National: March for Resignation of Enrique Peña Nieto

Call for march for resignation of Peña Nieto

On September 15, the symbolic commemoration day of “El Grito” – the cry for the Independence of Mexico – thousands of people responded to the call launched on social networks for a march to demand the resignation of Enrique Peña Nieto.

#RenunciaYa, is the hashtag with which this non-partisan demonstration was called for on social networks since September 2, just after the publication of the Government’s fourth report. Led by parents of the 43 student teachers from Ayotzinapa, followed by farmers from Atenco, machete in hand, about 4,000 citizens, mostly young, began the #RenunciaYa protest, according to Animal Politico. The protesters left the Angel of Independence monument with the aim of reaching the Zocalo to face the president. However, at the Palace of Fine Arts, thousands of riot police, deployed by the Ministry of Public Security of Mexico City, blocked their passage. However, in the Zocalo, a small group of protesters who had managed get through started whistling and shouting slogans against the president just as President Enrique Peña Nieto appeared. According to La Jornada, “a young man showed a poster criticizing the federal administration and was immediately surrounded by elements of the Federal and Presidential Police. Some people demanded that the police allow the youth to express himself, to which they responded “we are only following orders.” Federal Police kept the young man surrounded until the fireworks ended, he was photographed and they made video of the youth and finally two policemen said they would accompany him to the exit.”

In Chiapas, the governor, Manuel Velasco Coello, did “El Grito” from an alternative site to the square of Tuxtla Gutierrez, as it was occupied by teachers opposed to the education reform bill.

For their part, the Las Abejas of Acteal Civil Society Organization, in their last statement, give several examples of why, according to them, “there is no longer independence.” They claim that, “this heroic and historic struggle for the independence of Mexico […] has been betrayed by the PRI governments and other political parties in Mexico who have been in power.” Because “The idea of the struggle, independence in 1810, meant that Mexico was independent, sovereign, democratic. […] However, the edge of that independence began to end with the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari with agreements and commercial, political and military treaties with neoliberal and capitalist countries, one of them is: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, the United States and Canada.”

In addition, the Xinich’ Coordinator of Social Organizations remembered September 15 with a statement in which it demands the removal of Enrique Peña Nieto as an “incompetent” in addition to “delivering our nation into the hands of foreigners.” It also expressed support for the struggle of the teachers against the so-called educational reform and demanded “the repeal of structural reforms, justice for the people massacred at Viejo Velasco, Acteal, for the 43 disappeared student teachers of Ayotzinapa, for Nochixtlan, Oaxaca, compliance with the San Andrés agreements signed between the federal government and the EZLN…”

 In Oaxaca, in the state capital, the governor, Cué Monteagudo, did his sixth and last “Grito” from the balcony of the government palace amid shouts of “murderer” and “traitor”. According to Educa, “elements of the State Police prevented the entry of teachers from Section 22 into the square to give their alternative ‘Grito’ with teargas, sparking a confrontation”. At least 20 people sustained minor injuries.

For more information in Spanish:

En méxico ya no existe independencia, es por las mal llamadas reformas constitucionales (Las abejas de Acteal, 22 de septembre de 2016)

#Chiapas Xinich’ recordó el “15 de Septiembre” exigiendo la renuncia de EPN, la abrogación de las reformas estructurales y el cumplimientos de los “Acuerdos de San Andrés” (Koman Iles, 20 de septiembre)

Marchan para exigir la renuncia de Peña Nieto (La Jornada, a 16 de septiembre 2016)

15 de septiembre: Policías repliegan marchas en Oaxaca y Chiapas (Educa, a 15 de septiembre 2016)

Miles de personas dan el Grito en el Zócalo (La Jornada, a 15 de septiembre 2016)

Renuncia ya y los acarreados: dos marchas rumbo al Zócalo (Animal político, a 16 de septiembre 2016)

Hay apertura para la crítica, dice presidencia sobre posible rechifla a Peña durante el Grito (Animal político, a 14 de septiembre 2016)

15 razones para marchar y gritar #RenunciaYA (Animal político, a 6 de septiembre 2016)

Ciudadanos convocan a marchar hoy 15 de septiembre para exigir renuncia de Peña (Animal político, a 2 de septiembre 2016)

 For more information from Sipaz:

Nacional : cuarto informe del gobierno de Peña Nieto (12 de septiembre 2016)

 

National: Back to School with no Sign of Resumption of Dialogue between Teachers and Government

Teachers’ movement sit-in in, Tuxtla Gutierrez, September 11 @ SIPAZ

On September 19, teachers of Sections 7 and 40 of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) in Chiapas began the 2016-2017 school year after four months of work stoppage to demand the repeal of the education reform bill, passed in 2013. Section 22 in Oaxaca had done the same since September 7. In both cases, no incidents occurred.

