Guerrero/National: Incoming Government Confirms Creation of Truth Commission for Ayotzinapa Case

(@SIPAZ Archive)

On August 1st, Alejandro Encinas Rodriguez, the next deputy secretary of Human Rights of the Ministry of the Interior, reported that he met with the parents of the 43 students of the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa, who disappeared in Guerrero in September 2014, to whom he endorsed the commitment to create a truth commission. He argued before media that the truth commission has constitutional bases and announced that others will be set up, even of a regional nature, to address the problem of disappearances in the country. He explained that if the ruling of the second unitary court in Tamaulipas last June is not met, it will be agreed directly with the parents of the missing student teachers so that the Commission becomes a reality.

He asserted that, “it is a matter of political will, not just of a judicial nature. There is political will and there will be a commission.” In addition to revealing that “we will evaluate each of the problems; all cases will be seen to. They can be regional, thematic commissions, on specific cases. We will analyze each issue in a particular way.”

For more information in Spanish:

Sí habrá comisión de la verdad para Ayotzinapa, afirma Alejandro Encinas (La Jornada, 2 de agosto de 2018)

Alista próximo gobierno Comisión de la Verdad para caso Ayotzinapa (MVS Noticias, 1 de agosto de 2018)

Encinas promete a padres de normalistas de Ayotzinapa encontrar la verdad (SDP Noticias, 1 de agosto de 2018)

El equipo de AMLO alista la comisión de la verdad por el caso Ayotzinapa (ADN Político, 1 de agosto de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero/Nacional : Denuncian obstrucción hacia la conformación de una comisión de la Verdad en el caso Ayotzinapa (30 de julio de 2018)

Guerrero: Graduaron los compañeros de los 43 estudiantes de Ayotzinapa (16 de julio de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional : CNDH informa que se tiene a un preso inocente por el caso Ayotzinapa (22 de junio de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional/Internacional : Llamados a redigirir investigación en el caso Ayotzinapa (14 de junio de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional: Tribunal Federal ordena la creación de una Comisión de la Verdad para reponer la investigación en el caso Ayotzinapa(6 de junio de 2018)

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Guerrero/National: Obstruction in Formation of Truth Commission in Ayotzinapa Case Denounced

(@CDH Tlachinollan)

On July 25th, relatives of the 43 student teachers from the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa, disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero in September 2014, demanded at a press conference that the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN in its Spanish acronym) act with impartiality and autonomy when deciding whether or not there should be a truth commission for the case. “In the face of the unusual legal offensive – formed with more than one hundred legal resources – unleashed by the government of Enrique Peña Nieto against the ruling of a Collegiate Court that orders the creation of a commission of inquiry into the Iguala case with guarantees of impartiality, and in anticipation that the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation must resolve several of these resources, fathers and mothers of the 43 student teachers from Ayotzinapa asked the ministers of the Supreme Court not to bend to the pressures of the Executive and be on the side of the truth and the victims. The families reported that it is “a shame” that, 46 months after the events, the authorities have not found the whereabouts of their children but they are devoting so much energy and coordination to reversing the ruling issued by the First Collegiate Court of the Nineteenth Circuit of Tamaulipas, which – after considering that the investigation of the PGR lacked independence and effectiveness – ordered the creation of a commission of inquiry with external controls to guarantee the rights of the victims“, the statement denounced.

“We are denouncing the appeals filed by institutions such as the Army and the Navy against the ruling of the Collegiate Court. If they do not fear anything, why are they against being investigated?” Mrs. Blanca Nava, mother of student teacher Jorge Alvarez asked, and pointed out that this confirms that the federal government wants to hide the truth before leaving office.

For his part, Mario Patron, director of the PRODH Center, said: “This government, far from using its forces to locate students, has used them to attack the ruling of the Collegiate Court.”

It should be recalled that the previous week, the Third Unitary Court of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit declared that “there is a legal impossibility to comply with the sentence” issued in June towards the creation of a Truth Commission.

Vidulfo Rosales, lawyer of the parents of the student teachers later informed the media that if the SCJN decides against the creation of the commission they will seek to meet with the representative of the next administration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to find a way out of “the obstruction” of the current federal authorities.

“We want to give a message to the new government that has been appointed on July 1st, to commit to the truth, to help us find the truth, and also to resume the investigation of the experts of the IGIE (Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts ), following the line of investigation to be able to find the whereabouts of our children”, the relatives proposed.

