National/International: UNO Requests Mexican Government to Adopt Protection Measures for Human Rights Defenders

© ohchr

On June 29th, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of UN human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, expressed in a statement “her grave concern at the intimidation, threats and killings to which human rights defenders are subjected in Mexico.” This, after the members of the Oaxaca Consortium organization on June 15th were victims of threats allegedly by an organized crime group.

“The level of vulnerability that defenders are in in certain regions of Mexico is extremely worrying. It is even more worrisome to observe the extraordinary risks faced by women human rights defenders and those who are dedicated to fighting for women’s rights”, the rapporteur said. In addition, she emphasized that Mexico has international obligations and, therefore, it must guarantee the protection of human rights defenders, especially against violations committed by agents of the State and private entities. She called on the Mexican government “to take measures to prevent future violations and to take retrospective measures in response to the violations already inflicted.”

The incorporation of a gender perspective to face the specific risks and security needs of human rights defenders, of those who work in the field of women’s rights or gender issues, is of utmost importance in Mexico, a country where gender violence continues, Lawlor emphasized.

For more information in Spanish:

Una serie de amenazas contra integrantes del Consorcio Oaxaca (United Nations Special Rapporteur, 29 de junio 2020)

Relatora sobre personas defensoras y otros expertos de la ONU exigen garantías para Consorcio Oaxaca y castigo a los responsables de amenaza en su contra. (Consorcio Oaxaca, 29 de junio 2020)

Garantías para Consorcio Oaxaca, exigen relatores de la ONU (Proceso, 29 de junio 2020)

México: Experta de la ONU insta a garantizar la protección de las defensoras de derechos humanos (Naciones Unidas México, 29 de junio 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ: 

Oaxaca: Death Threat at Door of Oaxaca Consortium Office (June 17, 2020)

National/International: Food Insecurity Increases for LGBTIQ+ Community in Pandemic (June 24, 2020)

National: UNO Supports CONAPRED (June 22, 2020)

National: Reform Of Law for Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists Debated in Context of Greater Vulnerability in Pandemic (May 26, 2020)

Chiapas: Las Abejas Civil Society Denounces Persecution and Murder of Human Rights Defenders and Protectors of Mother Earth and other Violent Situations (February 25, 2020)

National/International: UNO Presents Diagnostic of Protection Mechanism of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (September 2, 2019)

National/International: Food Insecurity Increases for LGBTIQ+ Community in Pandemic

@CIDH

During the month of June, organizations and institutions have drawn attention to the specific situation of the LGBTIQ+ population, when this is usually the month when millions of people around the world take to the streets in “pride marches” to fight for their rights and highlight the discrimination that this population experiences.

In this context, on June 18th, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) convened a webinar under the title “Situation of the Rights of LGBTI People in the Context of the Pandemic,” with the participation of human rights defenders and activists from Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, the United States and Mexico.

The Commissioner and IACHR Rapporteur for the Rights of LGBTI People, Flavia Piovesan, was the first to speak, highlighting three structural challenges in the region: extreme inequality; discrimination (the virus does not discriminate but its impact is discriminatory); and the dilemmas of democratic institutions to combat the pandemic.

Those invited confirmed the challenges mentioned by the rapporteur and also pointed out how the new confinement regulations implemented by governments have given an excuse for security forces to commit more attacks on LGBTI+ people. They reported that many people in this sector who have lost their jobs cannot return to their homes because several of them fled domestic violence due to not being accepted into their homes. With various examples, they denounced that different discriminations are experienced by people with an intersectional perspective, stressing that it is not a homogeneous population. For example, the total invisibility of bisexual people in Latin America and the absence of documentation of their situation were mentioned. The complexity and double discrimination in cases of being trans, black and Latin American women in the United States were also highlighted.

Several people specifically pointed out the serious situation of violence that trans women experience, before the pandemic and now even worse, since a food emergency has been generated, since confinement implies that several cannot do their work, cannot return home, and they find it difficult to receive financial support from the government due to discrimination and mistreatment because their identity card shows their trans identity.

