Guerrero: Disappearance of Obtilia Eugenio Manuel and Hilario Cornelio Castro Indigenous Activists and Members of OPIM Reported

Obtilia Eugenio Manuel @ E-Consulta

On February 12th, the leaders Obtilia Eugenio Manuel and Hilario Cornelio Castro, members of the Organization of Me’ Phaa Indigenous Peoples (OPIM in its Spanish acronym), were disappeared.

Activist Ericka Zamora Pardo posted on her Facebook page that they disappeared “at approximately 7:40 am on the Tierra Colorada road stretch – El Ocotito, Guerrero.” Obtilia Eugenio is a member of the Council of Community Authorities of Ayutla and has been receiving death threats for several years.

According to the newspaper Sin Embargo, Obtilia Eugenio denounced threats last November “against her and two members of the Municipal Council of Ayutla, of which she is a member of the Justice Commission.”

Since January 14th, 2005, the defender has precautionary measures by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), as a result of threats and harassment that she has suffered due to her role in the defense of the cases of Ines Fernandez Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantu. The measures were put in place for the first time in September 2007.

For more information in Spanish:

Solalinde denuncia desaparición de dos activistas; una defendió a indígenas abusadas por militares (El Proceso, 13 de febrero de 2019)

La amenazan a ella y a otros integrantes del Concejo Municipal de Ayutla: Obtilia Eugenio (Sur de Acapulco, 19 de noviembre de 2018)

El padre Solalinde denuncia el secuestro de dos activistas indígenas en carretera de Guerrero (Sin Embargo, 13 de febrero de 2019)

Respuesta de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos a la demanda interpuesta por la Comisión lnteramericana de Derechos Humanos y al escrito de solicitudes, argumentos y pruebas presentado por los peticionarios, respecto al Caso 12.580 Inés Fernández Ortega. (COidh, 13 de diciembre de 2009)

INFORME Nº 94/06 (Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, 21 de octubre de 2006)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Impunity prevails against human-rights defenders (December 18, 2013)

Guerrero: death-threats directed against Obtilia Eugenio Manuel, president of the OPIM (February 26, 2013)

Guerrero: Andrea Eugenio Manuel, indigenous activist and sister to Obtilia, is threatened with death (March 26, 2010)

Guerrero: New Threats against Obtilia Eugenio Manuel, President of the OPIM and Witness in the Inés Fernández Ortega vs. Mexico case (March 17, 2010)

 

 

 

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National/Guerrero: Support Plan for Victims of the Dirty War

Photo @ EllosyNosotros

On February 11th, the Plan of Attention and Reparation for the Victims of Political Violence of the Dirty War was announced in the municipality of Atoyac de Alvarez in Guerrero.

The Executive Commission of Attention to Victims (CEAV in its Spanish acronym), relatives and survivors of victims of the “dirty war”, as well as the governor Hector Astudillo Flores, the president of the CEAV, Jaime Rochin del Rincon, presented the strategy of collective reparation that is intended to be implemented.

“The Care and Reparation Plan for the victims of past political violence in Guerrero seeks to give visibility to those who disappeared, give voice to those who were silenced and recover and reconstruct the social fabric of the communities”, according to information from Proceso.

According to the Economist, Jaime Rochin del Rincon, executive commissioner of the CEAV, acknowledged that, “actions such as forced disappearance, torture and arbitrary detention in Guerrero during the period of the Dirty War, followed a State policy of repression and extermination.”

The strategy emerged from the recommendation 26/2001 endorsed by the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH in its Spanisg acronym) addressed to the then president of the republic, Vicente Fox, and as well as the proposals included in the Special Report on the Disappearance of Persons and Clandestine Graves in Mexico of the CNDH, presented in 2017.

Through a statement, the CNDH announced that “in assessing the institutional progress represented by the Plan for Attention and Reparation for the Victims of the “Dirty War”, the CNDH established that the Mexican State has an outstanding debt with the victims of disappearance and their families, which will not be paid while the authorities of the three levels of government fail to comply with their basic and fundamental obligation to guarantee minimum conditions of security for peaceful coexistence between people and to put an end to the environment of violence, impunity and illegality that we face.”

