Chiapas/National: CNI- CIG “We Are Living through the War of Capital against the Peoples of the World”, Convenes Fourth Assembly

In a communiqué published on November 7th, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and the Indigenous Government Council (CIG) convened its Fourth Assembly.

This occurs in the midst of the “war that comes from above and that aims to destroy Mother Earth to make millions of profits from selling minerals, water, forests, rivers, fracking hydrocarbons, building industrial corridors, destroying the territory with supposed clean energy projects, putting volcano villages at risk with the Huexca thermoelectric plant, building the infrastructure that accompanies the dispossession in the south-southeast of the country with its megaprojects, negotiating with death in all its forms.” Added to this “the violence and repression that comes from bad government at all levels and the growing presence of narco-paramilitary groups that serve it.”

The objectives of the assembly include “making the struggle for life great and dismantling this system of death”, “weaving our web of resistance and rebellion” and “taking collective criteria in our commitment that life is for our Mother Earth and for the peoples of the world.”

The event will take place at Caracol Jacinto Canek – CIDECI Unitierra of San Cristobal de Las Casas from December 18th to 20th, another activity in the “Combo for Life: December of Resistance and Rebellion” convened by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) throughout that month. Apart from December 19th, the date on which a plenary open to observers and the media is scheduled, the event “will be of a closed nature and access will only be allowed to delegates, councilors and representatives of the towns of the CNI- CIG and special guests. The latter will be contacted by the CNI-CIG Coordination and Monitoring Commission.”

For more information in Spanish:

CONVOCATORIA A LA CUARTA ASAMBLEA NACIONAL ENTRE EL CONGRESO NACIONAL INDÍGENA Y EL CONCEJO INDÍGENA DE GOBIERNO (CNI CIG, 7 de noviembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/National/International: EZLN Invitation to “Celebration of Life: December of Resistance and Rebellion” (November 10, 2019)

National/International: CNI Mobilizations for Global Day of Struggle in Defense of Life and our Territories – “SAMIR FLORES LIVES” (October 17, 2019)

National: CNI Invitation to “SAMIR FLORES LIVES” Global Day of Struggle, October 12, 2019

(September 29, 2019)

 

Oaxaca: CNI Holds “The Isthmus is Ours” National Assembley in Juchitan (September 22, 2019)

Guerrero: CNI Denounces Kidnapping and Murder of Two Members (May 11, 2019)

National: Third Assembly of National Indigenous Congress and Indigenous Council of Government (CNI-CIG) in Mexico City (March 14, 2019)

National/Chiapas: INM offers public apology to four indigenous migrants from Chiapas

@Proceso

On November 7, in the Hall of Fine Arts in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, the National Institute of Migration (INM) offered a public apology to four Tzeltal indigenous people from Chiapas who were detained, tortured and almost deported by INM elements. In 2015, the two men and two women were on their way north, looking for work in one of the country’s several industrial crops. Presenting their birth certificates and their electoral identification at a checkpoint in San Juan del Río, Querétaro, “INM agents told them they were false, took them to a migratory station and told them they were Guatemalans; they mistreated them so that they would admit to being from Guatemala”, explained María Fernanda Pincus, director of the Legal Clinic of the University program of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). One of the victims was still a minor at the time of the arrest.

Accompanied by the Municipal President of San Cristóbal, Jerónima Toledo Villalobos, Francisco Garduño Yáñez, commissioner of INM, apologized to the legal representative of the victims, Gretchen Kuhner, for the violation of their human rights and the “damage to the image, honor and dignity“, of the 4 people. “They were not present at the ceremony because they want to maintain a private life, but it was very important that a public apology be made because it is not something that happens only to them; they said we don’t want it to happen to us, but neither to other people”, said María Fernanda Pincus. According to Gretchen Kuhner, the victims accept the apology.

As consequence and in an administrative process, two deputy directors, an agent, a coordinator and two heads of department were punished with suspensions between 15 and 30 days. “Through me, the Institute is committed to guaranteeing measures of non-repetition, so that the acts that violated the human rights of these people do not happen again”, Garduño Yáñez said. He added that the end of non-repetition “translates into prevention through the sensitization of public servants attached to the INM, on issues related to indigenous communities and the urgency of its members to migrate to other parts of the country.” According to María Fernanda Pincus, in addition, there will be “reparation of the damage in economic terms, because they were going to work in the north of the country as agricultural day laborers and they will be paid what they missed earning in those days.”

Mario Peña, also from the Legal Clinic of the UNAM’s University Program on Human Rights, pointed out that “there are no conditions to know who are Mexicans and who are foreigners. We have noticed that people in vulnerable conditions with little command of Spanish are more affected and that they are not provided with an interpreter of their language in migration procedures”.