In the report “Amplified Vulnerability”, Kennedy Carrillo of OutRight Action International, Belize, shared the impacts of the pandemic on the global LGBTIQ + population. Increasing food insecurity was one of the most salient issues. Topics such as interruptions in access to medical care, abuse of power by the State, fear of social violence, stigma, discrimination, social isolation and increased anxiety, as well as concerns about organizational survival, also emerged.

More information in Spanish:

Situación de los derechos de las personas LGBTI en el contexto de la pandemia; (Webinar CIDH 18 junio 2020)

Vulnerabilidad amplificada. El impacto de la pandemia del COVID-19 en las personas LGBTIQ. (Outright Acion Internacional, 4 de junio 2020)

More information from SIPAZ:

Nacional/Internacional: La comunidad LGBTTTI+ en México celebra el Día Internacional Contra la Homo-, Bi- y Transfobia (May 18, 2020)

Chiapas: Organización defensora de la diversidad sexual recibe amenazas por su trabajo en el marco del Mes de Orgullo LGBTTTIQA+ (June 27, de 2019)

Chiapas: Meeting of Citizens’ Observatory of LGBT+ Population Rights with Government Representatives (October 7, 2019)

Oaxaca: State Congress Approves Marriage Equality Bill (September 10, 2019)

Chiapas: Exigen verdad y justicia por el asesinato de Aylin, mujer transexual y 7 otros casos de odio (September 1, de 2019)

Oaxaca: Death Threat at Door of Oaxaca Consortium Office

On June 15th, a black bag with pieces of meat, apparently an animal’s head, with the message: yours sincerely, CJNG. ”(SIC) was found outside the doors of the organization Oaxaca Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equity.

That same day the feminist organization published a press release about the event, noting that it is evident that it is a death threat related to its work. It recalled that the Consortium has a recognized history of 17 years promoting women’s rights and the protection of human rights defenders in Oaxaca, Mexico and the Mesoamerican region. It indicated that the threat could be related to the questions they have raised with Murat’s government about femicides, disappearances of women and attacks on defenders. It mentioned in particular the campaign that has been going on for weeks “Until Justice Arrives” that “revealed the impunity and complicity of the different levels of the Government of Oaxaca in the case of Maria del Sol Cruz Jarquin”, a 2018 case of femincide.

In its statement, the Consortium blamed the Government of Alejandro Murat for the death threat: “It is evident that the Government of Alejandro Murat intends to disguise the matter as an issue of Organized Crime, a situation that is perverse, as is his regime. From this moment on, we hold Governor Alejandro Murat, Prosecutor Ruben Vasconcelos Mendez and Raul Ernesto Salcedo Rosales, head of the Ministry of Public Security, responsible for the life and safety of Soledad Jarquin, her family and each of the members. Oaxaca Consortium. ”

Several organizations have spoken out in solidarity with the Consortium, such as the National Network of Human Rights Defenders in Mexico (RNDDHM), the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE), Communication and Information for Women AC (CIMAC), the SOS Tortute Network, the  World Organization Against Torture (WOAT) and Inmujeres, to mention but a few.

UN Women Mexico on their Twitter condemned “the threat received by the feminist organization @consorciooaxaca. An appeal is made to the Government of Oaxaca and to all state authorities to guarantee the safety and integrity of the human rights defenders of said organization.”