For more information in Spanish:

Presentan en Guerrero plan de atención a víctimas de la guerra sucia (Aristegui Noticias, 11 de febrero de 2019)

La CEAV presenta Plan de Atención y Reparación a las Víctimas de la Violencia Política del Pasado (Proceso, 11 de febrero de 2019)

CNDH EL PLAN DE REPARACIÓN A VÍCTIMAS DE LA “GUERRA SUCIA”, QUE ATIENDE LAS PROPUESTAS DE LA RECOMENDACIÓN 26/2001 Y EL INFORME ESPECIAL SOBRE DESAPARICIÓN DE PERSONAS Y FOSAS CLANDESTINAS DE ESTE ORGANISMO NACIONAL (CNDH, 11 de febrero de 2019)

Recomendación 26/2001 (CNDH, 2001)

INFORME ESPECIAL SOBRE DESAPARICIÓN DE PERSONAS Y FOSAS CLANDESTINAS EN MÉXICO. (CNDH, 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: INAI Orders SENEDA to Submit Information on Generals Linked to “Dirty War” (June 26, 2018)

International/National: IACHR presents report regarding right to truth which includes the case of the “Dirty War” in Mexico (December 14, 2014)

The Peoples’ Permanent Tribunal condemns Mexican State for crimes against humanity (October 11, 2014)

International/National/Guerrero/Chiapas: More Attacks on Journalists; Articulo 19 and European Parliament Launch “By the Hand” Initiative to Protect Journalists at Risk

Photo @ Medium

On February 6th, the director of the office in Mexico City of El Sur newspaper in Guerrero, Vietnika Batres, received death threats and was the victim of identity theft. According to the information received by the organization Articulo 19, the journalist reported that “she detected unusual activity in both her personal and work email accounts (…) threats began to come from one of her own accounts (…) several more messages were sent from her own emails with explicit death threats addressed to her family, which included names and addresses of their homes, along with schedules of their activities.”

Articulo 19 asked for the Protection Mechanism for Defenders and Journalists to be granted to the journalist Vietnika Batres, as well as the necessary protection measures for her family.

On February 9th, the announcer, Jesus Ramos Rodriguez, from the station Oye 99.9 FM de Tabasco was murdered. According to El Pais, Rodriguez was the presenter of the morning program Our Region Today and was attacked when he was having breakfast at a hotel restaurant in the municipality of Emiliano Zapata, Tabasco.

On February 11th, the owner and announcer of a radio station in the municipality of Chicomuselo, Chiapas, was shot in the head. According to La Jornada, the announcer, Bersain Galvez Ramirez, broadcasts a “program of musical tastes in a FM station, presumably of the so-called pirates, that is, that does not have an official permit.” There is no greater clarity about the reason for the attack.

Given the high number of attacks against journalists in the country and “the ineffectiveness and inoperativeness of the law enforcement agencies” the initiative was presented on February 6th in the Senate of the Republic; “By the Hand; the European Parliament with Mexican Journalism.”

The initiative “consists of a political support tool to maintain a regular and constant dialogue between members of parliament, journalists and Mexican authorities such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and state and federal authorities, to rule on any threat and attack against the journalists who are part of the program.”

For more information in Spanish:

Artículo 19 denuncia amenazas de muerte contra Viétnika Batres, periodista del diario El Sur (Sin Embargo, 10 de febrero de 2019)

Amenazan de muerte a periodista en CDMX, suplantando su propia identidad (Aristegui, 10 de febrero de 2019)

Balean a Bersaín Gálvez, locutor de radio en Chiapas (El Sol de México, 11 de febrero de 2019)

Balean a locutor de radio en Chiapas (La Jornada, 11 de febrero de 2019)

Personas desconocidas amenazan de muerte a periodista suplantando su propia identidad (Artículo 19, 10 de febrero de 2019)

