National: Mexico Shaken by Two Huge Earthquakes Faces the Shock with a Wave of Solidarity

Photo @ Informador

A week after the 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit the center of the country, specifically the states of Morelos, Puebla, the State of Mexico and Mexico City, the nation remains in a state of shock and uncertainty. It is the second earthquake in a short time that affects Mexico, after the September 7th earthquake that originated in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, which caused great damage in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero. With a magnitude of 8.2 on the Richter scale it was also strongly perceived in the center of the country and is counted as the strongest earthquake years in the country in 100.

Until 7:00 am on September 26th, the National Seismological Service of Mexico (SSN in its Spanish acronym) had reported 5,400 replicas of the first earthquake, the two largest of 6.1 magnitude, and 39 aftershocks of the earthquake of September 19th, the largest of 4.0 magnitude. According to La Jornada, researcher Allen Leroy Husker of the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and attached to the SSN, “it pointed out that these figures are totally normal and correspond to the patterns that regularly occur during the days following events that had an earthquake of considerable magnitude.”

The population of the regions most affected by earthquakes, such as the Isthmus, is still afraid and worried about their safety and that of their families, as the replica chains continue to provoke collapse of homes. The numbers of victims of the earthquakes continue to increase from day to day, according to official reports on September 26th, with 333 deaths from the earthquake of 7.1 and according to another statement dated September 12th, 98 deaths from the earthquake of 8.2, although a replica on September 23rd caused two deaths in the state of Oaxaca, so obtaining definitive data is difficult. In addition thousands of homes and public buildings such as schools and hospitals were partially damaged or effectively useless due to the earthquakes. A census in the state of Chiapas reported that more than 58,000 buildings have been affected, according to the state Civil Protection Secretariat.

Lack of information and mistrust in government bodies culminates in great frustration on the part of civil society. According to a report by Desinformémonos, on the current situation in Mexico City: “The numbers are not accurate because another victim of this not so natural disaster has been reliable information. People in the streets demand to know what happened to their relatives and the government cannot or will not answer. (…) Uncertainty generates rumors that quickly fill the void in official information. The networks feed both the knowledge of the facts and the unfounded rumor.” There have also been reports of complaints by the population in Morelos, who accuse the government of alleged hoarding and political use of aid for the victims. Animal Politico reports that in videos and publications on social networks many claim that “food, sent by civil society, would be taken to the cellars and then tagged as DIF aid for the affected areas,” which has caused a lot of tension between authorities and citizens.

Faced with this great tragedy, a great source of hope has been the great support and solidarity on the part of civil society. “Surprise for foreign solidarity workers in Mexico after the earthquake,” is the title of a report by Aristegui News. In this video, Ecuador’s rescue captain stationed in Mexico City points out that “there was logistics that was not programmed by the state, but the community was organized in such an incredible way that you never lacked anything. Not even energy.” Spain’s rescue captain adds that, “everyone gives up what little they have for those affected and for those who are working … and the mobilization they have had is incredible. “

There is also the possibility of donating money to different non-governmental organizations in several emergency accounts:

Mexican Red Cross

Image @ Cruz Roja Mexicana

Caritas México

Image @ Caritas México

To donate:

Desastre en Chiapas y Oaxaca (Cruz Roja Mexicana)

Sismo 19 de septiembre del 2017 (Cruz Roja Mexicana)

Jornada de Oración y Colecta Humanitaria 2017 (Caritas México)

For more information in Spanish:

Sorprende a brigadistas extranjeros solidaridad en México tras sismo (Video) (Aristegui Noticias, 26 de septiembre del 2017)

La semana que cambió la Ciudad de México (Desinformémonos, 25 de septiembre del 2017)

Acusan al DIF Morelos de acaparar ayuda; el gobierno de Graco dice que solo organiza la entrega (Animal Político, 22 de septiembre del 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca : ONGs denuncian “respuesta inadecuada e insuficiente de los tres niveles de gobierno” ante desastre por el sismo (19 de septiembre del 2017)

Nacional: sismo de 8,2 grados Richter. Fuertes afectaciones en Chiapas y Oaxaca (14 de septiembre del 2017)

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Oaxaca: NGOs denounce “inadequate and insufficient response from the three levels of government” to earthquake disaster

From September 11th to 14th, seven civil organizations carried out a Humanitarian Aid Observation Mission (MOAH in its Spanish acronym) that toured communities in the Isthmus area of ​​Tehuantepec, which were affected by the earthquake of 8.2 on the Richter scale on September 7th, leaving victims in 283 municipalities of Oaxaca, almost half of the total.