For more information in Spanish:

Comunicado de Prensa (Consorcio Oaxaca, 15 de junio)

Consorcio Oaxaca responsabiliza a Murat Hinojosa por amenaza de muerte en su oficina(EDUCA Oaxaca, 16 de junio)

Denuncia Consorcio Oaxaca amenaza de muerte y ataques por seguimiento a caso de María del Sol (El Universal, 16 de junio)

Feministas de Oaxaca responsabilizan a Murat Hinojosa por amenaza de muerte. (Proceso, 15 de junio)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: “Femicidal Violence, The Endless Pandemic”, Oaxaca Consortium (June 8, 2020)

National: Reform Of Law for Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists Debated in Context of Greater Vulnerability in Pandemic (May 26, 2020)

Oaxaca/Nacional: Nuevas agresiones a periodistas; se modificará mecanismo de protección, Encinas (December 19, 2019)

Oaxaca: 126 Femicides One Year after Declaration of Gender Violence Alert (September 2, 2019)

 

National/International: Women’s Challenges in COVID-19 – A Latin American Balance

© Twitter INMUJERES

On June 12th, the online conversation “Women’s Human Rights: Challenges before COVID-19” was held, convened by the Ministry of Foreign Relations, the Commission for Gender Equality, the National Institute for Women and UN Women. Different national and international political figures participated in this event, including Marcelo Ebrard, Secretary of Foreign Relations; Olga Sanchez Cordero, Secretary of the Interior; Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Alicia Barcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

This meeting allowed to take stock of the situation that women in Mexico and Latin America have lived, and continue to live, but with the aggravating circumstance of the pandemic. It was recognized that women have been the most affected not only by issues of gender violence but also by unpaid work, the situation of poverty, food, unemployment, job insecurity, and the participation of nearly 80% of women in the frontline against the pandemic that continues to prevent them from other activities.

Ricardo Montreal, a MORENA senator, spoke about progress in equality with the recent mandatory gender parity policy in government institutions, as well as that of granting labor rights to domestic workers. In this sense, the regional director for the Americas and the Caribbean of UN Women affirmed that Mexico is a leader in legislative works, especially when 75% of Latin American congresses are made up, mostly, of men.

Marcelo Ebrard acknowledged that there will be a setback in terms of poverty after the pandemic, but he also expressed the importance of the government being progressive and feminist to face this situation. Similarly, the Ministry of the Interior declared: “The new normal will be feminist or it will not be”, recognizing that the State must listen to and empower women through the creation of public policies that make women’s rights tangible and justiciable.

Michelle Bachelet, for her part, stressed the importance of multilateralism and of making a “gradual and careful” reopening to overcome the pandemic. She invited us to rethink life after the pandemic regarding our practices as a society and affirmed that “the answers cannot be neutral or equal for everyone, but you have to think about how you focus because there are sectors that are more vulnerable.”

Alicia Barcena presented the Gender Equality Observatory in which statistics are retrieved at the Latin American level of the conditions of women in different aspects. “The social impact of the pandemic has a woman’s face”, declared the Executive Secretary of CEPA and said that the backdrop for the pandemic is the culture of privilege, which naturalizes inequalities, discrimination and addresses equity, not equality with a welfare approach and not empowerment and insisted that “this crisis should lead us to a change in the development model.”

For more information in Spanish: 

Observatorio de Igualdad de género (CEPAL)

Gobierno advierte que pandemia dejará estragos en mujeres (Expansión política, 12 de junio 2020)

La nueva normalidad será en feminista o no será: Segob (El Universal, 13 de junio 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ: 

Chiapas: Women Prisoners in CERSS No. 5 Denounce Violence in COVID-19 Pandemic (June 8, 2020)

Oaxaca: “Femicidal Violence, The Endless Pandemic”, Oaxaca Consortium (June 8, 2020)

National: Controversy over “Count to Ten” Federal Campaign against Violence (June 4, 2020)

Nacional: Declaraciones de AMLO con respecto a la violencia de género provoca reacciones de diversos actores. (May 19,2020)

National: Cuts for Indigenous Women in Violent Situations (May 15, 2020)

Chiapas: Woman Dies Violently Every Two Days in the State (April 16, 2020)

 

Guerrero: HR Defender Kenia Hernanandez Conditionally Released

@Cencos

On June 11th, the human rights defender Kenia Ines Hernandez Montalban of the Colectivo Zapata Vive organization, was conditionally released after five days in prison. This day the constitutional extension hearing took place in a courtroom of Chiconautla prison, in which the judge determined that there is no need for the defender to remain in jail; however, he imposed precautionary measures such as the obligation to appear regularly in court and the prohibition to participate in demonstrations or protests.