For more information:

Pide el INM disculpas a indígenas tzeltales por agresión en retén (La Jornada, November 7, 2019)

El INM ofrece disculpa pública a indígenas chipanecos confundidos con migrantes (El Proceso, November 7, 2019)

Ofrece INM disculpa pública a 4 indígenas de Chiapas (El Heraldo de México, November 7, 2019)

Ofrecen disculpa pública a tzeltales torturados en 2015 (EL Universal, November 8, 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/International: Effort to Protect Migrants “Lasted a Few Months”, UNHCHR (November 7, 2019)

Chiapas: Migration Authorities Stop Migrant Caravan in Tapachula (October 17, 2019)

National/International: CSOs Denounce Poor Conditions in Provisional Migration Centers in Chiapas (October 13, 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)

National/International: Mexico and US Reevaluate Migration Agreement after Three Months; Disagreement over Desired Outcomes (September 23, 2019)

International/National: UNO Calls for Evaluation of National Guard as Migratory Control in Mexico (September 2, 2019)

National: Activist Rosario Piedra Ibarra is elected new president of the CNDH

@Cuartopoder

On November 7, the Senate elected the new head of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). With 76 out of 114 votes cast in her favor, Rosario Piedra Ibarra, human rights activist and daughter of the founder of the Eureka! Committee, an organization of mothers and relatives of the disappeared, was elected as the new ombudsman, while candidates Arturo Peimbert Calvo and José de Jesús Orozco Henríquez received 24 and 8 votes respectively.

After the vote, members of the National Action Party (PAN) denounced that in reality 116 instead of 114 legislators voted and that there was fraud in the process. “We demand the annulment of the vote to elect the incumbent of the @CNDH. [. . . ] We cannot allow FRAUD to be done in the Senate of the Republic”, Martha Márquez of the PAN reported on Twitter. It should be noted that the only people empowered to count votes are the secretaries of the Board of Directors of the Chamber where the PAN is represented by one secretary.

PAN senators also criticized that Rosario Piedra Ibarra was a candidate for federal congresswoman for Morena: “Today Morena did not vote in favor of the Mexicans, they voted for a president of the @CNDH who will act under the command of the President”.

“I am never going to submit to a partisan idea that would be contrary to what is in my own conscience“, emphasized the new president of the CNDH before the accusations. She also stated that she wants to prevent the CNDH from becoming a instance of “simulation” with the promise of putting herself “in the shoes of the victims”.

On voting day she announced on her Twitter account: “A new period for human rights begins today. I heartily thank the people who place their trust in me and rest assured that I will work the same way I have for over 40 years. May this achievement be for all of us.”

For more information:

Rosario Piedra Ibarra en Twitter (November 7, 2019)

Rosario Piedra hace historia: Es la primera luchadora social que llega a la Presidencia de la CNDH (SinEmbargo November 7, 2019)

Oposición acusa fraude en elección de titular de CNDH; es un trámite concluido, dice Morena (Animal Político November 7, 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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)

Oaxaca: Founder and Director of Community Radio Murdered. Tenth Journalist Murdered under AMLO Government (May 10, 2019)

 

Chiapas/National/International: EZLN Invitation to “Celebration of Life: December of Resistance and Rebellion”

In a comminiqué published on November 6th, the Sixth Commission of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) issued an invitation to participate in the “Celebration of Life: December of Resistance and Rebellion”. This event will include:

– the Second Edition of the Ciné Puy Ta Cuxlejaltic Festival (December 7th to 14th);

– the first CompArte of Dance “Dance Another World” (from 15th to 20th);

– the Forum in Defense of Territory and Mother Earth in coordination with the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) to be held on December 21st and 22nd;

– the Second International Meeting of Women who Struggle (December 26th to 29th);

– and, the celebration of the 26th anniversary of the start of the “War against Oblivion) (December 31st, 2019 and January 1st, 2020,

The statement also specifies the places where the different activities will take place as well as emails through which one can register to participate.

For more information in Spanish:

COMBO POR LA VIDA: DICIEMBRE DE RESISTENCIA Y REBELDÍA (EZLN, 6 de noviembre de 2019)

La Comisión Sexta del EZLN convoca a sus actividades de diciembre (La Jornada, 6 de noviembre de 2019)

EZLN anuncia «Combo por la vida: diciembre de resistencia y rebeldía» (Chiapas Paralelo, 6 de noviembre de 2019)

EL EZLN organiza actos para recordar el 26 aniversario del levantamiento indígena (La Jornada, 7 de noviembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: EZLN Convenes Second International Encounter of Women who Struggle (September 26, 2019)

Chiapas: EZLN Announces Creation of New Caracoles, Autonomous Municipalities, Centers of Autonomous Resistance and Rebellion and Various Other Initiatives (August 25, 2019)

Chiapas/National: Commission for Concord and Pacification Seeks to Meet Secretariat of Government to Explore Possibiity of Dialogue between Federal Government and EZLN (May 30, 2019)