Now that school activities have returned to normal throughout the country, teachers’ leaders reiterated their call for the federal government to return to the national negotiating table. They told media that they maintain their three axes of struggle: “strengthen the reorganization stage, promote legislative means to respond to our demand for repeal of educational reform and continue the construction of an alternative education proposal.”

The head of the Federal Ministry of Public Education (SEP), Aurelio Nuño Mayer, has maintained his position: there will be dialogue in Michoacan, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas “to be able to settle local issues in these four states; that is to say administrative problems.” He reiterated that under no circumstances will they accept tables to discuss the repeal of educational reform.

For more information in Spanish:

Nuño: pese a conflicto con la CNTE, las clases están plenamente restauradas (La Jornada, 24 de septiembre de 2016)

CNTE insiste al gobierno que regrese a negociar (La Jornada, 24 de septiembre de 2016)

Sección 22 de la CNTE pacta pagos y ascensos con el gobierno (Proceso, 23 de septiembre de 2016)

Regresan a clases tras 120 días de paro magisterial en Chiapas (La Jornada, 19 de septiembre de 2016)

‘‘Nos dejaron solos’’, reprochan varios docentes de Chiapas a los de Oaxaca (7 de septiembre de 2016)

En el eventual diálogo con la CNTE sólo se tratarán temas administrativos: Nuño (La Jornada, 6 de septiembre de 2016)

Los 114 días que sacudieron a México (La Jornada, 6 de septiembre de 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional : impasse en dialogo entre el Magisterio y el gobierno; parcial regreso a clases (2 de septiembre de 2016)

Chiapas: Desalojo violento hacia el plantón de maestros y maestras en San Cristóbal de Las Casas (22 de julio de 2016)

Oaxaca/ Nacional: La CNTE y la Segob acuerdan mesas de negociación (13 de julio de 2016)

Oaxaca: Organizaciones de Derechos Humanos presentan informe sobre represión en Nochixtlán (11 de julio de 2016)

BOLETÍN URGENTE: REPRESIÓN MAGISTERIAL EN OAXACA (22 de junio de 2016)

Chiapas/Oaxaca: Actualización de las protestas magisteriales; al menos 6 muertos en Oaxaca (21 de junio de 2016)

Oaxaca: 500 Murdered Women Registered During Gabino Cue Monteagudo’s Term

Photo @EDUCA

On September 2, the indigenous education teacher Juanita Ramirez Osorio, a 25-year-old indigenous Triqui “was executed with ten gunshots, one to the head.” Juanita was found on the Copala riverbed, near the municipality of Constancia del Rosario. This crime makes four women, including a minor, murdered last weekend. The crime is in addition to the 75 cases registered this year. According to Consorcio Oaxaca, they have recorded “500 femicides during the administration of Gabino Cue Monteagudo”, while during the administration of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, 283 violent deaths of women were counted. Higher numbers of femicides “have occurred in the Mixteca and Costa regions.” The Rosario Castellanos Women’s Studies Group (GESMujer) claimed that the “government’s discourse remained in formalisms despite the commitment that the governor had with social organizations that monitor cases of women murdered due to gender.”

Gender equity and respect for the human rights of women were part of the discourse of Gabino Cue “even before starting his administration, and with four months left to complete his term, the number of murdered women and victims of femicide in the state increased by over 60% compared to the figures of his predecessor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.” With more than 20 years of recording violence against women, the president of GESMujer, Avellaneda Diaz, said that from January to August 2016 58 murders of women were recorded: 18 cases occurred in the Isthmus; Costa and Valles, 10 in each region; Cuenca, eight; and Mixteca, seven. In addition, 34 killings were done with firearms and seven with sharp weapons.