Both the arrest and the release of the defender have provoked pronouncements by civil organizations and human rights groups, expressing concern about the criminalization of defenders such as Kenia Hernandez, demanding the unconditional release of the defender and more broadly a halt to the attacks and harassment against human rights defenders in the country.

However, on June 12th, the judge determined that Kenia Hernandez was linked to a trial for violent robbery and gave a period of one month to close the investigation period, which will expire on July 8th.

Esther Flores, from the Zeferino Ladrillero Center for Human Rights, the defender’s legal defense, affirmed that they do not agree with the judicial decision, reiterating that Kenia Hernandez was not present on the day of the charges, and hoped to prove her innocence.

It was on June 6th of this year that the defender, along with three minors who have been free since June 7th, were detained in the state of Mexico for their alleged participation in the crime of violent robbery.

For more information in Spanish:

Liberan a activista Kenia Hernández, quien fue acusada de robo con violencia, (El Universal, 11 de junio)

Liberan a la defensora de DH Inés Hernández, (La jornada, 11 de junio)

Confía defensa de Kenia Hernández en demostrar su inocencia (El Sol de Toluca, 13 de junio)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Human Rights Defender Kenia Ines Hernandez Montalban Arrested (June 11, 2020)

National: Reform Of Law for Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists Debated in Context of Greater Vulnerability in Pandemic (May 26, 2020)

Nacional: ONU-DH condena asesinato de un defensor ambiental (Oaxaca) y un periodista (Sonora); sexta persona defensora y el segundo periodista asesinados en 2020 (May 21, 2020)

 

Guerrero: Human Rights Defender Kenia Ines Hernandez Montalban Arrested

The Movement for the Freedom of Political Prisoners of the State of Guerrero (MOLPEG) denounced that, on the night of June 6th, human rights defender Kenia Ines Hernandez Montalban, a member of the Zapata Vive Collective, was detained together with three minors in the Hortaliza-Valle de Bravo toll booth in the state of Mexico.

Arturo Campos Herrera, a former political prisoner and member of MOLPEG, reported that Hernandez Montealban was transferred to the Chiconautla Social Readaptation Center, in the state of Mexico. He stated that the arrest, carried out by ministerial and municipal police, was an act of repression and impunity. The three minors were released on the night of June 7th.

The National Network of Human Rights Defenders in Mexico, ProDESC, CIMAC and IM-Defenders also detailed that two patrols of the Public Security of the State of Mexico participated with “eight more patrols, who carried out the arrest, violating due process.”

They recalled that, since 2019, Hernandez Montealban has been a beneficiary of the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists.

For his part, the Attorney General of Justice of the State of Mexico reported that Hernandez Montalban was detained for her probable participation in the crime of violent robbery. He stated that “in collaboration with federal authorities for several months, an investigation was started on Kenya Ines N, and it was established that she apparently led a group of people from the State of Morelos who blocked the circulation of toll booths in that state and in Mexican territory; to allow passage they demanded money from the motorists.”

The Zeferino Ladrillero Human Rights Center demanded the immediate release of the Amuzga indigenous woman and reported that it will provide legal accompaniment to the accused.

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) asked that due process be respected and guaranteed in the case, and its staff confirmed her physical condition and personal integrity.