The route covered Ixhuatan, Juchitan de Zaragoza, Matias Romero, Pachiñe River, San Dionisio del Mar, Pueblo Nuevo (Municipal Agency of San Francisco del Mar), San Mateo del Mar, Santa Maria Xadani and Unin Hidalgo.

In their main conclusions, the organizations noted that “the basic needs of the people affected by the earthquake have not been covered”; and that there is “a lack of government coordination in the distribution of humanitarian aid and the discretionary use of scarce resources that have reached the area.”

They also denounced that “candidates and public officials have fallen into opportunism by conditioning humanitarian aid by handing it over to people close to the government and political parties, some even re-labeling and rechanneling food arriving in the area.”

They also stressed that “this crisis situation adds to the preexisting conditions of exclusion, inequality and poverty in which many people and communities in the region visited were found. Therefore, the MOAH emphasizes that in the face of the serious disaster situation caused by the earthquake, affected people are holders of rights, NOT objects of help, and therefore their voice must be heard first during this stage of response and the future stage reconstruction and recovery.”

For more information in Spanish:

Respuesta inadecuada e insuficiente de los tres niveles de gobierno ante desastre por sismo en Oaxaca: ONGs (ONGs, 18 de septiembre de 2017)

Desastre natural exhibe la miseria humana de los políticos y sus partidos que lucran en medio de la desgracia (Página 3, 18 de septiembre de 2017)

DECLARATORIA de Desastre Natural por la ocurrencia de sismo con magnitud 8.2 el 7 de septiembre de 2017, en 283 municipios del Estado de Oaxaca (Diario Oficial, 14 de septiembre de 2017)

Organizaciones denuncian oportunismo político, tras sismo en Oaxaca (Contralínea, 18 de septiembre de 2017)

Misión Humanitaria condena el oportunismo político ante la tragedia en Oaxaca (Proceso, 18 de septiembre de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional: sismo de 8,2 grados Richter. Fuertes afectaciones en Chiapas y Oaxaca (14 de septiembre de 2017)

National: Human Rights Organizations’ Reports Contradict Progress Noted in Government’s Fifth Report

What Peña’s report doesn’t say “speaks volumes” Proceso

On September 1st, the Fifth Report of the Government was presented, boasting progress on poverty, employment, education and respect for human rights.

In contrast, a few days earlier, the sixth report on human rights violations against human rights defenders was published covering the period from June 2016 to May 2017 and documenting that within that time “four human rights violations occurred every day against persons defending human rights in Mexico.” This report reports that “a year and a half after the end of the period of Enrique Peña Nieto, 2426 arbitrary arrests are documented” since the beginning of his term of office. As for extrajudicial execution, it indicates that while during the period of former president Felipe Calderon 67 were documented, “in the period we have with EPN this repressive modality has increased to almost double, totalling 123 executions.” With regard to enforced disappearance, it indicates 11 cases in the period covered by the report. “In general, the report tells us that the use of extrajudicial execution is the most repressive mode used by the State in the period covered by this report compared to previous years, (…) This clearly shows that the State increases the intensity of repression for political reasons when faced with the will of the defenders to keep up their work.”

It also denounced that “the improvement of repressive techniques includes actions such as maintaining impunity for human rights violations committed, implying that the State covers the gaps in the investigations of the most serious cases of HRV to prevent them from reaching international bodies, that is to say, it does not investigate, but only in appearance complies with what the law dictates, without this being reflected in an advance in investigations. At the same time, it accepts the visits of the international bodies of HR, but disqualifies the reports made by these international representatives. It further discredits the defense of human rights in two ways: by allowing a campaign that equates human rights defenders as defenders of criminals and, secondly, weakening the international human rights system by strengthening international humanitarian law, which judges people and not state structures, claiming that HRVs are individual acts, of subjects infiltrated or stressed, but that there has never been an order of state structures to violate human rights.”

On another note, covering the beginning of the term of Enrique Peña Nieto on July 31, 2017, the National Network of Civil Organisms for Human Rights All Rights for All (Red TDT in its Spanish acronym), made up of 84 groups from 23 states in the country, reaches similar conclusions in the report Hope is not Over. Situation of Human Rights Defenders during the Presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto, published in early September. It says that state governments are the ones that most violate human rights with 39% of cases, followed by the federal administration with 32%; municipal and community agents with 20%, and judicial officials with 18%. It also notes that 69% of the cases occurred in seven of the 30 states analyzed: Chiapas, Oaxaca, Mexico City, Guerrero, Veracruz, Puebla and the state of Mexico.