It is noteworthy that there is no “Gender Alert” in the state of Oaxaca, despite these figures. In July 2015, for the first time, the Interior Ministry declared a Gender Alert for 11 municipalities in the State of Mexico. Currently, there are alerts in the states of Morelos, Michoacan and Jalisco. The Gender Violence Alert emergency actions are implemented by a government to confront and end violence against women. As established in the General Law on Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence, warning of gender violence aims to ensure the safety of women, the cessation of violence against them and to eliminate inequalities produced by legislation that offends their human rights. The National Citizens’ Femicide Observatory has documented 2,299 cases of femicide in the country only between 2012 and 2013. The presence of femicide in the country has led to civil organizations in Nuevo Leon, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Chihuahua, Colima, Baja California, Sonora, Veracruz, Queretaro and San Luis Potosi also seeking Gender Violence Alert to be decreed.

 For more information in Spanish:

Registra Oaxaca 500 mujeres asesinadas durante el sexenio de Cué (Educa, 6 de septiembre de 2016)

GESMujer: Discurso a favor de las mujeres fue eso, un discurso (Oaxaca a Diario, 3 de septiembre de 2016)

Ejecutan a dos mujeres en el Istmo, pese a operativos de Seguridad (Página 3, 3 de septiembre de 2016)

La alerta de género, una herramienta ineficaz para detener los asesinatos de mujeres (18 de abril de 2016, Animal Político)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: En 2016 continúan los feminicidios (25 de febrero de 2016)

Oaxaca: Alarmante incremento de los feminicidios: organizaciones de la sociedad civil (18 de diciembre de 2015)

Chiapas: Feminicidios a la alza: seis víctimas en menos de diez días (23 de octubre de 2015)

Chiapas: Gran incremento de feminicidios, se construirá un monumento en honor a las víctimas(4 de septiembre de 2014)

 

National: Report Launch “Defending Human Rights in Mexico: Normalization of Political Repression”

On August 24 last, the Mexico Cerezo Committee, the organization Urgent Action for Human Rights Defenders and the National Campaign Against Forced Disappearance presented the report Defending Human Rights in Mexico: Normalization of Political Repression, which covers the period from June 2015 to May 2016. The report indicates that 87 violations of the human rights of defenders which occurred in 2011, increased to 118 in 2012, 160 in 2013, 225 in 2014 and 302 in 2015. Another 35 were documented so far this year.

For the first time, the number of physical assaults surpassed that of threats and harassment of activists and human rights defenders, and also that Guerrero, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Michoacan and Veracruz account for half of these abuses (293 attacks on activists of a total of 482). The fifth report included 41 death threats, three forced disappearances, 186 physical assaults, 55 evictions, nine cases where shots were fired and an equal number of damage to or theft of property.

The document notes that most of the violations are related to the promotion of various mega-projects, where activists and advocates accompany social movements fighting for their territory, water, forests and natural resources.

Commenting on the report, Jesus Peña Palacios, from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico, underlined the obligation of the government and its authorities to ensure the work of human rights defenders. Father Miguel Concha stated that “there is always a political intention to commit these violations.” Fernando Rios, Rights for All Network, denounced for his part the existence of a state policy characterized by insults, harassment and attacks against domestic and foreign defenders, as in the case of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) in the Ayotzinapa case.

 For more information in Spanish:

CONSULTA 5° Informe VDH: Defender los derechos humanos en México:- La normalización de la represión política (Junio de 2015 a mayo de 2016). (Comité Cerezo, agosto de 2016)

Concentran cinco entidades casos de agresión contra activistas: ONG (Revista Proceso, 24 de agosto de 2016)

Superan ya las agresiones físicas a las amenazas contra activistas (La Jornada Maya, 25 de agosto de 2016)

Aumentan ataques a defensores de DH debido a protestas contra reformas estructurales y caso Ayotzinapa: Comité Cerezo (Revolución 3.0, 25 de agosto de 2016)

Normalización de la represión política (La Jornada, 27 de agosto de 2016)

 For more information from SIPAZ :

Nacional/Guerrero: Informes poco favorables sobre corrupción y derechos humanos en México (3 de febrero de 2016)