For more information in Spanish:

Detienen a Inés Hernández, defensora de DH de Guerrero (La Jornada, 7 de junio de 2020)

[ALERTA DEFENSORAS] MÉXICO / Exigimos la libertad de Kenia Hernández, detenida e internada en la cárcel desde la noche del sábado 6 de junio (Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de derechos humanos, 7 de junio de 2020)

Detienen a Kenia Hernández en el Edomex; la acusan de robo con violencia (El Sur, 7 de junio de 2020)

CNDH pide un debido proceso contra activista detenida en el Estado de México (Animal Político, 8 de junio de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: Reform Of Law for Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists Debated in Context of Greater Vulnerability in Pandemic (May 26, 2020)

Nacional: ONU-DH condena asesinato de un defensor ambiental (Oaxaca) y un periodista (Sonora); sexta persona defensora y el segundo periodista asesinados en 2020 (May 21, 2020)

National: CNDH Demands Clarification of Crimes against Journalists in Mexico – 90% Remain in Impunity (November 8, 2019)

National/International: UNO Presents Diagnostic of Protection Mechanism of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (September 2, 2019)

Chiapas: Women Prisoners in CERSS No. 5 Denounce Violence in COVID-19 Pandemic

On June 2nd, the Cereza Collective and the Popular Campaign against Violence against Women and Femicides in Chiapas highlighted in a videoconference various violent situations that have occurred in San Cristobal de Las Casas in Chiapas during the health emergency due to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus.

They denounced that staying at home has increased violence against women and girls, being at the mercy of their attackers. “April became the deadliest month for women in Mexico; nine women died daily. In addition, domestic and care work for women has increased, which they had been doing without a pandemic in conditions of overexploitation”, they said.

They stated in particular that “women deprived of liberty have been affected differently and disproportionately in economic, social, cultural, justice and health rights”, since “the criminal justice system in Chiapas reproduces the criminalization of the impoverished, indigenous and migrant population; in class, race and gender inequality. Therefore, it is important to highlight the series of omissions by the State, with the women of the Center for Social Reintegration for Sentences No. 5 of San Cristobal de Las Casas.”

They explained that in said prison, “the women receive only two meals a day, they do not have medical personnel and medications, they are held incommunicado unless they pay for telephone cards, this affects their family relationships and with their defense, the government does not cover basic needs, food, hygiene items, blankets, it is the family that does it. They do not have access to drinking water, affecting their right to health. They cover the cost of cooking gas, which is preferable, the hygiene and cooking conditions of the food they give them are very bad.”

They also recalled that after four days without access to a telephone line the previous week, they decided to “express their disagreement.” Given this, “the prison authorities reacted by repressing them with a toxic gas that they even sprayed inside the cells where the women were.”

After that, “the women were left with respiratory problems, headaches, burns to the face and hands, eye irritation from the effect of the gas.” Finally, civil organizations denounced that “on May 27th, the “wolf group” attempted to search for evidence kept by the women, with the intention of erasing evidence of the gassing. Today several women in CERSS 5 are having symptoms of COVID-19.”

For all of the above, “the authorities are in a situation of non-compliance with the obligations of the Mexican State in terms of international commitments”, they claimed

For more information in Spanish:

Libertad para mujeres injustamente presas en el Cerss.05 en Chiapas, contrafeminicidiochiapas, 2 de junio de 2020

Mujeres privadas de su libertad en el CERSS No.5 denuncian omisiones y violencia en medio de la pandemia por Covid-19, Chiapsparalelo, 2 de junio de 2020

Exigen liberar a mujeres presas en el penal de San Cristóbal de las Casas, Proceso, 26 de mayo de 2020

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Cereza Collective Requests Release of Women Prisoners in San Cristobal de Las Casas (June 4, 2020)

Chiapas: Fear that Infected Prisoners in San Cristobal de Las Casas “Will only Come Out Dead” (May 26, 2020)

Chiapas: Outbreak of COVID-19 in San Cristobal Las Casas Prison (May 23, 2020)

Chiapas: Prisoners Start Hunger Strike over Health Fears Due to COVID-19 (May 21, 2020)

 

Oaxaca: “Femicidal Violence, The Endless Pandemic”, Oaxaca Consortium

On June 1st, the feminist organization Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equity (Oaxaca Consortium) described femicidal violence in a bulletin as an “endless pandemic.”“Given the measure of staying at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, hundreds of girls and women are in contexts that were already dangerous in themselves due to the high rates of aggression to which they are exposed on a daily and systematic basis”, it denounced.

