National: CNDH Asks SCJN to Declare Interior Security Law Unconstitutional

On November 5th, in a communiqué addressed to the ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN in its Spanish acronym), the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH in its Spanish acronym) asked it to declare the Interior Security Law, passed in December 2017, unconstitutional in its entirety. It is expected that next November 12th the Court will resolve the challenges before it.

The CNDH argued that “its validity allows perpetuating a state of unconstitutional matters that is contrary to full respect for fundamental rights and the dignity of the people, for which a careful call is made to the Ministers to reconsider the content and the scope of Article 20 of the law, which establishes a full subordination of the civil authorities in command of the Armed Forces, for which reason it should be reconsidered that security actions must be directed at all times by a civil authority, in full respect of the human rights recognized in the Federal Constitution and in international treaties.”

It also expressed its concern on issues such as the incompetence of the Congress of the Union to legislate on matters of internal security; the lack of prior consultation of indigenous peoples and communities; and the authority granted by the military authorities to request any information.

Finally, it stressed, just as it had done before the approval of the Law, the participation of the armed forces in public security tasks “is not the most adequate response to face the crime rate that afflicts our country, given the special nature of his constitutional functions; the above, while recognizing its institutionality, commitment and delivery in the tasks entrusted. On the contrary, the training and training of police officers should be favored; financial intelligence and patrimonial research; the strengthening of prevention, as the attention of inequalities, favoring and serving the exercise of social rights, as well as the attention of arms trafficking, in addition to carrying out a review and rethinking of our penitentiary system.”

For more information in Spanish:

CNDH pide a la Corte votar contra toda la Ley de Seguridad Interior (Proceso, 5 de noviembre de 2018)

CNDH: sin base, Ley de Seguridad Interior (La Jornada, 5 de noviembre de 2018)

CNDH pide declarar inconstitucional la Ley de Seguridad Interior (El Universal, 5 de noviembre de 2018)

CNDH llama a la SCJN a declarar inconstitucional Ley de Seguridad Interior (MX Político, 5 de noviembre de 2018)

CNDH expresa su preocupación por Ley de Seguridad Interior y llama a SCJN a declararla inconstitucional (Revolución 3.0, 5 de noviembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: Reactions to Minister for Supreme Court’s Proposal on Interior Security Law (November 7th, 2018)

National: Two Judges Declare Interior Security Law Unconstitutional (May 24th, 2018)

Chiapas: Organizations seek legal shelter from the Interior Security Law (April 2nd, 2018)

National: EPN Enacts Interior Security Law. CNDH Declares it Unconstitutional (January 14th, 2018)

National: Interior Security Law Passed amidst Protests (December 7th, 2017)

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National: Reactions to Minister for Supreme Court’s Proposal on Interior Security Law

On November 1st, the collective #SeguridadSinGuerra publicly declared that the proposal of the Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN in its Spanish acronym), Jorge Mario Pardo Rebolledo on the Interior Security Law (LSI in its Spanish acronym), is “deficient and insufficient“: although it invalidates some parts of the text, it keeps the Armed Forces “on the streets without effective control mechanisms and leaves intact the heart of militarization,” the group said. It should be remembered that the SCJN plans to review the constitutionality of the Law passed in December 2017, possibly from November 12, amid national and international criticism.

The project of Minister Pardo “proposes to declare unconstitutional seven articles, modify four and declare the validity of 23 of the 34 that make up the law. Although the proposal invalidates some of the most serious parts of the Law, it leaves intact the central part of the Law and requires that at least eight of the 11 ministers vote to eliminate said parts. However, the risks of keeping the army on the streets, without effective control mechanisms, remain. Therefore, from #SeguridadSinGuerra we consider that the project is deficient and insufficient,” the collective said.

“Peace cannot be built with a law that maintains the paradigm of the militarization of public security, hindering legitimate efforts to listen to the victims of the country and build mechanisms of transitional justice,” he concluded.

According to the media, the SCJN intends to endorse the Law on the premise that it does not violate the Constitution provided that the intervention of the armed forces is limited to serious and exceptional situations, and at the express request of state governments. “Not only is participation of the armed forces in aid or support of civil authorities constitutional, but is necessary to safeguard the legal order emanating from the fundamental law itself (…) In time of peace the military are constitutionally empowered to assist or support the civil authorities, at the express request of them and without usurping their sphere of competence,” the group says.

Among what would disappear in the approved text is any word or clause that opens the door for the Army to act on its own; the automatic classification as “reserved information” of the data that may trigger operations (Article 9); and the inclusion of the topic of social protest or political – electoral protests as a possible threat to internal security (Article 8).