For more information in Spanish:

Desaparecieron 81 activistas y mataron a 106 este sexenio: ONG (6 de septiembre de 2017)

Informe completo « La esperanza no se agota. Situación de las personas defensoras de derechos humanos durante la presidencia de Enrique Peña Nieto » (Red Tdt, septiembre de 2017)

Boletín de prensa e informe completo – Sexto informe de violaciones de derechos humanos contra personas defensoras de los derechos humanos. “Defender los derechos humanos en México: La ejecución extrajudicial como respuesta del Estado. Junio de 2016 a mayo de 2017” (29 de agosto de 2017)

Lo que no dice el Informe de Peña “cuenta, y cuenta mucho (Proceso, 1ero de septiembre de 2017)

¿Qué dice el V Informe de Peña? Estos son los 5 ejes del texto (documento completo) (Animal Político, 1ero de septiembre de 2017)

Peña Nieto en su 5to Informe de Gobierno, ¿mentiras o verdades? (Animal Político, 4 de septiembre de 2017)

Los cinco ejes del informe de Gobierno de EPN (Sdp Noticias, 4 de septiembre de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ :

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

Nacional: Múltiples críticas a la presentación del Tercer Informe de Gobierno de Peña Nieto (8 de septiembre de 2015)

 

Oaxaca/National: Another Suspect Implicated in the Murder of Defenders Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakola Arrested

@Amnistía Internacional

On August 25th, Antonio Solano Vazquez, one of the alleged perpetrators of the ambush where human rights defenders Bety Cariño Trujillo, director of the Community Working Together Support Center at (CACTUS in its Spanish acronym) and Jyri Antero Jaakkola , a human rights observer of Finnish origin, were killed in April 2010 while participating in a humanitarian caravan in San Juan Copala, Oaxaca, was arrested in Sinaloa.

For seven years, relatives, social and human rights organizations as well as Euro-parliamentarians have questioned the Mexican government and Oaxaca’s lack of progress in the delivery of justice. With this arrest, six people have been arrested and seven arrest warrants are still pending.

 For more information in Spanish:

Cae otro de los presuntos asesinos de activistas asesinados en Oaxaca hace siete años (Proceso, 25 de agosto de 2017)

Detienen en Sinaloa a otro implicado en el asesinato de Bety Cariño y Jyri Jaakkola (Página3.mx, 25 de agosto de 2017)

Detienen en Sinaloa a asesino de activistas, Bety Cariño y Jiry Antero Jaakola; emboscados en Oaxaca (NVI Noticias, 25 de agosto de 2017)

Detienen a presunto homicida de Bety Cariño y el finlandés Jyri Jaakkola

(Contralínea, 26 de agosto de 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca : 7 años de impunidad en el caso de Bety Cariño y Jyri Jaakkola (28 de abril de 2017)

Oaxaca: Parlamentarias europeas vuelven a denunciar impunidad en el caso del asesinato de Bety Cariño y Jyri Jaakkola (2 de marzo de 2017)

Oaxaca/Internacional : Suman 5 detenidos en el caso del asesinato de Bety Cariño y Jyri Jaakkola (2010) (15 de octubre de 2016)

Oaxaca/Guerrero: Gun Attack on Nochixtlan Victims’ Bus

The attack happened in the early hours of Wednesday. Photo: @Victims Committee for Justice and Truth, June 19th, Nochixtlan

In the early hours of July 26th on a section of the Nochixtlan-Coixtlahuaca road, the bus carrying members of the Committee of Victims for Justice and Truth, June 19th Nochixtlan (Covic in its Spanish acronym), as well as teachers of Section 22 of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE), was attacked.

The Bus and its passengers was headed to Mexico City to participate in the commemorative march for the 34 months of the disappearance of 43 students of the Normal Rural School Raul Isidro Burgos, Ayotzinapa, Guerrero.

According to La Jornada newspaper, Covic leader Santiago Ambrosio said: “When they were traveling on the Oaxaca-Mexico highway, on the Nochixtlan-Coixtlahuaca section, a vehicle drove alongside the truck and several individuals started shooting at them. He said that the shots were aimed at the middle of the unit where the teachers and the Covic leaders were traveling and said that the attackers fired at them with the intention of hurting them, as the bullets struck the windows.”

He said: “There were also shots to the front of the truck and the driver was grazed by a bullet in the forehead, which forced them to cancel the participation of the victims of Nochixtlan in the mobilization for the 43 disappeared students of Ayotzinapa, as although there were no injuries, several suffered from nerves because of what happened.”