National/Oaxaca: World Day Against Opencast Mining

Poster for international day of struggle against mega-mining in defense of life and water. (Photo:@OtrosMundos)

In the framework of World Day Against Opencast Mining, which is commemorated on July 22, several events were held in different parts of the country. In Oaxaca, for example, groups in the isthmus region took part in the forum for “Strategies of Struggle for the Defense of Mother Earth and Territory” in the capital of Oaxaca. This event was part of the national campaign in defense of Mother Earth, which gives voice to the experience of hundreds of people preyed upon by mining projects in Mexico. Other collectives, the Lawyers and Defenders of Public Interest Collective, Common Borders and Greenpeace Mexico presented the manual “Protection of Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (PESCER) of Peoples and Communities Against Mining Megaprojects in Mexico” as a tool to address the abuses of mining projects throughout the country.

One day before, in the framework of resistance, communal and agricultural authorities, communities and organizations in Oaxaca and other Mexican states, met in Oaxaca to launch the State Rebellion Against Mining Day. They released a statement in which they expressed their “decision to fight together to stop these abuses and to affirm our own ways of living and governing ourselves.” They were worried “because these violations cause immense damage to Mother Earth and rip apart the social fabric of communities causing divisions and confrontations.”

In accordance with data published in El Universal in 2014, it is currently estimated that at state-level there is a concession of an area for 793,525 hectares for metal mining. As such, a fifth of Mexico has been given over to the mining sector. Marisa Jacott, Common Borders director, explained that “the massive destruction of natural resources caused by mining activities are manifold, such as air, water and soil pollution on a large scale; violent dispossession, repression and crime against forms of territorial defense and community organization; deteriorating health of local residents of mines; as well as the impact suffered by miners for working in high-risk conditions and the intensive use of dangerous materials and chemical substances.”

Due to this, the PESCER manual deals with the relationships and tensions caused by mining, and proposes that it is “from overexploitation, deterioration and allocation of natural resources that the Mexican State favors the profit of private and foreign interests over social [interests] and in this way breaks collective rights.” However, the manual proposes the use of legal and non-legal tools for communities to strengthen their struggle for the defense of their territory, heritage and health from the increase of predator mining in Mexico.

For more information in Spanish

Crean en Oaxaca Día contra la Minería y denuncian saqueo de transnacionales (26 de julio de 2016Ciudadanía Express, 26 de julio de 2016)

Concesiones mineras acaparan 47 mil hectáreas en el istmo (Istmo Press, 23 de julio de 2016)

En México 300 conflictos mineros vulneran derechos de los pueblos (Desinformémonos, 22 de julio de 2016)

Se concesionó a mineras 12.7% del territorio nacional, alerta Greenpeace (Diario contra poder en Chiapas, 21 de julio de 2016)

Presentan manual para la defensa de las comunidades frente a impactos de la minería en México (Greenpeace México, 21 de julio de 2016)

Manual de defensa de derechos económicos, sociales, culturales y ambientales de pueblos y comunidades frente a los megaproyectos mineros en México

Página de la campaña nacional en Defensa de la Madre Tierra y el Territorio

For more information from SIPAZ

Oaxaca: Se llevó a cabo Foro Regional “La minería en Oaxaca. Impactos sociales y ambientales” (29 de abril de 2016)

Oaxaca: Encuentro estatal de comunidades y organizaciones en resistencia a proyectos mineros (4 de febrero de 2016)

Nacional: Mitin ante Senado en el marco del Día mundial contra la minería toxica (25 de julio de 2013)

National: “Narco Violence” Has Displaced 281,000 People

Violence in the country has increased due to the presence of “narcos” (Photo:@Economia hoy)

According to research from the Center of Social Studies and Public Opinion (CESOP) of the Chamber of Deputies, the situation of generalized violence in which various zones of the country find themselves, has led to an increased number of people who have been forced to displace in the country. According to CESOP “the violence generated by drug cartels throughout the country” is one of the most recognized reasons people are forced to flee their lands. Despite discrepancies in the figures and not counting with official statistics, it is estimated that between 2011 and 2015 “281,418 people were forced to escape” from their homes. According to the results of the research, the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas, among others, are the states with the highest number of displaced.

