National: 20,390 Forcibly Displaced in 2017 – Over 329,900 in the Last 12 Years

(@CMDPDH)

On May 2nd, the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH in its Spanish acronym) published a report on forced internal displacement in Mexico that indicated that in 2017, the climate of violence that prevails in the country caused 25 internal forced mass displacement events in nine states of the Republic, which affected 20,390 people. In the last 12 years at least 329,917 people have had to flee their homes, a figure that is “extremely conservative” as it only includes the cases in which entire communities have had to move. The CMDPDH estimates the figure could exceed one million people, although it affirms that the government has not published figures due to not wanting to “recognize the scale of the problem and the existence of an armed conflict.”

The report states that the states of Guerrero (seven cases), Sinaloa (five), Chihuahua (three), Chiapas (three) and Oaxaca (three) concentrated practically all mass displacement episodes registered in 2017. Chiapas was the entity where the phenomenon affected the largest number of people: 6,090, most of them originating in the municipalities of Altos de Chalchihuitan and Chenalho. 60.44% of the people affected were indigenous and the vast majority lived in rural areas

Of all the factors that led to forced displacement, the majority of them were caused by armed organized groups. Other causes were political violence, social conflict and territorial disputes and, to a lesser extent, the implementation of extractive mining projects.

The CMDPDH regretted that in Mexico the issue of forced internal displacement remains an issue without diagnosis, without public policies or official responses: “Internally displaced people do not have a framework of protection, they are like a kind of legal limbo where nobody confers them rights. The displaced people are left at the mercy of the will of local governments.” In addition, although it acknowledged the existence are two local laws, in Chiapas and in Guerrero, lack of regulations has prevented their proper enforcement to date.

For more information in Spanish:

Informe 2017 : Desplazamiento interno forzado en México (CMDPDH, informe completo, 2 mayo de 2018)

La violencia provocó el desplazamiento forzado de 20 mil 390 personas en 2017: CMDPDH (Proceso, 2 de mayo de 2018)

Más de 20 mil desplazados en México durante 2017; la mayoría, indígenas: Informe (Aristegui Noticias, 2 de mayo de 2018)

En 12 años, 329.9 mil víctimas de desplazamiento forzado en el país (La Jornada, 3 de mayo de 2018)

Los conflictos territoriales y la violencia llevan al éxodo a más de 12.000 indígenas en México (El País, 3 de mayo de 2018)

Por la violencia, más de 325 mil personas han dejado sus hogares a la fuerza en México (Animal Político, 3 de mayo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas : Persiste riesgo a la vida de indígenas tsotsiles en Aldama, denuncia el Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas (26 de abril de 2018)

Chiapas: SIPAZ visitó a personas desplazadas de Chalchihuitán (20 de abril de 2018)

Guerrero: De la civilidad truncada a la desaparición de la razón, informe final de la Misión de Observación al Estado de Guerrero (16 de abril de 2018)

Chiapas: Plantón desplazados ejido Puebla, Chenalhó (10 de abril de 2018)

Chiapas: Otro conflicto agrario en los límites de Chenalhó provoca desplazados en el municipio de Aldama [blog incluye antecedentes] (27 de marzo de 2018)

Chiapas: desplazados de Chalchihuitán denuncian condiciones en las que se siguen encontrando(23 de marzo de 2018)

Chiapas : sin condiciones de seguridad regresan a casa más de 4000 desplazados en Chalchihuitán (4 de enero de 2018)

SIPAZ: BOLETÍN URGENTE – Reactivación del conflicto agrario entre Chenalhó y Chalchihuitán : violencia generalizada e impunidad (16 de diciembre de 2017)

Advertisements

National: 84 Organizations and Collectives Oppose Gendarmerie at Southern Border

Photo@ChiapasParalelo

On April 10th, the Mexican government announced that it will multiply the number of troops of the National Gendarmerie on the southern border to reinforce security but maintaining the commitment to protect the human rights of Central American migrants who cross the country to the United States. This announcement came amid strong tensions with the United States after the Tweets from President Donald Trump before the advance through Mexican territory of the “Viacrucis Migrante” in which more than a thousand Central American migrants participated.

