Chiapas/Guerrero: Two Police Officers Held for Attacks on Parents of the Ayotzinapa 43 Disapeared; Investigation of Students who Participated in Protest Continue

@Lennyn Flores, El Herlado de Chiapas

At a press conference held on February 22nd in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the head of the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca, reported that two State Police agents were arrested for the violent events that occurred a week before during the eviction of a blockade of students from the Normal Rural Mactumactza School (Chiapas) and relatives of the 43 disappeared student teachers from Ayotzinapa (Guerrero, 2014), and that left a balance of several wounded. Both police officers are accused of attempted murder, inflicting injuries and abuse of authority.

For his part, the Secretary of Health of the state, Jose Manuel Cruz Castellanos, said that of the most seriously injured, a student of the Rural Normal of Ayotzinapa continues with a reserved prognosis, while another is stable (although pending surgery), and another was already discharged.

The FGE also indicated that it continues putting together an investigation file against “the protesters and those who are responsible for the riot crimes, breaches of the peace and bodily and patrimonial integrity of the community and the state and attacks on the communication routes, as well as agrieved injuries of four Chiapas oficers, three men and a woman.”

Present at the press conference, the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Gabriela del Socorro Zepeda Soto, said that “all the necessary investigations are carried out so that the police are certain that while they do their job well, justice will be demanded and their rights will be defended because the Secretariat’s commitment is to serve, protect and maintain order, peace and citizen tranquility.”

For more information in Spanish:

Detienen a 2 policías por reprimir a grupo de normalistas en Chiapas (La Jornada, 22 de febrero de 2020)

Detienen a dos policías por agresiones con papás de 43 normalistas de Ayotzinapa (El Universal, 22 de febrero de 2020)

Detienen a policías por agresiones contra papás de los 43 de Ayotzinapa (El Informador, 22 de febrero de 2020)

Informa FGE sobre evolución de caso de conflicto entre normalistas y antimotines (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 22 de febrero de 2020)

Abren dos carpetas de investigación por desalojo de padres de normalistas en Chiapas (El Universal, 19 de febrero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ :

Chiapas/Guerrero: Parents of Ayotzinapa 43 Attacked with Tear Gas in Tuxtla Gutierrez (February 17, 2020)

Chiapas/Guerrero: Parents of Ayotzinapa 43 Attacked with Tear Gas in Tuxtla Gutierrez

Photo @ Padres y Madres de Ayotzinapa

On the morning of February 16th, the “In search of the 43” caravan for the students who were disappeared in Iguala in 2014, and in which the mothers and fathers of the young people who studied at the Rural Normal School Raul Isidro Burgos d Ayotzinapa are participating with others, arrived at the Mactumactza Normal Rural School in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas. This is part of the visits they have scheduled in all the normal rural schools of the country.

Different media outlets reported that as a joint protest “they intended to carry out a blockade” in the capital of the state of Chiapas. The organizers of the caravan reported that their arrival had been made public since days ago as part of a national information campaign, and that “they were conducting a “flying campaign” (…) inviting to join the demonstration to be held this Sunday afternoon.”

In response to the mobilization “more than two hundred state policemen with tear gas tanks and bombs were posted at the entrance of the Normal School without any valid explanation. Around 8:30 in the morning the Policemen without any protocol began to launch the tear gas towards the fathers and mothers of the 43 and student teachers, the repression lasted for an hour with a balance of three students, two mothers and their three-year-old granddaughter injured. Two students were hit with a projectile on their heads, one of them from Ayotzinapa”, the Montaña Tlachinollan Human Rights Center reported.

Regarding the events, the Ministry of Citizen Security and Protection (SSyPC) reported that they acted “under the eviction protocol with respect for human rights and restored order.” They accused the students and parents of the missing 43 students from Ayotzinapa of “throwing Molotov cocktails, stones and fireworks at those in uniform.”

The undersecretary of Human Rights, Population and Migration, Alejandro Encinas, asked the state government “for immediate attention for the injured people and an investigation into these unfortunate events, the immediate and specialized medical attention for the young people attacked by the state pólice, Jose Antonio Flores, Javier Lopez Bernal, Alex Alvarez. The investigation and punishment of those responsible for giving the order to repress the caravan of Ayotzinapa is urgent.”