For more information in Spanish:

Boletín de Prensa / “La Corte debe ser valiente y estar con la verdad”: familias de Ayotzinapa (Cdh Tlachinollan, 25 de julio de 2018)

Denuncian bloqueos a la Comisión de la Verdad en Ayotzinapa (Político MX, 29 de julio de 2018)

Padres de los 43 piden a López Obrador honrar compromisos en caso Ayotzinapa (Proceso, 25 de julio de 2018)

Los padres de Ayotzinapa exigen a la Suprema Corte ser imparcial en el caso (ADN Político, 25 de julio de 2018)

Padres de Ayotzinapa acusan a Peña y ponen esperanzas en AMLO (El Sur, 25 de julio de 2018

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Graduaron los compañeros de los 43 estudiantes de Ayotzinapa (16 de julio de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional : CNDH informa que se tiene a un preso inocente por el caso Ayotzinapa (22 de junio de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional/Internacional : Llamados a redigirir investigación en el caso Ayotzinapa (14 de junio de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional: Tribunal Federal ordena la creación de una Comisión de la Verdad para reponer la investigación en el caso Ayotzinapa(6 de junio de 2018)

Guerrero/Internacional: nueva audiencia del caso Ayotzinapa ante la CIDH ; riesgo de carpetazo denuncian familiares y sus representantes legales (10 de mayo de 2018)

Internacional/Guerrero: Exigen que la PGR agote todas las líneas de investigación que surgen de nueva información en caso Ayotzinapa (18 de abril de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional/Internacional : Nuevos informes sobre caso Ayotzinapa (15 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero: Classmates of Ayotzinapa 43 Graduate

Photo @ FB Escuela Normal Rural de Ayotzinapa

On July 13th, 73 youths, who are the classmates of the 43 missing students of the night in Iguala, graduated with the Bachelor of Primary and Intercultural Bilingual Education from the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa,

The generation was baptized as ‘September 26th, three seeds, 43 hopes’, which would have included those disappeared during the violent events in Iguala.

The students built a turtle in honor of their missing companions and those killed in Iguala on September 26th, 2014. The sculpture of a turtle pointing towards the entrance of the institution was placed in the center of the classrooms, with an open book in which the names of the disappeared were written.

In Nahuatl, Ayotzinapa means ‘place of turtles’.

According to information in Jornada de Guerrero one of the students mentioned that turtle not only has to do with the translation of the name Ayotzinapa, but also represents part of the normal school anthem, which in its lyrics says “So many birds that fly, some arrive and others leave.”

“The time has come for us to leave Ayotzinapa, but always aware that the demand for justice does not end, we will be able to finish our student teacher stage, but the struggle to demand the live presentation of our compañeros and justice for Ayotzinapa in general will continue, even if we are no longer students” he said.

For more infromation in Spanish:

Construyen normalistas de Ayotzinapa una tortuga para honrar a los 43  (La Jornada de Guerrero, 13 de julio de 2018)

Se gradúa la generación de los 43 de Ayotzinapa (El Financiero, 13 de julio de 2018)

Así fue la graduación de los compañeros de los 43 estudiantes de Ayotzinapa (El Debate, 14 de julio de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero/Nacional : CNDH informa que se tiene a un preso inocente por el caso Ayotzinapa (22 de junio de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional/Internacional : Llamados a redigirir investigación en el caso Ayotzinapa (14 de junio de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional: Tribunal Federal ordena la creación de una Comisión de la Verdad para reponer la investigación en el caso Ayotzinapa(6 de junio de 2018)

Guerrero/Internacional: nueva audiencia del caso Ayotzinapa ante la CIDH ; riesgo de carpetazo denuncian familiares y sus representantes legales (10 de mayo de 2018)

Internacional/Guerrero: Exigen que la PGR agote todas las líneas de investigación que surgen de nueva información en caso Ayotzinapa (18 de abril de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional/Internacional : Nuevos informes sobre caso Ayotzinapa (15 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero/International: New Hearing of Ayotzinapa Case with Inter-American Commission for Human Rights

On May 8th, during the hearing held in the context of the 168th Period of Sessions of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) that took place in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, prior to a report on the case that the IACHR will publish and to a visit to Mexico next July, relatives of the 43 Ayotzinapa student teachers who disappeared in Guerrero in 2014, and their legal representatives warned that the federal government intends to shelve the investigation before a possible alternation in the presidency of the republic this year. “These men know that their corrupt government is on the way out and they are afraid that the next government will want to get to where it [the current government] stops in our case. For that reason they want to close each line by acting like they are investigating,” said the father of one of the disappeared.