In a joint statement, 84 organizations, collectives and networks of 23 states of Mexico demanded that the plan be canceled because, they believe, “the increase in the forces of the State does not guarantee security and also affects the rights of the migrant and the local population.”

They claimed that this proposal obeys “the demand of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, for the federal government to stop the flow of migrants in Mexico as a condition to promote a renegotiation agreement on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).”

They denounced that, “this decision of the Mexican government shows that there is no comprehensive, defined or clear approach to human mobility, persisting in a strategy that criminalizes Central American forced migration. Rather, it takes place exactly on the same days as the deployment of the United States National Guard on our northern border to replicate this border reinforcement between Mexico and Central America. This decision, taken last April 3rd, is opposed to the message issued by President Peña Nieto in response to Trump on April 5, in which he made an alleged call for national unity in defense of the dignity and sovereignty of Mexico, a speech that was applauded by wide social sectors of the country, without contemplating concrete actions to revert the decision of Trump.”

They warned that “the decision to reinforce the southern border of Mexico, by sending agents of the National Gendarmerie, puts at serious risk the integrity of people in a context of human mobility, which will undoubtedly result in a further increase in violence, xenophobia and criminalization of migrants, refugees and those who defend them, as well as the population in general.”

For more information in Spanish:

¿Al estilo Trump? México aumenta el despliegue de gendarmes en la frontera sur para frenar la migración (Animal Político, 10 de abril de 2018)

Navarrete Prida se reúne con gobernador de Chiapas; reforzarán frontera sur (La Jornada, 11 de abril de 2018)

Pronunciamiento completo « Rechazamos el aumento de la Gendarmería Nacional en la frontera sur » (OSC, 14 de abril de 2018)

Repudian 84 colectivos envío de agentes de la Gendarmería a la frontera sur (La Jornada, 15 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas : Encuentro « Desde la Selva Lacandona, comunidades indígenas, organizaciones civiles y sociales dicen no al despojo, no al desalojo y no a la militarización » (7 de marzo de 2018)

Chiapas : Indígenas tseltales de Amador Hernández expulsan a 17 soldados por incursionar en su comunidad sin permiso (11 de enero de 2018)

Nacional : grave crisis de personas refugiadas en la frontera sur de México (3 de marzo de 2017)

Oaxaca: President of Nochixtlan Victims Committee Attacked

Photo @ SinEmbargo

On the morning of April 1st, the president of the Nochixtlan Victims Committee (COVIC in its Spanish acronym), Santiago Ambrosio Hernandez, was found tied up in his house with signs of torture.

El Debate reported that Ambrosio was attacked in Asuncion Nochixtlan by four individuals who entered his house by force and began to beat him. He was wounded with a knife in the back and arms and received several kicks to the body.

After the attack, he was admitted to a private hospital in Oaxaca, “where he was already visited by the Attorney General of Oaxaca and by staff of the General Secretariat of the State Government (SEGEGO).” In light of the incident, Ambrosio filed a complaint with the Ombudsman for the Human Rights of the People of Oaxaca (DDHPO in its Spanish acronym) and a complaint to the Attorney General of the State of Oaxaca.

On April 2ndi in a press conference, the secretary general of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE in its Spanish acronym) demanded the removal of state forces from Nochixtlan and blamed the attack on “the municipal and state governments,” whom he also accused of “avoiding continuing the investigation of the violent events of June 19th, 2016, where eight people died and more than 100 were injured.”

It is worth remembering that the conflict in Nochixtlan resurfaced on March 26th of this year, when residents opposed the removal of vehicles that were set on fire during the confrontation with the federal police on June 19th, 2016.

