations and disrespect for the rights of men, women, children, adolescents and LGBTTTI community detained”; and to seek greater linkage between the public agencies involved towards “a migration and refuge policy with a real and effective approach to human rights, and not criminalization and repression towards the migrant population, and consequently, towards the defense and promotion of rights humans in this context.”

For more information in Spanish:

“La Mosca” sin servicios básicos para migrantes (Cuarto Poder, 5 de octubre de 2019)

Denuncian condiciones insalubres de migrantes en albergues de Chiapas (Proceso, 4 de octubre de 2019)

Denuncian precariedad en servicios básicos para migrantes en Chiapas (La Jornada, 4 de octubre de 2019)

Alarmante situación en la nueva estancia provisional de Chiapas “CUPAPE 2 – LA MOSCA”: COMDHS (Colectivo de Observación y Monitoreo de Derechos Humanos del Sureste Mexicano, 3 de octubre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

International/National: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ends Mexican Visit while African Migrants Protest in Tapachula (October 7, 2019)

National/International: Mexico and US Reevaluate Migration Agreement after Three Months; Disagreement over Desired Outcomes (September 23, 2019)

International/National: UNO Calls for Evaluation of National Guard as Migratory Control in Mexico (September 2, 2019)

Chiapas: Federal Police Attack Migrants and Journalists at Migration Center in Tapachula (September 2, 2019)

Chiapas/National/International: Human Rights Organizations Demand End to Child and Adolescent Migrant Detentions (May 26, 2019)

Nacional/Internacional: Nuevas medidas gubernamentales buscan contener el flujo migratorio 26 de junio de 2019.

Nacional/Internacional: Acuerdo sobre migración entre EUA y México cancela imposición de aranceles al segundo 8 de junio de 2019.

National/International: CNDH Requests Special Measures for Migrants (May 8, 2019)

Chiapas: African Migrants Clash with National Guard in Tapachula

@Isabel Mateos / Cuartoscuro.com

Late at night on October 2nd, an African migrant accused a member of the Federal Police of robbery and violence, although the versions of the event vary and some people attribute it to a municipal police officer.

According to the migrant from Angola named David, he was assaulted, beaten and stripped of his cell phone, a ring and money when he left the Siglo XXI migratory station in Tapachula to go to the bathroom. “We were sleeping in the tent, but my husband went out to do his necessities here nearby and suddenly policemen passed by, they started beating him,” said his wife.

After the event, indignant migrants protested demanding justice for the alleged attack on their colleague and clashed with the elements of the National Guard. After more than an hour and a dialogue between the federal authorities with the spokespersons of the migrants, the protests calmed down. The African migrant allegedly attacked was transferred to the Mexican Red Cross.

Some days previosly, on September 30th, around 350 migrants from the same immigration station held a march, for the sixth time since they began more than a month ago, to demand the delivery of ex officio exit documents that give them the authorization to transit through Mexican territory towards the border with the United States. Migrants mostly from African countries have been waiting for at least two months for immigration authorities to address their situation.

For more information in Spanish:

Migrante denuncia robo y agresión de policías en Chiapas; se desata enfrentamiento (Noticieros Televisa el 3 de octubre de 2019)

Migrantes y Guardia Nacional se enfrentan en Tapachula (El Sol de México el 3 de octubre de 2019)

Migrantes africanos y Guardia Nacional chocan en frontera sur (El Imparcial el 3 de octubre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

International/National: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ends Mexican Visit while African Migrants Protest in Tapachula (October 7, 2019)

Chiapas: Federal Police Attack Migrants and Journalists at Migration Center in Tapachula (September 2, 2019)

Chiapas/National/International: Human Rights Organizations Demand End to Child and Adolescent Migrant Detentions (May 26, 2019)

National/International: CNDH Requests Special Measures for Migrants (May 8, 2019)