During his speech, Santiago Aguirre, deputy director of the Prodh Center, said that, “there are four signs that confirm our worst fears that the sole priority of this administration is to close the case given the high probability that those who made the historical truth will soon leave their positions of power.” These signs include: “the rejection of the federal government of the UN report, which documented torture of those allegedly basically responsible for the official theory; the filtering and misrepresentation of messages of the alleged perpetrators -provided by the DEA- with the purpose of exculpating state and federal officials; the failure of the Attorney General in his deficiency to make new accusations; and the refusal to comply with the psychosocial diagnosis.”

Commissioner Ernesto Vargas, of Colombian origin, emphasized his concern over the disqualifications against Jan Jarab, representative in Mexico of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. He insisted on the concern that the office has discovered a “pattern of torture” that “can ruin the investigation.” It is worth mentioning that faced with the most recent questions from the Mexican government, the UNCHR defended the findings of the report “Double Injustice. Report on Human Rights Violations in the Investigation of the Ayotzinapa Case”, published last March, which includes allegations of torture and cover-ups in the Ayotzinapa case. It also reiterated its call to the Mexican authorities to implement their recommendations, in order to clarify the facts, guarantee justice, provide reparations to the victims and “guarantee the non-repetition of these tragic events.”

The representatives of the Mexican State in Santo Domingo were led by Ambassador Miguel Ruiz Cabañas, who presented the progress of the investigations made by the Attorney General’s Office on the leaks of information provided by the United States government of conversations of those implicated in the Ayotzinapa case. According to the person in charge of the Special Office for the Iguala case, of 5,000 images obtained, it was decided to explore 360 ​​places in search of the youths, of which, from November to last April, 325 were reviewed “without tangible results”. He also mentioned that 31 people have been considered responsible for having participated in the events, of which 16 would have open proceedings in progress for carrying weapons, organized crime, kidnapping and crimes against health [sic].

For more information in Spanish:

Alertan de intención de cerrar el caso Ayotzinapa ante probable alternancia presidencial (Centro ProDH, 8 de mayo de 2018)

En audiencia de la CIDH, activistas alertan contra carpetazo al caso Ayotzinapa (Proceso, 8 de mayo de 2018)

Este gobierno ya se va y quiere cerrar el caso Ayotzinapa, acusan padres de normalistas desaparecidos (Animal Político, 8 de mayo de 2018)

Caso Ayotzinapa en la CIDH: padres de los 43 exigen no olvidar a los jóvenes (CNN México, 9 de mayo de 2018)

La ONU-DH en Ginebra defiende informe sobre Ayotzinapa y reitera llamado a acatar sus recomendaciones (Proceso, 9 de mayo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Internacional/Guerrero: Exigen que la PGR agote todas las líneas de investigación que surgen de nueva información en caso Ayotzinapa (18 de abril de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional/Internacional : Nuevos informes sobre caso Ayotzinapa (15 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero: PGR buscará cerrar caso Ayotzinapa antes de diciembre (6 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / México – Nacional: Ayotzinapa: Caravana Rompiendo el Silencio y el Olvido (3 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / Nacional-México: Ayotzinapa a 40 meses de la desaparición de los 43 sigue la “indolencia” del gobierno (30 de enero de 2018)

National: First Presidential Debate – Proposals and Accusations

Photo @ Univision

On April 22nd, the first presidential debate took place, in which the five candidates for the presidency had a space to present their proposals and ideas to the voters. In the following days, the media offered different types of analyses and evaluations, about the positions and mutual accusations of the candidates. Proceso concluded that for them the debate “had a different value but a single goal. For the PRI, it was the hope of a better position, for the PAN, the opportunity to position itself in second place, for the independents to make themselves known and for the leader of Morena to protect and maintain the distance in the polls.” La Jornada had a more critical position in which it considered that “the issue of corruption during the debate between presidential candidates was the setting for a feast of accusations in which everyone denounced the dishonesty of others and eluded the accusations against their people.”

Several media agreed that Lopez Obrador, candidate for MORENA, was the “common target of the debate”, an issue that was echoed even in the international press according to Forbes Mexico, or that is reflected in titles like “All against AMLO” in Proceso. “One of the most controversial proposals of the night,” as La Jornada called it, was the proposal of independent candidate Rodriguez Calderon to cut off the hand of those who stole from a public service post.