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) reported that the “State Commission has initiated an ex officio complaint; however, the CNDH will be following closely the investigation of the unfortunate events in which several members of the Caravan were injured. The CNDH, for its part, has requested precautionary and/or protective measures for the students of the Mactumatza Normal Rural School, the relatives of the 43 student taechers from Ayotzinapa and members of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center.”

Or more information in Spanish:

Policías reprimen a padres y normalistas en Chiapas; hay 4 hospitalizados (Proceso, 16 de febrero de 2020)

Desalojan en Chiapas a padres de los 43 de Ayotzinapa con gases lacrimógenos (El Financiero, 16 de febrero de 2020)

COMUNICADO | Policías Estatales del Estado de Chiapas reprimen la Caravana en Busca de los 43 (Tlachinollan, 16 de febrero de 2020)

CNDH condena actos de violencia en contra de familiares de los 43 normalistas de Ayotzinapa, cometida por elementos policíacos en la Normal Rural de Chiapas (CNDH, 16 de febrero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: “Walk for Truth, Justice and Peace” Ends at Parliament in Mexico City (January 29, 2020)

Nacional: “Caminata por la Paz” se dirige al Palacio Nacional y exige justicia y seguridad (24 de enero de 2020)

International/National: UNHCHR Calls on Mexican State to Increase Efforts to Effectively Implement General Law on Forced Disappearance of Persons (January 21, 2020)

Chiapas/Mexico: EZLN, CNI and CIG Convene Actions in Defense of Territory and Mother Earth “We Are All Samir” (January 14, 2020)

Oaxaca/Nacional: Nuevas agresiones a periodistas; se modificará mecanismo de protección, Encinas (9 de diciembre de 2019)

National: Rosario Ibarra de Piedra Sworn in as New President of CNDH (November 15, 2019)

National: One Year of AMLO Presidency (December 5, 2019)

Mexico: March “Steps for Peace” (August 19, 2011)

Chiapas/International: Caravan of 4,000 Reaches Southern Border – Stopped by National Guard

@El Universal

On January 20th, a caravan of approximately 4,000 migrants arrived, mainly from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras to the southern border of Mexico. The migrants had left San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on January 15th.

Arriving at the Rodolfo Robles International Bridge, which connects Ciudad Hidalgo in Chiapas and Tecún Uman in Guatemala, at 4:30 a.m., they announced in a statement that “we are going to ask the Mexican authorities to give us free passage, we just want to arrive to the United States, we don’t want to stay here, let’s go calmly, without violence.”Upon submitting a formal request for free passage to the National Migration Institute (INM) and receiving a negative response a few hours later, they went to the Suchiate River to cross the border illegally. Agents of the National Guard (GN) were already waiting for them on the other side and the migrants were forced to return. However, some managed to break the fence of the elements of the GN with stones, sticks and pushes. In the chaos that ensued, several mothers lost their children and some people suffered nervous breakdowns. “We are desperate from the heat that is affecting us too much and more than anything else for the children,” said one of the migrants, adding that “I ask Lopez Obrador to listen to his conscience.”

Most of the migrants were already arrested at the border itself or shortly after crossing, but a group of approximately 400 people managed to advance about five kilometers to the Ignacio Zaragoza community, where they were held by another military siege. ”The caravan was mostly contained,” said a Federal Police officer. Due to the use of tear gas and force, several minors and adults were injured and intoxicated. Hostal La 72 in Tenosique, Tabasco, “noted numerous search operations by the INM and the army. We take care of people injured by attacks received by stones thrown by the military.” In addition, the Human Rights Observation and Monitoring Collective of Southeast Mexico documented that the authorities do not make clear the necessary immigration procedures. “They deceive us, they are deporting those who agreed to register,” said one of the migrant women.

In the end, many of the migrants from that caravan returned to the shelter in Tucan Uman, where they stayed before attempting to cross the border with Mexico. They again affirmed their determination to reach the United States: “We are not going to give up, we cannot return to Honduras because the Maras kill us.”