Parlamento Europeo y ARTICLE 19 lanzan el programa “De la Mano” para la protección de periodistas en riesgo (Artículo 19, 7 de febrero de 2019)

Asesinado un periodista en Tabasco, el segundo en México en 2019 (El País, 9 de febrero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/International: UNHCHR Condemns Murders of Defenders and Journalists in Chiapas and Baja California and Questions Efficacy of Government Protection Mechanism (January 31, 2019)

Chiapas: Two Members of Movement for Welfare, Peace and Common Good of Amatan and Independent Revolutionary Campesino Movement Murdered (January 28, 2019)

National: Journalist Rafael Murua Murdered (January 28, 2019)

National: 161 Defenders and 40 Journalists Murdered in Last Presidential Term of Office (December 14, 2018)

Oaxaca: Muxe Activist Oscar Cazorla Lopez Murdered

@Facebook Tradiciones Istmeñas, Minatitlan, Ver.

On February 9th, the Muxe activist and leader of the LGTTBI community, Oscar Cazorla Lopez, was found dead. The organizer of one of the biggest parties for the sexual diversity “Auténticas Intrepida Buscadorras del Peligro” (Authentic Intrepid Danger Seekers), which has been running for 40 years, was found at his home in Juchitan de Zaragoza, where an autopsy showed he was attacked at night with a knife. The body also showed signs of torture.

After the murder, Muxe collectives, civil society organizations and members of the LGTTBI community demanded a clear and exhaustive investigation to clarify the case. Calls for justice were also made by Congress. “The murder of Oscar Cazorla hurts the Muxe community and in general the Oaxacan people; as Legislative Power, we are obliged to join in the demand for justice to prevent the crime from going unpunished”, said Elisa Zepeda Lagunas, President of the Standing Committee on Administration and Law Enforcement, demanding the Attorney General of the State to carry out the appropriate actions.

The murder occurred in a context of hatred and violence against members of the LGTTBI community and defenders of the rights of that community. In the community where Oscar Cazorla Lopez comes from, five murders have been documented in the last 15 years. “There have been more than five murders and in only one, that of our friend Nisa, someone was arrested, who was later released. These crimes continue unpunished. We demand justice for them and for all the murders that have taken place in this city, considered the ninth most violent in the country”, reports Amaranta Gomez Regalado, another Muxe activist. Throughout Mexico, a record number of murders of LGTTBI people was recorded with 95 dead, as well as 14 murders of rights defenders of this group in 2017 and it is estimated that the figures for 2018 were similar.

For more information in Spanish:

Encuentran muerto al activista muxe Óscar Cazorla en Juchitán (El Sol de México, 10 de febrero de 2019)

Hallan sin vida al activista muxe Oscar Cazorla (La Jornada, 10 de febrero de 2019)

Hallan muerto y con signos de violencia a activista muxe en Juchitán; exigen justicia (Proceso, 11 de febrero de 2019)

Se une Congreso a comunidad muxhe para pedir justicia por asesinato de Óscar Cazorla (Oaxaca Digital, 10 de febrero de 2019)

Asesinan a líder de la comunidad muxe en Juchitán (El Universal, 11 de febrero de 2019)

Urgen a implementar protección para activistas LGBTTTI (Segundo Segundo, 11 de febrero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: 17 Men Pose as Transgender to Register as Candidates (May 14, 2018)

National: Increase in Murders of Transgender People Denounced (October 12, 2016)

Guerrero: Brutal murder of LGBT activist in Chilpancingo (May 6, 2011)

Chiapas: Second Encounter in Zapatista Territory of Women who Struggle Cancelled

@pozol

On February 11th, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN in its Spanish acronym) announced the cancellation of the second Encounter of Women who Struggle that was planned for March. In the first meeting that took place on March 8th, 9th and 10th, 2018 in the context of International Women’s Day, some ten thousand women participated, coming from all the Zapatista caracoles, from 27 Mexican states as well as from various countries around the world.