Covic was created to clarify what happened during the violent eviction on June 19th, 2016, when Federal and state police officers attacked parents and teachers of Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers blocking the Huajuapan de Leon-Oaxaca road, near Nochixtlan, in repudiation of the educational reform, an operation in which eight people died and 108 were injured.

 For more information in Spanish:

Balean en Oaxaca un autobús donde iban líderes de Nochixtlán y la CNTE (La Jornada, a 27 de julio de 2017)

Balean autobús de víctimas de Nochixtlán (Plumas Atomicas, a 26 de julio de 2017)

Agresión contra integrantes del Covic que se dirigían a marcha por Ayotzinapa (Surco Informativo a, 26 de julio de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: Persisten agresiones y hostigamientos hacia víctimas de Nochixtlán

Oaxaca: Comité de Víctimas de Nochixtlán denuncia “intento de homicidio” contra dos de sus integrantes

Oaxaca/ Nacional: La CNTE y la Segob acuerdan mesas de negociación

Oaxaca: Eviction and Arrests at Bií Hioxo Wind Farm

Photo@: Educa

On July 13th, after more than 12 days of peaceful demonstration demanding the establishment negotiations with the executives of the wind power company Electrica de Francia (EDF), the protesting owners of the lands affected by the Bií Hioxo wind farm, took the watchtower of the company EDF, in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca.

Ivan Hernandez Jimenez, one of the plaintiffs, pointed out that “the protest against the wind company is due to the lack of support and insensitivity of the representatives of the foreign company.”

According to Proceso, the occupation of the watchtower resulted in an operation of the Regional Command of the State Police at the request of the French company to evict the Zapotecs and arrest 15 demonstrators.

 For more information in Spanish:

Detienen a 15 zapotecos en el parque eólico Bii Hioxo a solicitud de empresa francesa (Proceso, 13 de julio de 2017)

Desalojo y 15 detenidos en parque eólico del Istmo, Oaxaca (NVI Noticias, 14 de julio de 2017)

Detenidas 15 personas por obstruir acceso a Parque Eólico Bií Hioxo, en Oaxaca(Oaxaca entre Lineas, 13 de julio de 2017)

Detienen a 15 personas que bloqueaban parque eólico en el Istmo (Diario Marca, 14 de julio de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ :

Oaxaca: Pobladores de Juchitan ganan amparo para suspensión de obras de parque eólico (14 de octubre de 2015)

Oaxaca: Tercer aniversario del movimiento contra los proyectos eólicos en San Dionisio del Mar (30 de enero de 2015)

Oaxaca: Conflictos por elecciones extraordinarias en San Dionisio del Mar (19 de diciembre de 2014

Oaxaca: Death of “Hermanos en el Camino” Activist ‘Beto’ Donis

Jose Alberto Donis Rodriguez (@SDP Noticias)

On June 29th, the Guatemalan activist Jose Alberto Donis Rodriguez, known as Beto, died in a car accident. He was a coordinator at the “Hermanos en el Camino” (Brothers on the Road) shelter in the city of Ixtepec, Oaxaca.

Beto arrived in Oaxaca in his attempt to reach the United States and ended up staying in Ixtepec, where he pledged to fight and defend the rights of migrants who transit through Mexico. Amnesty International recognized him as “defender of the year” in 2008 for his work on migrant rights.

“Beto is not dead, he is spiritually alive,” Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra, who was his great friend, said during a farewell homage Mass.

 For more information in Spanish:

Migrantes y amigos rinden homenaje póstumo a Coordinador del Albergue Hermanos en el Camino (Itsmo Press, 1ero de julio de 2017)

El activista guatemalteco Alberto Donis falleció tras un accidente, confirma el padre Solalinde (Sin Embargo, a 30 de junio de 2017)

Despiden a guatemalteco que ayudó por 9 años a migrantes en Ixtepec, Oaxaca (NVI Noticias, 2 de julio de 2017)

Muere coordinador de albergue en Ixtepec tras accidente, confirma Solalinde (Proceso, 30 de junio de 2017)

Fallece el activista ‘Beto’ Donis, del albergue Hermanos en el Camino (SDP Noticas, 30 de junio de 2017

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional/internacional: La CIDH expresa su preocupación ante el endurecimiento de las autoridades mexicanas hacia los migrantes y sus defensores en la frontera Sur (17 de junio de 2016)

Oaxaca: Nueva agresión a integrantes del Albergue para migrantes Hermanos en el Camino de Ixtepec (23 de septiembre de 2014)

Oaxaca: nueva amenaza de muerte en contra del Padre Solalinde (11 de octubre de 2012)