The “criminal organizations not only fight over drug trafficking routes now, but also aspire to control more and more territory in general.” According to the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement of the UNO, forced displacement happens when “persons or groups of persons have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as result of or to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural disasters or [those] caused by humans, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border.” In most cases, the families have been displaced within Mexico. While internationally there are extensive regulations and a legal basis for the protection of displaced persons in the area of forced internal displacement, there are no equivalent legal instruments.

For this reason, and in order to continue adding to the analysis of this problem, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) published the “Special Report on Forced Internal Displacement (FID) in Mexico” in May of this year. It says that, “the Federal Government recognized that among the factors that most influenced the increase in violence, disputes in and between criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking stand out.” “However the importance of the protection of human rights and displaced persons stands out,” the research concludes. Having recognized that there is no global figure for internal displacement generated by the violence of the drug cartels, it warns that “the Mexican authorities have downplayed or ignored the problem” to date. The CESOP document stresses that as happens with the information included in reports of kidnapping of migrants, the Mexican State has discredited figures on internal displacement.

For more information in Spanish

Violencia del narco ha desplazado a 281 mil (Milenio, 18 de julio de 2016)

El gobierno minimiza el creciente problema de las personas desplazadas, afirma el Legislativo (La Jornada, 18 de julio de 2016)

Los desplazados del narco (Vanguardia, 15 de julio de 2016)

El Estado mexicano se contradice ante el desplazamiento interno forzado (Animal Político, 4 de julio de 2016)

Informe Especial sobre Desplazamiento Forzado Interno (DFI) en México (CNDH, 1 de mayo de 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ

Nacional: CNDH lamenta más de 35 mil víctimas de desplazamiento forzado interno en el país (16 de mayo de 2016)

Oaxaca: Human Rights Organizations Present Report on Repression in Nochixtlan

Human Rights Defenders. Photo:@CentroProDH

On July 8, various civil society organizations, including the Gobixha Committee for Integral Defense of Human Rights (CODE DH) and Fundar, presented the “Preliminary Report on Violations of Human Rights on June 19 in Oaxaca”. It is based on research and documentation by those organizations, who interviewed witnesses and victims of the repressive events that occurred on June 19, confrontations arising from political decisions of the state and federal governments, to send in an operation to clear the roads. According to the report, “it responds to the need to publicize the chronology of events and human rights violations that occurred in Nochixtlán, and close to the city of Oaxaca in places like Hacienda Blanca, Viguera, San Pablo Huitzo and San Francisco Telixtlahuaca, some of them carried simultaneously.” For the safety of the people who shared their testimonies, their personal details were omitted. Beginning with an introduction to the context, chapters follow on the events in those places near the city of Oaxaca, and then there a list of human rights violations and urgent recommendations.

One day after the publication of the report, the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) and the Commission of Authorities of various municipalities met at the “Teachers and Popular Meeting” on Saturday July 9, along with agricultural authorities, unions and social organizations to “provide a context for the information on the situation of the teachers and popular movement, operate the agreements last meeting of the authorities held in Nochixtlán, and build an agenda of the peoples against structural reforms”. One of the agreements that came out is to have a caravan to Mexico City on Sunday July 17 to get there on July 19, one month after “the Nochixtlán massacre”.

For more information in Spanish

La Minuta del 11 de julio (EDUCA A.C., 11 de julio de 2016)

Acuerdan maestros, ediles y grupos sociales “caravana motorizada” a la CDMX el día 17 (La Jornada, 10 de julio de 2016)

INFORME PRELIMINAR SOBRE VIOLACIONES DE DERECHOS HUMANOS 19 DE JUNIO EN OAXACA (EDUCA A.C., 8 de julio de 2016)

El asalto a Nochixtlán (Ojarasca La Jornada, 8 de julio de 2016)

La Minuta del 8 de julio (EDUCA A.C., 8 de julio de 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ

Chiapas: Miles de creyentes peregrinan en apoyo al movimiento magisterial (5 de julio de 2016)

BOLETÍN URGENTE: REPRESIÓN MAGISTERIAL EN OAXACA (22 de junio de 2016)

Chiapas/Oaxaca: Actualización de las protestas magisteriales; al menos 6 muertos en Oaxaca (21 de junio de 2016)