For more information in Spanish:

Santiago Ambrosio, líder cívico de Nochixtlán, es agredido y torturado en su domicilio (Sin Embargo, 1 de abril de 2018)

Atacan a líder de Nochixtlán (Huffington Post, 1 de abril de 2018)

Líder de Nochixtlan fue torturado por 4 desconocidos (El Debate, 1 de abril de 2018)

Sección 22 pide desaparición de poderes en Nochixtlán, Oaxaca (El Imparcial de Oaxaca, 2 de abril de 2018)

Pide CNTE desaparición de poderes en Nochixtlán (Oaxaca Quadratín, 2 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: Resurge la tensión en Nochixtlán (28 de marzo de 2018)

Oaxaca/Nacional: CNDH emite recomendación por violaciones graves a derechos humanos en los hechos de violencia ocurridos en Nochixtlán, el 16 de junio de 2016 (19 de octubre de 2017)

Oaxaca/Guerrero: Balean autobús de víctimas de Nochixtlán (28 de julio de 2017)

Oaxaca: Persisten agresiones y hostigamientos hacia víctimas de Nochixtlán (24 de abril de 2017)

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)

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

Press conference (@Fray Bartolome de Las Casas)

At a press conference held at its offices on March 21st, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Fryba) and indigenous representatives of 120 communities and Tseltal ejidos, Choles, Tsostiles, Zoques and Mestizos reported that they documented acts of spying and harassment by the military against indigenous peoples in recent times.

They argued that “under the pretext of the application of the Internal Security Law and the “fight against crime”, communities living on the so-called southern border road in the municipalities of Palenque, Ocosingo, Chilon and La Libertad, Chiapas, have been violated in their right to security and personal integrity by elements of the 18th Infantry Battalion of the Mexican Army, based in Tenosique, Tabasco.” They detailed that the acts of “surveillance, harassment, intimidation, threats and criminalization by the Mexican Army (…) put at risk the life and freedom of those who make up the Organization of Autonomous Peoples in Defense of Uses and Customs.”

For the same reason and since February 21st, by community agreement, the Autonomous Peoples Organization began to hold peaceful demonstrations with the distribution of flyers in the stretches of El Tulipan, Tabasco, and Chancala, Chiapas, to request the return of livestock confiscated in a protest on February 16th and the cessation of harassment.

In the framework of these actions they retained a person who took photos of them, who identified himself as Ezequiel Lopez Lopez, originally from Puebla and who, they discovered, was a soldier in civilian clothing, spying on them. Several soldiers went to the place where he was being held to negotiate his release. However, “while a negotiating table was being set up, the SEDENA besieged the community: some 200 soldiers from Tenosique arrived in the vicinity, cut off access, as well as communication to the outside and electricity and were stationed in attack position, while deploying a media campaign to discredit the organization. On February 24th, government authorities released the confiscated livestock and signed an agreement, which established that there would be no reprisals against members of the Organization. In addition, Ezekiel was handed over without harm.”

However, after these events, the communities and ejidos of the Organization of Autonomous Peoples in Defense of the Uses and Customs of Palenque have reported “greater vigilance and military patrols in the region, as well as an increase in intermittent lockdowns of elements of the Mexican Army, who have shown hostile, threatening and discriminatory behavior.”

When their behavior was questioned, they argued aggressively that “they are powers that the Internal Security Law gives them and that, as indigenous people, they have to abide by the new rules.”

For all the above, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Fryba) urged the Ministry of National Defense to cease acts of harassment, intimidation, threats and criminalization against those who are organized peacefully in the construction of alternative of ways of life, and also respect for the collective rights of indigenous peoples.

For more information in Spanish:

Ejército mexicano realiza espionaje a pueblos originarios en Chiapas (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, 21 de marzo de 2018)

El Frayba denuncia espionaje y hostigamiento militar contra indígenas en Chiapas (Proceso, 21 de marzo de 2018)

Municipios de Chiapas, prisioneros del ejército: Frayba (Juicio Político, 22 de marzo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional : EPN promulga Ley de Seguridad Interior. CNDH promoverá acciones de inconstitucionalidad. (29 de diciembre de 2017)

Nacional: Más aprobaciones controvertidas de Leyes Mexicanas (20 de diciembre de 2017)

Nacional: Senado aprueba Ley de seguridad interior (16 de diciembre de 2017)

Nacional: Ante rechazo a la Ley de Seguridad Interior, EPN pide ampliar “los espacios de diálogo y acercamiento con las distintas organizaciones de la sociedad civil” (11 de diciembre de 2017)

Nacional: Entre protestas se aprueba Ley de seguridad interior (1 de diciembre de 2017)

 

National: Amnesty International: Extreme Violence Increased Throughout Mexico

Photo @ DesdeAbajo

On February 22nd, Tania Reneaum, Executive Director of Amnesty International (AI), presented her annual report on Mexico and denounced that violence increased throughout the country during 2017. She mentioned that, in the last year of the presidency of President Enrique Peña Nieto, there were 42,583 homicides between January and November, a figure that according to the report could be higher, since some crimes are not reported to the police and not all cases led to official measures.