In their communiqué, the Zapatista women mentioned as reasons for the cancellation, among others, the risk involved in their struggle against the “megaprojects” of the new government: “The truth is that they go against everything against the indigenous peoples, their communities, their lands, their mountains, their rivers, their animals, their plants and even their stones. That is, they are not only against us the Zapatistas but against all the women who call themselves indigenous. And also against men.” They stated that “we are going to receive them fighting and see if they learn what Zapatista women are, that thye do not sell themselves, do not give up and do not surrender.”

They also criticized the behavior of some participants from last year: “When it was the Encounter of Women who Struggle last year, we made a great effort for you to be content, happy and safe, compañera and sister. And from this we got a good dose of criticism that you left us: that the bed is very hard, that you do not like the food, that it is very expensive, for this reason and that reason. We are informing you now of how we worked and the criticisms we received.”

However, they called the women of the world not to stop struggling, “even if those damn capitalists and their new bad governments get away with it and annihilate us, because you have to keep fighting in your world. Because well we agreed in the meeting that we are going to fight so that not a single woman in any corner of the world is afraid of being a woman.”

For more information in Spanish:

Carta de las zapatistas a las mujeres en el mundo que luchan (Enlace Zapatista, 11 de febrero de 2019)

Suspenden Encuentro Internacional de Mujeres que Luchan (La Jornada, 11 de febrero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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

Chiapas: First International Gathering for Politics, Art, Sport and Culture for Women in Struggle (March 27, 2018)

Oaxaca: Fourth Encounter of Women Activists and Human Rights Defenders in Oaxaca (June 23, 2017)

Chiapas: Municipal Government to be Set up in Amatan

Photo @ AlMomento

In recent days, it was agreed that a Municipal Government Council will be established in the municipality of Amatan, after a meeting, which was part “of the process of pacification and reconciliation to restore the social fabric”, in which among the participants were leaders of the Movement for Peace, Justice and the Common Good of Amatan (MPJBCA in its Spanish acronym) and the National Coordinator Plan of Ayala, National Movement (CNPA MN in its Spanish acronym) with its lawyers from the Strategic Defense Office in Human Rights (DEDH in its Spanish acronym), Governor Rutilio Escandon, Secretary of Government, Ismael Brito Mazariegos, SEGOB’s Undersecretary of Human Rights, Alejandro Encinas Rodriguez and Aaron Mastache Mondragon, responsible for the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists.

According to a statement from the MPJBCA, they agreed that the council will be composed of 18 people. Six of them will be members of the MPJBCA and the 12 other people will be of “other political opinions giving the opportunity for inclusion that is needed.”

They also reported that Alejandro Encinas, “promised on behalf of the Federal Government to assume municipal security and investment of economic resources for basic and social infrastructure for the development of the communities of Amatan, as was similarly declared by Governor Rutilio Escandon.”

Previously, on January 31st, in an extraordinary session, the mayor of Amatan, Manuel de Jesus Carpio Mayorga and his entire cabinet, resigned after accusations that linked them to the murder of human rights defenders Noe Jimenez Pablo and Jorge Santiago Alvarez. In this regard, the MPJBCA continues to demand “punishment of the material and intellectual authors of the forced disappearance, torture and murder.”

It should be remembered that, according to the Cuarto Poder, in December of last year, Mario Carlos Culebro Velasco, then Secretary of Government, stated that “it is a minority that has opposed the municipal government functioning and the creation of a municipal council. He clarified that “this is a figure created by the very Congress of the State, not the Executive, and as I understand, the legislators are not willing to nominate municipal councils.”