For more information in Spanish:

Proyecto de la Corte avala Ley de Seguridad Interior pero con 14 cambios. Aquí los detalles de las modificaciones (Animal Político, 31 de octubre de 2018)

Ministro SCJN por avalar Ley de Seguridad Interior (Político MX, 31 de octubre de 2018)

Proyecto de SCJN mantiene ‘corazón’ de la Ley de Seguridad Interior: Pérez Correa (Aristegui Noticias, 31 de octubre de 2018)

Propone ministro Pardo Rebolledo invalidar 7 de los 34 artículos de la Ley de Seguridad Interior (Aristegui Noticias, 30 de octubre de 2018)

La SCJN considera acotar participación de Fuerzas Armadas en seguridad (Proceso, 30 de octubre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: Two Judges Declare Interior Security Law Unconstitutional (May 24th, 2018)

Chiapas: Organizations seek legal shelter from the Interior Security Law (April 2nd, 2018)

National: EPN Enacts Interior Security Law. CNDH Declares it Unconstitutional (January 14th, 2018)

National: Interior Security Law Passed amidst Protests (December 7th, 2017)

 

 

Chiapas: Chiapaneco Group against the extractive model pronounces against dispossession

Meeting of the Chiapaneco Group against the extractive mode, october 2018 (@Otros Mundos)

On October 27, at the end of a two-day meeting that took place in San Cristobal de las Casas, the peoples and organizations that make up the Chiapaneco Group against the extractive model declared themselves “in resistance” to this capitalist model that “seeks commercialize the energy that life gives us, which comes from rivers, sea, sun, wind, forests and volcanoes. We do not agree with the fact that large national and transnational companies come to strip us of our lands and territories with extractive projects such as oil wells, geothermal energy, hydroelectric dams, mines and wind farms, to produce energy that feeds their polluting industries and the model of capitalist life of the big cities ».

They denounced that “companies do not ask for permission from Mother Earth or even the people of Chiapas, when they want to extract the natural commons of our territories, with the complicity of the three levels of government, of the military, paramilitary and police apparatus” . They affirmed that, unlike what entrepreneurs want us to believe, “an energy that displaces peoples can not be green or clean”.

They rejected different projects that are being implemented or that could be implemented in the Costa, Sierra, Zoque, Altos, Selva zones, which “violate our rights as peoples (…). They move us, flood our lands (…). They steal our water and pollute our sources of life “, as well as generate “militarization for the control of the territory and the protection of private projects, not only through the presence of the Mexican army but also of paramilitaries and private guards. “

They finally indicated that “all these projects do not leave any economic, social or cultural development in our communities. The only path that they open for us is that of death. (…) We want to continue with strength and for this we need to be able to continue living in our communities, with our ways of life, with respect and care for our lands and territories. We want the collective rights of peoples to be respected and recognized. “

For more information (in Spanish) :

Pueblos organizados de Chiapas nos declaramos en resistencia ante el modelo energético capitalista (Grupo Chiapaneco contra el Modelo Extractivo, 27 de octubre de 2018)

Pueblos organizados detendrán el avance de proyectos extractivistas en Chiapas (Chiapas Paralelo, 28 de octubre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: FDPS Suspends Dialogue with Government until El Puntal Is Closed and Other Concessions Repealed March 1, 2017

Chiapas: nine municipalities declare their lands free of mining and dams December 26, 2015

Chiapas: Second Assembly of National Indigenous Congress (CNI)

Photo @ SIPAZ

From October 12th to 14th, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym) and the Indigenous Council of Government (CIG in its Spanish acronym) held their second assembly in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas with the objective of “seeing each other, consulting and taking new steps for the construction of the new world we need.”

During the first two days of the event, participation was limited to the members of the CNI-CIG and to some guests who worked at thematic tables from which multiple proposals emerged. The call for the last day was opened to external supporters and representatives of non-governmental organizations. In total, more than 500 people participated, most of them delegates of indigenous peoples in the country who reported situations of violence and violations of their rights in numerous parts of the Republic.

In their final statement, they emphasized the “urgency” to continue in their process of organization “from below”, “in our struggle against the deep disease caused by capitalism.” “The Indigenous Council of Government is the way to honor our differences, to find there the word in which we reflect, and to be a true government,” they ratified.

They marked a clear distance with the incoming government: “we will not be part of any exponential capitalist transformation.” They denounced the “continuity in neoliberal politics”, specifically questioning several projects already announced as the continuation of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ), the trans-isthmus project, the Mayan train, the million trees in the South, the new City of Mexico airport and mining concessions in indigenous territories.

One of the proposals of the incoming government is to resume the San Andres Accords on indigenous rights and culture signed between the federal government and the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in February 1996. In response, the final declaration speaks of the “cynicism” of the proposal if it is not intended at the same time “to touch the murderous capitalist assembly that is the Mexican State”, “without ending the regimes of water concessions, mining, national goods and hydrocarbons, without imposing limits to the imperial power repealing the current Free Trade Agreement and severely limiting the large transnational corporations, without destroying the control exercised by the big crime cartels, supported by military corporations, over our territories.”