National: CNI, EZLN and Indigenous Organizations Announce “Zapata Lives, Samir Lives, The Struggle Continues” (March 21, 2019)

National: Controversy between EZLN and AMLO Supporters Floods Social Networks    (January 18, 2019)

Chiapas/National/International: EZLN Invitation to 25th Anniversary of Zapatista Uprising and Meeting of Networks (December 11, 2018)

Guerrero/National: Obtilia Eugenio Receives National Human Rights Award 2019

Obtilia Eugenio Manuel (@SIPAZ)

On November 1st, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH in its Spanish acronym) reported in a statement that the Ombudsman Obtilia Eugenio Manuel was awarded the 2019 National Human Rights Award, in recognition of her “outstanding track record in effective promotion and defense” of the basic guarantees.

Leader of the Me’phaa Indigenous Peoples’ Organization (OPIM in its Spanish acronym), founded in 2002 to defend the rights of the Tlapaneco peoples of the state of Guerrero, Obtilia has stood out for denouncing abuses committed by Mexican Army personnel against indigenous peoples, in particular in the case of sexual violations committed by military personnel against indigenous women, Valentina Rosendo Cantu and Ines Fernandez Ortega. Being a member of the Community Municipal Council of Ayutla de los Libres, and together with her partner Hilario Cornelio Castro, she was kidnapped in February of this year although both were found alive a few days later. She has denounced that those responsible were people linked to construction companies and organized crime groups, in retaliation for denouncing the implementation of works in an apparently irregular fashion in that municipality.

The CNDH also reported that the awards council gave a posthumous honorary mention to Margarito Diaz Gonzalez, environmentalist, marakame (religious leader) and defender of the sacred sites of the Wixarika people in Nayarit, who was killed on September 8th.

The agency indicated that “the Award Council unanimously approved the opinion of the Jury by means of an agreement adopted at its second ordinary session on October 30th of this year, and also provided that said agreement be published in the Official Gazette of the Federation, in the Official Gazette, on its website and be disseminated in the mass media.”

As for the award ceremony, it said that the ceremony “will be held on the day determined by the federal Executive.”

For more information in Spanish:

Premio Nacional de DH, para la activista indígena Obtilia Eugenio (La Jornada, 1ero de noviembre de 2019)

A Obtilia Eugenio Manuel, el Premio Nacional de Derechos Humanos 2019 (Proceso, 1ero de noviembre de 2019)

Reconoce CNDH a Obtilia Eugenio con el Premio Nacional de Derechos Humanos (Ahora Guerrero, 1ero de noviembre de 2019)

La CNDH reconoce a Obtilia Eugenio con el Premio Nacional (El Informador, 1ero de noviembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero/Internacional: CIDH llama a investigar la desaparición de los defensores de derechos humanos Obtilia Eugenio Manuel e Hilario Cornelio Castro (February 28th, 2019)

Guerrero: Fueron liberados Obtilia Eugenio Manuel e Hilario Cornelio Castro (February 18th, 2019)

Guerrero: OPIM Inició una Caravana Solidaria de Busqueda para Obtilia Eugenio Manuel e Hilario Cornelio Castro. (February 15th, 2019)

Guerrero: Disappearance of Obtilia Eugenio Manuel and Hilario Cornelio Castro Indigenous Activists and Members of OPIM Reported (February 14, 2019)

Chiapas/Mexico: Mexican Offers Public Apology to Indigenous Women Raped and Tortured by Military in Chiapas in 1994

Photo: chiapasparalelo

On October 18th, a public apology was given in the central square of Ocosingo by the Mexican government to the Gonzalez Perez sisters for sexual torture 25 years ago.

On June 4th, 1994, soldiers deprived Ana, Beatriz, and Celia Gonzalez Perez, and their mother Delia Perez of their freedom when they tried to cross a Mexican Army checkpoint in Jalisco ejido, municipality of Altamirano. The military accused them of being members of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN in its Spanish acronym), and punished them for this, raping them.

They were arrested and for two hours, through sexual torture, they tried to force them to declare themselves members of the armed group and to betray other people. They resisted and, when released, criminally denounced the facts, were subjected to examinations showing evidence of gang rape, but the case was taken over by martial law and closed, denying access to justice.

In 2001, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) declared the responsibility of the Mexican State, demanding punishment for those responsible and reparation for the damage to the victims.

After 25 years, in the public square of the municipality of Ocosingo, through the voice of the Secretary of the Interior, Olga Sanchez Cordero, and the undersecretary of Human Rights, Alejandro Encinas, the Mexican government apologized to the Gonzalez Perez sisters, before some five hundred people, including public officials and inhabitants of the region.