Disinformemonos commented that from the point of view of activists and civil society organizations it regretted that “during the presidential debate last Sunday the candidates did not examine in depth measures to solve the human rights crisis in the country, but instead concentrated on attacking each other without explaining the proposals.” Rocio Culebro, executive director of the Mexican Institute of Human Rights and Democracy, and Fernando Rios, executive secretary of the TDT Network, added that “neither did they address issues such as victim assistance, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, abuses by the police and armed forces, femicides, violence against the press, forced displacement and torture.”

For more information in Spanish:

El debate devino en festival de acusaciones mutuas de corrupción (La Jornada, 23 de abril de 2018)

Así vio la prensa internacional el debate presidencial de México (Forbes México, 23 de abril de 2018)

Lamentan que candidatos no profundizaran sobre derechos humanos en debate presidencial (Desinformémonos, 24 de abril de 2018)

Todos contra AMLO (Proceso, 25 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional : arranca campaña electoral 2018 (6 de abril de 2018)

Nacional/Chiapas: El precandidato del PRI a la Presidencia inició su precampaña en San Juan Chamula (15 de dieciembre de 2017)

Guerrero/National: “43 X 43 in the Heart Day” Begins

On April 20th, the 43 X 43 in the Heart Day started, taking into account that April 26th will mark 43 months since the disappearance of the 43 students of the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa in Iguala, Guerrero. One of the main demands is to ask President Enrique Peña Nieto (EPN) to comply with the agreements he signed with relatives of those who disappeared in October 2014. At that meeting, EPN had committed himself to getting to the bottom of the matter until he found the students. However, “43 months after the disappearance of our children, there are no concrete advances, on the contrary, they intend to close our case,” they reported. Some of the actions are being carried out in Mexico City and others in Guerrero itself.

Meliton Ortega, spokesperson of the Nos Faltan 43 collective explained that “we want the Mexican government to comply with the four lines of investigation of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE). Today it has been proven that there is transfer of drugs from Iguala to Chicago and we demand that this line be broadened.” He announced to the candidates for the Presidency of the Republic that they will maintain their protests while the case is unsolved: “Now that the election is on the doorstep, the government does not even intend to offer advances along the lines of investigation we have demanded (… ) That is why we say that the case should not be closed, as the government of Enrique Peña Nieto claims. What he did during 2017 was just killing time.”

For the same reason, on April 24th, students’ relatives tried to reach the official residence of Los Pinos to demand an audience with EPN, and demand that the case be solved before the end of his term. However, their attempt was blocked by more than 400 elements of the capital city police, which generated tension that resulted in a confrontation that left six demonstrators and two uniformed personnel injured.

The parents of the 43 also denounced the police harassment to which they were subjected, since at the end of the demonstration, police followed them to where they are staying to carry out the activities that will continue in Mexico City and there they remained several hours possibly to “arrest the student leaders and the parents of the 43 on charges of vandalism.”

The next day, the parents of the 43 had planned to speak at the Ministry of the Interior to request an audience with minister Alfonso Navarrete, who has not received them since he took office. On the 26th, marking one more month of the disappearance of the student teachers, a march from the Angel of Independence to the capital’s Zocalo.

For more information in Spanish:

Granaderos impiden a padres de los 43 llegar a Los Pinos (La Jornada, 25 de abril de 2018)

Más de 400 policías intentaron encapsularnos para detenernos: padres de los 43 (Desinformémonos, 25 de abril de 2018)

Por las elecciones, olvidan a normalistas desaparecidos: padres de los 43 (Proceso, 23 de abril de 2018)

Los 43 latidos del corazón de México (Tlachinollan, 23 de abril de 2018)

Inició jornada “En el corazón 43 x 43” para exigir la aparición de los normalistas de Ayotzinapa (Desinformémonos, 21 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Internacional/Guerrero: Exigen que la PGR agote todas las líneas de investigación que surgen de nueva información en caso Ayotzinapa (18 de abril de 2018)

Guerrero/Nacional/Internacional : Nuevos informes sobre caso Ayotzinapa (15 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero: PGR buscará cerrar caso Ayotzinapa antes de diciembre (6 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / México – Nacional: Ayotzinapa: Caravana Rompiendo el Silencio y el Olvido (3 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / Nacional-México: Ayotzinapa a 40 meses de la desaparición de los 43 sigue la “indolencia” del gobierno (30 de enero de 2018)