They informed that they will take these resolutions to their regions to consult the proposal “to continue building the organization that becomes a self-government, autonomous and rebellious, with compañeros from other geographies, to break the collective inertia imposed on us, to see among us all where the storm comes from and in the middle of it we cannot stop weaving, until our fabric meets the others, which sprout in all corners of Mexico and the world so that councils can be made, that together, we can be a council of government with networks supporting the CIG. They unfold with their own forms and their own identity in the countryside and the city irrespective of borders.”

For more information in Spanish:

Pronunciamiento de la segunda asamblea nacional del Congreso Nacional Indígena-Concejo Indígena de Gobierno (CNI, 14 de octubre de 2018)

“Una mentira la cuarta transformación de López Obrador” CNI-EZLN (Chiapas Paralelo, 14 de octubre de 2018)

Zapatistas e indígenas marcan distancia de López Obrador (Proceso, 15 de octubre de 2018)

La cuarta transformación de AMLO “tiene su mirada puesta en nuestros territorios”, dice el EZLN (Sin Embargo, 15 de octubre de 2018)

Los pasos del Congreso Nacional Indígena (La Jornada, 16 de octubre de 2018)

Volver a casa: segunda asamblea del CNI-CIG (Subversiones, 16 de octubre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/Mexico: Invitation to the Second National Assembly of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and the Indigenous Governing Council (CIG) (September 18th, 2018)

National: First National Encounter of Women Convened by CNI (August 10th, 2018)

National: CNI Will not Support any Presidential Candidate and Calls on Peoples to Organize. (May 10th, 2018)

Chiapas/National: Roundtable Discussion “To Watch, to Listen, to Speak: Forbidden to Think?”  (May 5th, 2018)

 

Guerrero: Mixed Unit Disarms 500 Municipal Police and Arrests Two Officers in Acapulco; Public Security Controlled by SEDENA, SEMAR and State Police

(@Somoselmedio)

On September 25th, some 100 Navy elements backed by some 250 soldiers, state and ministerial police took over the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP in its Spanish acronym) of Acapulco, disarmed more than 500 municipal police officers and detained two officers of the body accused of homicide, who were sent to the Iguala prison.

The operation was organized on suspicion of probable “infiltration of criminal groups” in the body and against the null performance of the municipal police against an increase in the crime rate, said the spokesman of the Guerrero Coordination Group (GCG), Roberto Alvarez Heredia at a press conference. He announced that security and the protection of citizens of the municipality of Acapulco will be under control of the State Secretariat of Public Security with the support of the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA in its Spanish acronym), the Secretariat of the Navy (SEMAR in its Spanish acronym) and the Federal Police.

“The State Attorney General’s Office executed two arrest warrants against Luis Fernando alias El Fenix and Brayan Antonio alias El Brayan for their probable responsibility in the crime of aggravated homicide, who, up to this point, serve as operational commands of the Secretariat of Public Security of Acapulco City Council. The rest of the members of this body are subject to investigation” and they will be subject to trust control tests, he explained.

“The actions carried out yesterday did not register any incident and were carried out in strict adherence to the law and the corresponding protocol and the elements are at this moment under review along with their weapons,” the spokesperson said.

This operation took place after the mayor elected by MORENA, Adela Roman Ocampo, who will take office in a few days, publicly denounced that organized crime controlled the body, and even threatened to kill her collaborators, arguing that if changes were made to the police, “they were going to receive them with bullets,” local newspapers reported.

For more information in Spanish:

Toma la Marina la SSP de Acapulco, desarma a 500 policías y detiene a dos mandos (El Sur, 26 de septiembre de 2018)

Detienen a dos mandos de la policía en Acapulco; toma el gobierno estatal la seguridad (El Sur, 25 de septiembre de 2018)

Afirman que dos carteles infiltraron policía municipal de Acapulco (El Universal, 25 de septiembre de 2018)

La Marina asume el control de seguridad en Acapulco; detienen a 18 policías (Proceso, 25 de septiembre de 2018)

Sedena, Semar y Policía estatal asumen seguridad en Acapulco (La Jornada, 25 de septiembre de 2018)

Relevan a municipales en Acapulco; agentes estatales, al mando (Excelsior, 26 de septiembre de 2018)

Toma Gobierno del Estado de Guerrero control de la Policía Municipal de Acapulco (Aristegui Noticias, 25 de septiembre de 2018)

Si hay cambios en Policía, “los recibiremos a balazos”, advierte el crimen a alcaldesa electa de Acapulco (Proceso, 24 de septiembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero : allanan las oficinas de la agencia de noticias Quadratín en Acapulco (25 de abril de 2018)

Guerrero : Asesinan y estigmatizan a la periodista y bloguera Leslie Ann Pamela Montenegro del Real en Acapulco (13 de febrero de 2018)

National/International: General Salvador Cienfuegos Wins “William J. Perry” 2018 Award for Excellence in Security and Defense Education

@Twitter Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda

On September 20th, General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, current head of the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA in its Spanish acronym), received in Washington the “William J. Perry” 2018 Award for Excellence in Security and Defense Education. This was “in recognition of the fact that, through education, outreach, research and/or academic leadership, he contributed to the basic knowledge of security and defense practitioners, advancement and cooperation of the international security environment, and to promoting sustainable capacity in the Americas,” says the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies.