During the event, the great absentee was the Mexican Army, the institution to which the men whom the sisters identified as their torturers belonged. Ana, Beatriz, Celia and their mother Delia, demanded during all these years, that they be military commanders who recognize the facts, who apologize and who are brought to justice. In Ana’s words: “This act of public apology is not really an act of public apology because we clearly said that we wanted representatives of the SEDENA to be present for them to ask us for a public apology, because they were the ones who committed the grievances. This public apology is not complete.”

In the indigenous normative system, it is the person responsible for the crime who must ask for forgiveness, because it is their identification before the community. Ana insisted that they reject the presence of military personnel in indigenous areas. “We do not want the military in our villages, because the government says they are the ones who protect us, but on the contrary, they are the ones who hurt us.”

Among the agreements that Olga Sanchez Cordero, Alejandro Encinas and the indigenous women signed, is to continue the investigation to bring to trial the soldiers involved. However, they insisted that this process not be individualized, and assume that the rape was not an independent or autonomous act committed by the soldiers, but an institutional action that obeyed a war strategy against the EZLN.

For more information in Spanish:

El Estado mexicano ofrece disculpa pública a indígenas torturadas y violadas por militares en Chiapas, Proceso, 18 de octubre de 2019

Ofrece el Estado Mexicano disculpas a indígenas violadas, La Jornada, 18 de octubre de 2019

Gobierno mexicano ofrece disculpa a indígenas violadas por el Ejército en 1994; “¿dónde está Sedena?”, preguntan ellas, Aristegui noticas, 18 de octubre de 2019

Video: Disculpa Publica Y Reconocimiento De Responsabilidad Que Ofrece El Estado Mexicano Ocosingo Chiapas, Youtube, 18 de octubre de 2019

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Public Act of Recognition of State Responsibility in Gonzalez Sisters Case Announced (September 2, 2019)

Chiapas: Tzeltal Women Tortured and Raped by Military in 1994 Denounce Total Impunity (June 9, 2019)

Chiapas: Indigenous Tzeltal women raped by the Mexican Army accept “compensation” with conditions (October 25, 2010)

National: Demand for Resignation of Head of National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women (CONAVIM)

At a press conference on October 8th, more than 350 civil society organizations and human rights defenders from 17 states of the Republic asked President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB in its Spanish acronym), Olga Sanchez Cordero, to remove the current head of the National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence Against Women (CONAVIM in its Spanish acronym), Maria Candelaria Ochoa Avalos, from office, considering that Ochoa Avalos “has not promoted or carried out forceful actions that can address the problem that every day ends the lives of ten women.”

They also claimed that Ochoa Avalo prevents the active participation of civil society organizations in the mechanisms for monitoring Gender Violence Alerts (GVA) declared in the country. “The commissioner has shown and told us, in practice and in court, that we have no dialogue with her, that she has no capacity for dialogue. We are not questioning if she is an expert on the issue of violence against women, we are questioning her inability to dialogue with the organizations that are with the victims fighting for access to justice day by day,” they claimed. They also denounced her role in delaying the declaration for Mexico City, as well as in rejecting the issuance of a GVA in Zacatecas and Verecruz.

“Instead of complying with its obligations in the implementation of the GVA mechanism and designing the implementation plans and methodology for monitoring and evaluating the 19 declared GVAs and convening the monitoring groups – as requested in several states – the current commissioner has been dedicated to sidelining organizations to prosecute women’s rights, instead of guaranteeing them as mandated,” the signatories said. More generally, they also considered that more than seven months after the presentation of the Government Plan of Emerging Actions to Guarantee the Integrity, Security and Life of Women and Girls of Mexico, “to date, the solution to the problem has not had considerable progress, contrary to this, the violence remains and intensifies.”

For more information in Spanish:

ONG exigen renuncia de la titular de Conavim; la acusan de obstaculizar acceso a la justicia de las mujeres (Animal Político, 8 de octubre de 2019)

Organizaciones demandan la renuncia de la titular de Conavim (La Jornada, 8 de octubre de 2019)

Víctimas y organizaciones civiles exigen renuncia de la titular de Conavim (Vanguardia, 8 de octubre de 2019)

CARTA PÚBLICA : Ante omisión y falta de eficacia,ONG exigen renuncia de Titular de CONAVIM (OSC, 8 de octubre de 2019)

Vídeo de la conferencia de prensa (OSC, 8 de octubre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/International: Spotlight Initiative against Gender Violence Launched in Mexico (June 6, 2019)

National: Over 424,000 on Mexican #Me Too (May 7, 2019)

National: Presentation of ‘Emergent Plan to Guarantee the Integrity, Security and Life of Women and Girls in Mexico” (March 14, 2019)

Nacional : OSC denuncian omisiones en investigación y combate a feminicidios (August 16, 2018)

National/International: “Final Observations on the Ninth Periodic Report from Mexico, the Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women” Published (August 6, 2018)