For more information in Spanish:

Frenan a migrantes que intentaron cruzar a México por río Suchiate (Milenio el 20 de enero de 2020)

“No nos vamos a rendir”, advierte Caravana Migrante (El Universal el 21 de enero de 2020)

Caravana migrante espera en frontera de Guatemala; intentarán ingreso masivo a México (Aristegui Noticias el 19 de enero de 2020)

Guardia Nacional impide el paso de caravana migrante en frontera con Guatemala (El Economista el 20 de enero de 2020)

Gobierno mexicano disuelve la caravana migrante, detuvo a más de 400 (Chiapas Paralelo el 21 de enero de 2020)

Tensión en la frontera sur por falta de claridad de las autoridades migratorias: ONGs (La Minuta el 20 de enero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Civil Organizations Report on Observation Mission in Tapachula (November 24, 2019)

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

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/Guerrero: Agreement to Reintroduce Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts in Ayotzinapa Case. Number of Disappeared Increases in the Country

Photo @ Televisa News

On January 8th, parents of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa and the federal government agreed to reinstate the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE) in the investigation of the Iguala case.

In this regard, the Undersecretary for Human Rights, Population and Migration, Alejandro Encinas, said that one year after the Commission for Truth and Justice was created in the Ayotzinapa case, there are no “tangible results”, despite the fact that the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has “punctually fulfilled” its commitments to the fathers and mothers of the 43 disappeared student teachers, he told Proceso magazine.

In an interview, Paulo Abrao, Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, recalled that the IACHR’s proposal “has been the reintegration of the IGIE, as well as some of its former members being part of the Technical Assistance Group” and he stressed that “there was an evaluation” and talked about the progress of the initiatives taken (by the Commission headed by Encinas), “which are very positive, but it is necessary to accelerate the processes to achieve the objective, which is the location of the students.”

Rosales Sierra, a lawyer for the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center the, said that “the participation of the IGIE in its previous stage, acting in the field, with broad powers to provide evidence, full adjunct powers, which they previously had, was transcendent, but only on paper, but it did not have the facilities to exercise them.” However, “we cannot put the expectations of the case in the IGIE, it is up to the government, the presidential Commission, the FGR and the special prosecutor’s office to work for the clarification, they have the burden of investigations.”

Regarding the issue of disappearance, the Secretary of the Interior (SEGOB) announced in recent weeks that during “the first year of the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador 9,164 people were reported missing, of which only 43 percent were located; so there are 61,637 missing throughout the country.” He reported that the figures presented “are not yet final since at least 11 state prosecutors are still systematizing and updating all their information.”

Foe more information in Spanish:

Acuerdan reinstalación del GIEI en caso Ayotzinapa (El Universal, 8 de enero de 2019)

Encinas reconoce que no hay “resultados tangibles” en caso Iguala (Bajo Palabra, 8 de enero de 2019)

Encinas: en caso Ayotzinapa, se cumplen compromisos y hay avances (Milenio, 8 de enero de 2019)

En caso Ayotzinapa no hay “resultados tangibles”, admite Encinas (el Proceso, 8 de enero de 2019)

En México hay 61 mil 637 desaparecidos: Segob (Milenio, 6 de enero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Actions by The Other Forgotten of Ayotzinapa Announced (January 4, 2020)

Guerrero: Attorney General Will Investigate Ayotzinapa Case “Almost from Scratch” (September 25, 2019)

Guerrero/National: Reactions to Liberation of 24 Involved in Ayotzinapa Case (September 23, 2019)

Guerrero/National: Relatives of the 43 Student Teachers Disappeared in Iguala in 2014 Meet AMLO (September 23, 2019)

Guerrero: New Stage in Investigation of Ayotzinapa Case – Creation of Special Investigation Unit with Omar Gomez Trejo as Head (July 8, 2019)

National/Guerrero: VIDEO of Torture in Ayotzinapa Case Belies “Historic Truth” (June 27, 2019)

Guerrero: Attorney General and SEDENA Denounced for Lack of Interest in Solving Ayotzinapa Case (May 17, 2019)