Amnesty International also indicated that the Mexican authorities failed to clarify the location of 34,656 people reported in the national registry of missing persons. It also lamented the problem of extrajudicial executions and that “the authorities did not publish the number of people killed or injured in clashes with the police and the military.”

Regarding the issue of migrants traveling to the United States, Amnesty expressed great concern, especially about their treatment during their journeys and the policies implemented by President Donald Trump.

The executive director stressed that “2017 has to be remembered as the year in which the Senate of the Republic and the President of the Republic ignored the recommendations of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and from NGOs, to carefully review the Internal Security Law.”

Despite the serious human rights crisis, the organization also noted that there is “a growing movement of resistance, led by both new and experienced activists, which really allows us to hope to reverse the tendency to oppression and fear.”

For more information in Spanish:

América Latina en alerta por “altos niveles” de violencia: Amnistía Internacional (El Imparcial de Oaxaca, 22 de febrero de 2018)

Se agravó la violencia en México en 2017: Amnistía Internacional (Proceso, 22 de febrero de 2018)

Amnistía Internacional: 2017, año de nuevos récords de violencia en México (Noticieros Televisa, 22 de febrero de 2018)

Surge nueva ola de activismo en AL por crisis de derechos humanos: AI (El Economista, 22 de febrero de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: feminicidios a la alza en 2017 (11 de enero de 2018)

Guerrero: Conflict at Mine of Canadian Company Torex Gold Resources

Photo @ Proceso

Since November 3rd, 2017, according to information from Proceso, a group of workers of the Media Luna mining company, part of the Canadian company Torex Gold Resources, have been on strike to “demand the change of ownership of their collective work contract, which is currently held by the Confederation of Workers of Mexico (CTM in its Spanish acronym).” The dissatisfied workers would like to join “the Napoleon Gomez Urrutia Union.”

Several newspapers reported that due to the problem that exists between the quarry workers and the mining company, three murders of employees of the mining company Media Luna have occurred to date. First on November 18, 2017 “Victor and Marcelino Sahuanitla were murdered and on January 24, Quintin Salgado, one of the leaders of the strike against the mining company Media Luna, was assassinated when he left his house in Nuevo Balsas, municipality of Cocula in Guerrero.”

According to the newspaper La Jornada de Guerrero, the national leaders of the National Mining Union, Sergio Beltran Reyes and Benito Melo Gonzalez, later denounced Salgado’s murder; “Comrade Quintin Salgado of the Media Luna mine, was cowardly murdered by the CTM of Guerrero and organized crime and we hope that the government of Canada, which is more interested in solving this situation, can put a stop to this company which, in addition to allowing them to take away our wealth, our authorities also allow you to assault, murder and violate the rule of law in our country, our workers and our organization Miners of Mexico.”

On January 27th, state and federal agents as well as soldiers took control of the facilities of the Canadian mining company Media Luna and practically broke the strike that the workers held. The military operation resulted in “the release of the security chief of the mining company Media Luna and seven workers who had allegedly been retained by the workers,” Proceso reported.

In a statement, the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA in its Spanish acronym) mentioned that “this problem has a framework, and it is the current federal and state policy of delivery of resources and unrestricted and servile support to domestic and foreign companies that impose this type of exploitation, affecting the territories irreversibly in environmental, social and health terms. Once installed, the companies, as part of the multiple devastation they generate, place their local workers in conditions of intensive exploitation, violating their rights with government support. It is important to point out that the above once again highlights:

1. The clear link between these companies and the criminal groups’ “gunmen” that they finance for their protection, and
2. That at the request of a transnational company, the state sends its army and its police not to put the project at risk with greater direct foreign investment in the state of Guerrero.”