Guerrero : Caso Ayotzinapa: reunión con el Consejo de la Judicatura Federal y 5ta visita oficial del Mecanismo de Seguimiento de la CIDH (8 de febrero de 2018)

Guerrero / Nacional-México: Ayotzinapa a 40 meses de la desaparición de los 43 sigue la “indolencia” del gobierno (30 de enero de 2018)

International/Guerrero: Demands for Attorney General to Exhaust All Lines of Investigation Following New Information in Ayotzinapa Case

On April 12th, the newspaper Reforma reported that intercepted telephone conversations between members of the Guerreros Unidos de Chicago cartel and “armed en from Iguala” show that the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Normal Rural School in 2014 was ordered from the United States. According to the text revealed by the newspaper, the heads of that criminal organization gave orders from Chicago to involve police in the detention of students.

According to the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center (PRODH in its Spanish acronym), an organization that accompanied the families of the students, “the messages show the weakness of the so-called “historical truth” of the PGR [Attorney General]. Particularly we refer to the message published with the words: “60 packages already saved and others with San Pedro”, assuming that the word “packages” refers to people, the message was sent on September 27th at 3:28 pm, which is in clear contradiction with the official theory: according to the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) at that time the students would have been executed and incinerated, while the message is clear that at that time they had “saved” packages.

The civil organizations Serapaz, the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, Fundar and the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, noted that what was published by Reforma corroborates that the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) was right to urge the Mexican State to open and exhaust the line of investigation related to the transfer of drugs from Mexico to the United States, specifically from Iguala to Chicago.

The PRODH Center stated that, “almost 43 months after the events, the messages confirm that the case cannot be closed and that the official explanation that has been given is unsatisfactory. In light of the revelation of Reforma, we demand that the PGR exhaust all lines of investigation that emerge from the messages, avoiding a hasty closure with electoral overtones and that the scrutiny of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the collaboration of the North American agencies are increased.”

For more information in Spanish:

Caso Ayotzinapa: Nueva Información de telefonía muestra falencias de versión oficial e impide dar por concluido el caso (Centro Prodh, 12 de abril de 2018)

Guiaron narcos desde Chicago ataques en Iguala (Reforma, 12 de abril de 2018)

Mensajes entre ‘Guerreros Unidos’ muestran “debilidad” de “verdad histórica” del caso Ayotzinapa: Centro Pro (Aristegui, 12 de abril de 2018)

Conversaciones entre líderes de Guerreros Unidos revelan que fueron hasta 60 los desaparecidos en Iguala (Animal Político, 12 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero/Nacional/Internacional : Nuevos informes sobre caso Ayotzinapa (15 de marzo de 2018)

 

Guerrero: PGR buscará cerrar caso Ayotzinapa antes de diciembre (6 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / México – Nacional: Ayotzinapa: Caravana Rompiendo el Silencio y el Olvido (3 de marzo de 2018)

Guerrero / Nacional-México: Ayotzinapa a 40 meses de la desaparición de los 43 sigue la “indolencia” del gobierno (30 de enero de 2018)

Guerrero : Caso Ayotzinapa: reunión con el Consejo de la Judicatura Federal y 5ta visita oficial del Mecanismo de Seguimiento de la CIDH (8 de febrero de 2018)

Guerrero / Nacional-México: Ayotzinapa a 40 meses de la desaparición de los 43 sigue la “indolencia” del gobierno (30 de enero de 2018)

Guerrero: caso Ayotzinapa: se exige la entrega de vídeos del Palacio de Justicia de Iguala para conocer lo ocurrido (19 de enero de 2018)

Guerrero: Ayotzinapa, tercera audiencia de oficio en la CIDH: “el gobierno federal no quiere resolver el caso” (26 de octubre de 2017)

Guerrero/Nacional : A tres años de Ayotzinapa (2 de octubre de 2017)

Guerrero: tercera visita del mecanismo de seguimiento de la CIDH sobre le caso Ayotzinapa a casi tres años de los hechos (7 de septiembre)

Guerrero: Sesión de seguimiento de la CIDH del caso Ayotzinapa : avances nulos (10 de julio de 2017)

Guerrero/ Nacional: Madres y padres de los 43 consideran no acudir a la reunión con la PGR y la CIDH (20 de abril de 2017)