It explained that from March 21st to date, 16 femicides have occurred in Oaxaca (three of minors). With accumulated figures from December 1st, 2016 to date, there are 427 femicides that occurred in the state. This has occurred “without the State demonstrating the will to guarantee the security and access to justice of the victims and their families.”

It also stressed that family violence increased by 25% compared to the first two months of last year, with more than 80% of women being assaulted in their own homes with attacks that were threats, beatings and insults, and even knife attacks, suffocation and attempted femicide. Regarding sexual crimes, there were seven cases registered so far in the emergency.

However, the Oaxaca Consortium stated that these figures are far from representative of the real levels of violence when, according to the National Survey of the Dynamics of Household Relationships (2016), in Mexico eight out of ten women did not ask for support from any type of institution or file a complaint or claim.

It also recalled that according to data from the Lack of Judicial Protection Report at the time of COVID-19, it is observed that “one of the consequences of isolation is the reduction of support networks that women normally have to face violence ( …) the absence of the State is added to all this.” In this regard, it stressed that Oaxaca is among the 13 states that did not establish safeguards to issue protection orders in family matters in their Contingency Plan.

For the same reason, the Oaxaca Consortium demanded, among other issues, that a sufficient budget be assigned and labeled to face all the impacts of femicidal violence and that family violence care units generate mechanisms to meet the needs of women who are requesting help.

For more information in Spanish:

El 30% de los feminicidios en Oaxaca se cometen en los hogares (NVI Noticias, 30 de mayo de 2020)

Violencia feminicida en Oaxaca: la pandemia que no cesa (Consorcio, 1ero de junio de 2020)

Documenta Consorcio aumento de violencia familiar en un 25 % (Quadratin Noticias, 1ero de junio de 2020)
Violencia de género irrefrenable en Oaxaca durante pandemia (El Imparcial de Oaxaca, 2 de junio de 2020)

Durante la pandemia en Oaxaca, incrementaron 25% los feminicidios (La prensa, 2 de junio de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional: Declaraciones de AMLO con respecto a la violencia de género provoca reacciones de diversos actores. (May 19, 2020)

Oaxaca: Agudización de la violencia feminicida en este arranque de año, denuncian (February 4, 2020)

Oaxaca: 126 Femicides One Year after Declaration of Gender Violence Alert (September 2, 2019)

National: Controversy over “Count to Ten” Federal Campaign against Violence

Civil organizations have rejected the federal Campaign “Count to Ten, launched by the Ministry of the Interior on May 26th at a conference on gender violence. The Campaign refers to family situations where confinement generates tensions. They considered that it hides and normalizes the aggressions suffered by women, individualizes the problem and also recycles an initiative used in the 80s. “Counting to ten to contain aggression, as the campaign invites, does not work when the aggressor hits a woman or when he sexually violates her”, said the director of the National Network of Refugees (RNR), Wendy Figueroa. A message like this “not only re-victimizes her, but continues to perpetuate these stereotypes of being the one who has to stop the violence and in some way encourages guilt”, she added.

Legislators have also claimed that the burden of violence is left to the women themselves. In its official Twitter account, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) called for the withdrawal of the campaign: “The @GobiernoMX insists on denying the existence of violence against women and girls. The campaign #CuentaHasta10 does not contribute to prevent, combat and eradicate this problem, on the contrary, it normalizes it”, says the message.

In response to the complaints, the president of the National Institute for Women (Inmujeres), Nadine Gasman, defended the “Count to Ten” campaign noting that is only one of other campaigns and government actions to prevent violence during the COVID-19 quarantine.

She acknowledged that this campaign is not specifically focused on women, but announced that they were about to launch one specifically directed at them, in collaboration with the UN Spotlight initiative. “These spots are more directed to this issue of coexistence, of what coexistence is like and how coexistence is strained at the moment. And this count to ten resource, which seems very recycled, really is a simple technique that everyone gives you, that if you are angry, if you are furious, stop, breathe and lose yourself. That is the message it wants to give, simple, for everyone”, she said.