Guerrero/National: More Information Published on Role of Army in Ayotzinapa Case (March 15, 2019)

Guerrero/National: Commission for Truth and Access to Justice in Ayotzinapa Case Set Up. Federal Judge Orders Investigation into Possible Responsibility of Attorney General Employees for Irregularities (January 22nd, 2019)

National: Migrants and Civil Organizations Demand that Mexican Government Respects and Protects Migrant Rights to Mark International Migrants Day

Source: La Opinion de Murcia

On December 18th, within the framework of International Migrants Day, relatives of migrants, migrants and migrant organizations called on the Mexican government to take actions to ensure the well-being and respect for migrants inside and outside the country, and not promote criminalization of migration: “we need a strategy for the defense and protection of Human Rights of migrants, their families, their communities and their organizations. The violence, persecution and criminalization of migrants in the United States, Mexico and the world has reached unthinkable levels that make us the most persecuted, detained and imprisoned heroes globally”, they said in a statement.

In it, they stressed the role of migrant families, especially women and girls and boys. They also stressed that many migrants are from native villages, and that is why they require specific forms of attention. This is true for Mexican migrants as well as those who come from other countries and are in Mexico: “while the Government calls our heroes and our migrants, the “heroes” of other nations that try to enter our country to save themselves from the death, poverty and persecution, their right to mobility is prevented, they are imprisoned and detained … And agricultural laborers are not included in the category of heroism, despite the violations of their labor rights they are equal to or greater than those facing Mexicans abroad, and the pay is much lower,” they stressed.

The statement was written and signed by the Popular Assembly of Migrant Families, The Indigenous Coalition of Migrants of Chiapas and the Indigenous Front of Binational Organizations. Other organizations supported it, including Global Exchange, Mesoamerican Voices/Action with Migrant Peoples, the Institute for Social and Cultural Research and Practice and the Network of Transnational Peoples.

According to the National Institute of Migration (INM), in 2019 the country received more than 42 thousand migrants for humanitarian reasons. After the agreement between the United States and Mexico a few months ago, the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador moved to a containment strategy. According to the statistics of the Office of Customs and Border Protection, from May to November 2019, the migratory flow dropped by 70 percent in the US.

For more information in Spanish:

[COMUNICADO] En conmemoración del Día Internacional del Migrante, las comunidades migrantes hablan. Voces Mesoamericanas, 18 de diciembre de 2019.

México recibió a 42 mil migrantes por razones humanitarias en 2019 Informador, 18 de diciembre de 2019.

Reduce México 70% el flujo migratorio Excelsior, 18 de diciembre de 2019.

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional/Chiapas: INM ofrece disculpa pública a 4 migrantes indígenas chiapanecos (8 de noviembre de 2019)

Nacional/Internacional : Esfuerzo para proteger a personas migrantes “duró unos pocos meses”, ONU DH (31 de octubre de 2019)

Chiapas: Autoridades migratorias frenan a caravana de migrantes en Tapachula (14 de octubre de 2019)

Nacional/Internacional: OSC denuncian malas condiciones en estancia provisional migratoria en Chiapas (7 de octubre de 2019)

Oaxaca: CEDHAPI Denounces “Extrajudicial Execution” of Indigenous Defender

@Facebook

At the beginning of December, the Center for Human Rights and Advice to Indigenous Peoples (CEDHAPI in its Spanish acronym) denounced the “extrajudicial execution” of the indigenous defender Catalino Barradas Santiago, at the hands of elements of the municipal police of Santos Reyes Nopala, on the eve of the elections for municipal president (by customary law) in that community.

The president of CEDHAPI, Maurilio Santiago Reyes, indicated that the events occurred on November 30th and that two people were also injured in the attack, while a third was arrested and imprisoned in the Puerto Escondido prison, of whom “it is known that he was tortured by the municipal police of Santos Reyes Nopala,” he said. He also stated that a group headed by the mayors of San Pedro Mixtepec and Santos Reyes Nopala, respectively, continues to intimidate opponents with weapons to maintain control of the municipality.

He finally said that on December 2nd, when the body of Barradas Santiago was being waked, a group of armed people went to shoot at the house where the wake was held.