Some media stressed that at no time during the presentation the multiple indications of human rights violations by the armed forces of Mexico were mentioned, from the declaration of war by Felipe Calderon against organized crime until the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto, which includes cases of extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances and kidnappings, among others. These are situations that have been documented by both national organizations and international organizations.

“The Mexican armed forces are respectful of the democratic processes of our country, we are encouraged by the conviction that the strengthening of institutions is the way to advance the goals we have to achieve as a nation,” declared General Cienfuegos in his speech. He also announced without going into detail that the Joint Training Center for Peace Operations will be inaugurated next October. “It is precisely the preservation of (hemispheric) stability that will allow America to remain the safest place in the world, a safer place that we will have to pass on to new generations,” he concluded.

For more information in Spanish:

El general Cienfuegos será premiado en Washington por su “liderazgo en la defensa hemisférica” (Proceso, 19 de septiembre de 2018)

EU premia a Cienfuegos por su “aportación individual” a la estabilidad continental (Proceso, 20 de septiembre de 2018)

Salvador Cienfuegos recibe el premio “William J. Perry” (El Informador, 20 de septiembre de 2018)

Distinguen a Salvador Cienfuegos con el premio ‘William J. Perry’ (Vanguardia, 20 de septiembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: AMLO “The Army and the Navy will continue on the streets in internal public security tasks” (September 15th, 2019)

National: EPN Enacts Interior Security Law. CNDH Declares it Unconstitutional (January 14th, 2018)

Chiapas: Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center denounces extrajudicial execution of a person from Chiapas in Tabasco

Carlos HUmberto Mendoza de los Santos (@CDHFBC)

In a press conference held in Villahermosa, Tabasco, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Human Rights Center (CDHFBC) reported that it documented the “extrajudicial execution” of Carlos Humberto Mendoza de los Santos, originally from Palenque, by soldiers, in an event that occurred on May 16 in Macuspana, Tabasco.

The CDHFBC said that “soldiers commanded by commander Armando Garcia Triana, arbitrarily shot the unarmed civilian Carlos Humberto, who was later criminalized and stigmatized, saying he was a “hit man””.

It indicated as “direct responsible for the extrajudicial execution 22 members of the 18th Motorized Cavalry Regiment, belonging to the detachment of the Mexican Army, located in the Ejido Medellín, municipality of Catazajá, Chiapas, of 38 Military Zone 1, with headquarters in Tenosique, Tabasco”.

It explained that Carlos Humberto was 32 years old, the father of two girls; and, together with his family, he belonged to the organization Autonomous Peoples in Defense of Uses and Customs (PADUC), made up of Ch’ol, Tzeltal and mestizo communities dedicated to the defense of their territory.

Lidia Jiménez Antonio, wife of Mendoza de los Santos, demanded that the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) punish the responsible soldiers, and that the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena), “repair the damage caused to her family” , because the army “said they had murdered a hit man”. She highlighted: “My husband was not a hit man; He was a carpenter. “

The CDHFBC for its part reported that there have been “acts of harassment, intimidation and surveillance against the family of Carlos Humberto, who fear for their life, integrity and personal safety.” In addition, it expressed its “concern because, four months after the extrajudicial execution of Carlos Humberto, the PGR does not have substantive advances to point out so as to punish those responsible.” It also exhorted “to ensure due diligence in the investigation with sufficient and necessary actions to prevent this extrajudicial execution whose responsibility is of the Mexican Army, to remain unpunished.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Ejército mexicano responsable de ejecución extrajudicial en Macuspana, Tabasco (CDHFBC, 17 de septiembre de 2018)

Denuncia Frayba “ejecución” cometida por militares en Chiapas (La Jornada, 18 de septiembre de 2018)

Exigen justicia para civil ejecutado (Cuarto Poder, 19 de septiembre de 2018)

Soldados ejecutan a Carlos, la bala entró por su nariz y le destrozó el cerebro; “mi esposo era carpintero, nunca tuvo un arma en sus manos, salió negativo a plomo pese a ser acusado de disparar primero” (Revolución 3.0, 18 de septiembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Military Spying and Harassment of Indigenous Communities in Palenque, Ocosingo, Chilon and La Libertad Reported April 10, 2018