For his part, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rejected criticism of the campaign and declared that they come from conservatism that “turned feminist.” “I am respectful of the rights of women and the protection of women. I am in favor of the feminist movement. I am not a feminist, I am a humanist. But because I am a humanist, I am against violence, I am against hate crimes”, he declared.

 For more information in Spanish:

Desata polémica ‘Cuenta hasta 10’, campaña contra la violencia (Aristegui Noticias, 27 de mayo de 2020)

Mujeres víctimas de violencia explican por qué no sirve la campaña ‘Cuenta hasta 10’(Animal Político, 27 de mayo de 2020)

Defiende Inmujeres campaña del gobierno “Cuenta hasta 10” (La Jornada, 27 de mayo de 2020)

Inmujeres defiende la campaña ‘Cuenta hasta 10’; no es lo único, habrá otros spots, dice su titular (Animal Político, 27 de mayo de 2020)

Rechaza AMLO críticas a campaña “Cuenta hasta 10” (La Jornada, 28 de mayo de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional: Declaraciones de AMLO con respecto a la violencia de género provoca reacciones de diversos actores. (May 19, 2020)

National: Cuts for Indigenous Women in Violent Situations (May 15, 2020)

Chiapas: Woman Dies Violently Every Two Days in the State (April 16, 2020)

National: Historic Women’s Day In Mexico (March 11, 2020)

 

Chiapas: Cereza Collective Requests Release of Women Prisoners in San Cristobal de Las Casas

CERSS 5 (@Chiapas Paralelo)

On May 24th, the Ceraza Collective, an organization in Chiapas made up of human rights defenders who provide legal and psychosocial support to women in prison and on their release, reported that they demanded from the State Judiciary the release of 12 indigenous women incarcerated in San Cristobal de Las Casas prison and the review of the files of the entire female prison population. This occurs when “many should be released”, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It reported that this request was made on April 27th, based on the recently approved Federal Amnesty Law. Although 34 male prisoners were released on May 5th, especially from El Amate prison, this new resource never benefited any female prisoner. To date the Cereza Collective is still waiting for a response.

It considered that this “responds to the misogynistic position of the Chiapas governor and his officials who maintain an institutional and political barrier towards the feminist movement in Chiapas, making the serious situation of violence against women invisible, especially those who are also imprisoned paying for crimes that they did not commit, which were in self-defense or surrounded by situations of systematic and structural violence, poverty and marginality, among others.”

It also denounced that the San Cristobal de Las Casas prison, “does not even have a doctor, given that at the risk of contagion from COVID-19 the prison population is a captive population in case the virus spreads, since they know that the women in the feminine area operate in shared spaces and it is impossible to keep the social distance ordered by the health authorities.”

In the same letter, it was pointed out that the indigenous women prisoners do not have access to drinking water or receive personal hygiene or cleaning supplies. It also questioned that, as in many women’s prisons, “health protocols related to the COVID-19 emergency have not been implemented, nor has the sanitation of spaces been carried out.” The only measure that the Undersecretary of Public Security in charge of the administration of penitentiary centers has taken, the Cereza Collective stressed, “has limited itself to prohibiting visits to women, which, as it must also be known, deprives women access to the most basic resources such as food, since in CERSS # 5 in the women’s area they receive two very poor daily meals, lacking adequate nutritional food.”

For more information in Spanish:

Exigen liberar a mujeres presas en el penal de San Cristóbal de las Casas (Proceso, 26 de mayo de 2020)

Con urgencia, demandan libertad para mujeres privadas de su libertad en Chiapas (Chiapas Paralelo, 24 de mayo de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Fear that Infected Prisoners in San Cristobal de Las Casas “Will only Come Out Dead” (May 26, 2020)

Chiapas: Outbreak of COVID-19 in San Cristobal Las Casas Prison (May 23, 2020)

Chiapas: Prisoners Start Hunger Strike over Health Fears Due to COVID-19 (May 21, 2020)