It should be recalled that, since March 2016, “Proceso warned about the risk of mining projects promoted by the government of Hector Astudillo in a strip of the state where the narcos [drug cartels] control everything.”

For more information in Spanish:

Quintín Salgado Salgado fue ultimado a balazos en las inmediaciones de su casa en Cocula, Guerrero. (Regeneración, 24 de enero de 2018)

Empleados de firma canadiense, hermanos asesinados en Guerrero: Sindicato Minero (La Jornada, 23 de noviembre de 2017)

Asesinan a prestador de servicios de Media Luna que simpatizaba con los paristas (La Jornada de Guerrero, 25 de enero de 2018)

Rescatan 8 personas privada de su libertad en Minera Media Luna (Debate, 27 de enero de 2018)

Ejército y agentes toman el control de minera Media Luna en Guerrero (Proceso, 27 de enero de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: ONG emite Acción Urgente para proteger Evelia Bahena García, Diana Coralina Brito y Félix Rodríguez Navarrete (10 de agosto de 2015)

Guerrero/México/América Latina: Graves cuestionamientos a Goldcorp y empresas mineras canadienses (29 de abril de 2014)

Chiapas/México/América Latina: Violación de derechos por empresas mineras (25 de abril de 2012)

Oaxaca/Chiapas: SEZ Exclusive Jurisdiction of Federal Powers

Photo @ El Universal

On October 20th, 2017, several newspapers reported that the real estate of the Special Economic Zone of Puerto Chiapas, passed into the Federation.

The same thing has happened in the case in Oaxaca after the LXIII Legislature of the State Congress approved by majority vote the decree requested by Governor Alejandro Murat such that “consent is granted so that houses, buildings or any other construction (the real estate) that will be part of the special economic zone of Salina Cruz, be considered exclusive jurisdiction of the federal powers.” According to NVI News this means that the SEZ will be “protected by the Army or the police federal.”

On January 31st, Governor Alejandro Murat, the municipality of Salina Cruz and the Head of the Federal Authority for the Development of Special Economic Zones signed the Collaboration Agreement for the Operation of the SEZ of Salina Cruz, Oaxaca at a meeting.

For more information in Spanish:

Recibe Congreso del Estado decreto del Ejecutivo Estatal para ZEE (Congreso del Estado de Oaxaca, 31 de enero de 2018)

Desde hoy, inmuebles de la ZEE a manos de la Federación (Oaxaca Político, 20 de octubre de 2017)

Plantean aprovechar Zonas Económicas Especiales (Cuarto Poder, 5 de febrero de 2018)

Firma de Convenio de Colaboración para la Operación de la ZEE de Salina Cruz, Oaxaca. (Autoridad Federal para el Desarrollo de las Zonas Económicas Especiales, 31 de enero de 2018)

Meade promete impulsar Zonas Económicas Especiales de Oaxaca (Excélsior, 2 de febrero de 2018)

A manos de la Federación inmuebles de la ZEE (Diario de Chiapas, 20 de octubre de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional: EPN declara Zonas Económicas Especiales en Oaxaca y Yucatán (20 de diciembre de 2017)

Chiapas: Otros Mundos alerta sobre los riesgos que implicará la ZEE de Puerto Chiapas (7 de diciembre de 2017)

Nacional/Chiapas: Más Zonas Económicas Especiales (4 de septiembre de 2017)

Oaxaca: Anuncian campaña contra las ZEE (30 de junio de 2017)

Oaxaca: Se amparan pueblos del Istmo contra Zona Económica Especial (ZEE) (23 de marzo de 2017)

Oaxaca: comunidades del Istmo presentan amparo ante la ZEE (17 de noviembre de 2016)

Nacional: Nombran a titular de Zonas Económicas Especiales (15 de julio de 2016)

Nacional: El Senado aprueba la Ley Federal de Zonas Económicas Especiales (ZEE) (15 de abril de 2016)

México / Nacional: Diputados aprueban Ley Federal de Zonas Económicas Especiales (18 de diciembre 2015)