For more information in Spanish:

Comunicado: #TodosConElConsejoPopularIndigenaDeAmatán (Movimiento por la Paz, la Justicia y el Bien Común de Amatán (MPJBCA) y Coordinadora Nacional Plan de Ayala, Moviniento Nacional (CNPA MN), 9 de febrero de 2019)

Crearán Consejo para garantizar “estabilidad social” en Amatán (La Jornada, 9 de febrero de 2019)

Avanza proceso pacificación en Amatán, Chiapas (Milenio, 9 de febrero de 2019)

Descartan Concejos Municipales por conflicto (Cuarto Poder, 5 de diciembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Two Members of Movement for Welfare, Peace and Common Good of Amatan and Independent Revolutionary Campesino Movement Murdered (January 28, 2019)

National/International: UNHCHR Condemns Murders of Defenders and Journalists in Chiapas and Baja California and Questions Efficacy of Government Protection Mechanism (January 31, 2019)

National / International: UN-DH denounces that 10 Human Rights Defenders have been murdered in Mexico until now in 2018 (September 21, 2018)

National: Senate Will Not Approve National Guard Bill. Morena and #SeguridadSinGuerra Propose Alternatives

The discussion of the bill to create the National Guard approved by the Chamber of Deputies last January will not be endorsed in its current terms by the Senate of the Republic. The discussion will take place in an open parliament in which specialists and civil organizations will be invited, the Senate announced.

Before this decision, the United Nations (UN) had sent a letter to the senators, through which it expressed its serious concern about the constitutional reform project that “constitutionalizes and makes permanent the military presence in security tasks, giving continuity to a policy that has generated more violence and increased the commission of serious human rights violations (…) All this, in a context of fragile controls, ineffective mechanisms of accountability and alarming impunity.”

Morena already announced that it will distribute a project with various modifications to the legislators, while the more than 300 organizations and people grouped in the collective #SeguridadSinGuerra also presented an alternative reform proposal that eliminates the military component in its operation as well as in its conformation, and in which the National Guard would be a “police institution of character and civil direction” attached to the Secretariat of Public Safety, which acts with respect to human rights and with a gender perspective.

“The political discussion has been marked by the simulation and distortion between what is in the Minute and public discourse. Morena’s proposal plays with words again and again because they tell us that it is civil when it is actually military, and they tell us that it will be temporary when in reality it will be permanent (…) and when civil society has complained it accuses us of not having alternative proposals. That is why today we present this opinion,” said Denise Dresser, a member of the collective.

SeguridadSinGuerra celebrated the decision of the Senate to open the debate for the creation of the National Guard, through the open parliament format: “We understand the problem of insecurity and violence that the country is experiencing, but we are convinced that the use of the Armed Forces in security tasks must be exceptional, temporary, auditable and based on conventionality criteria, (…) We urge all senators, and especially the majority group, to discuss and work this issue in an open parliament exercise (…) If the war on drugs is over, its causes and effects can not be constitutionalized. We must build peace, with proof and democratic responsibility.”

For more information in Spanish:

En el Senado, Morena hará cambios a minuta sobre la Guardia Nacional (La Jornada, 8 de febrero de 2019)

#SeguridadSinGuerra pide a senadores tomar en serio su propuesta de una “Guardia Nacional Civil” (Proceso, 7 de febrero de 2019)

Senado no avalará dictamen de Guardia aprobado por diputados; Morena y ONG presentan nuevas propuestas (Animal Político, 7 de febrero de 2019)

PROPONEMOS UNA GUARDIA NACIONAL CIVIL (Boletín de prensa Seguridad sin Guerra, 7 de febrero de 2019)

Propuesta de dictamen a la minuta (Seguridad sin Guerra, 7 de febrero)

La ONU rechaza la Guardia Nacional y pide a legisladores reconsiderarla (Animal Político, 6 de febrero de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional: Aprueban diputados Guardia Nacional. Siguen los cuestionamientos incluso de parte del Ejecutivo (19 de enero de 2019)

Nacional:

Inician audiencias públicas para debatir la creación de la

Guardia Nacional
(9 de enero de 2019)

Nacional/Internacional:

ONU-DH pide al Congreso que guardia nacional se plantee con mando

civil y por un máximo de 5 años

(15 de diciembre de 2018)

Nacional: Ante rechazo al anuncio de Guardia Nacional, AMLO propone nueva consulta (23 de noviembre de 2018)

Nacional: La Suprema Corte invalida Ley de Seguridad; AMLO anuncia Plan Nacional de Paz y Seguridad 2018-2024 (16 de noviembre de 2018)