Given what happened, the CEDHAPI requested the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to issue an urgent action in the case of the detained person, and the Human Rights Ombudsman of Oaxaca and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, to issue precautionary measures. It also urged the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE in its Spanish acronym) to investigate the extrajudicial execution of the human rights defender, observer of the legality of the municipal president’s elections in Santos Reyes Nopala.

For more information in Spanish:

Denuncian “ejecución extrajudicial” de un defensor indígena cometida por la policía municipal de Santos Reyes Nopala (Página 3,mx, 5 de diciembre de 2019)

Denuncian “ejecución extrajudicial” de defensor indígena en Oaxaca (Proceso, 4 de diciembre de 2019)

Asesinado por policías (NVI Noticias, 4 de diciembre de 2019)

Policías municipales asesinan en Oaxaca al defensor indígena Barradas Santiago (Contralínea, 3 de diciembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: International Organizations Call for Release of Fredy Garcia of CODEDI (November 24, 2019)

Oaxaca/International: WOAT Warns about State Inaction in Disappearance Case of Ernesto Sernas Garcia (October 17, 2019)

Oaxaca: Murder Attempt on CODEDI Member (September 26, 2019)

Oaxaca: Denuncian criminalización por liberación de ordenes de aprensión contra sindicalistas del sector salud e integrantes de Sol Rojo (16 de agosto de 2019)

National/International: “When Words Are Not Enough” – Amnesty International Report almost One Year after AMLO Takes Office

On November 27th, almost one year after the inauguration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) as the new president of Mexico, Amnesty International (AI) presented a report entitled “When Words Are Not Enough” in which it takes stock of progress made on the human rights crisis in the country.

“The government of President Lopez Obrador has shown a willingness to move forward partially on some initiatives, especially on the issue of disappearances in the country. However, after a year of his government, there are no substantial changes in the lives of millions of people facing a very serious human rights crisis that has lasted for more than a decade. The very high levels of violence that undermine the right to life, the torture that is still widespread, the alarming rates of violence against women, and a militarized security strategy more alive than ever, are a sign of the tragic reality in Mexico,” Erika Guevara Rosas, director for the Americas of Amnesty International, said.

Refarding advances, she considered that the decision of the government in August to recognize the competence of the Committee against Enforced Disappearances of the UN to review communications on individual cases, gave a solution to one of the repeated demands of relatives of missing persons and human rights organizations. “However, this measure has not yet been implemented.”

AI said it sees “a huge incongruity between what the government says and what it then does. It promises a more humane treatment for migrants and in need of international protection, but sends the National Guard to persecute and detain them. It says he will protect human rights defenders and journalists, but publicly discredits them. It is worrisome that human rights violations remain the rule in Mexico and not the exception,” Erika Guevara Rosas added.

Amnesty International concluded that “in order to achieve a substantial change in human rights, the government must stop blaming previous administrations for the situation and, instead, accept responsibility for what is happening in the present and seek solutions to address the serious debts pending in the matter, making sure that any policy of the current administration has human rights and its international obligations as a fundamental basis.”

For more information in Spanish:

Cuando las palabras no bastan (Amnistía Internacional, 27 de noviembre de 2019)

México: Amnistía Internacional alerta sobre la falta de avances en derechos humanos después de un año del nuevo gobierno (Amnistía Internacional, 27 de noviembre de 2019)

“Las palabras no bastan”, la evaluación de AI al gobierno de AMLO en materia de derechos humanos (Proceso, 27 de noviembre de 2019)

México mantiene crisis de derechos humanos en gobierno de AMLO según Amnistía Internacional (El Sol de México, 27 de noviembre de 2019)

Amnistía Internacional califica de “incongruente” la política de derechos humanos de López Obrador (El País, 28 de noviembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

International/National: Un Human Rights Committee Issues 48 Human Rights Recommendations for Mexico (November 12, 2019)

National/International: Attacks on Migrant Defenders in Central America, Mexico and U.S. Increase (October 1, 2019)

International/National: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Expresses Concern over Unresolved Issues in Mexico (September 22, 2019)