International/National/Chiapas: Eighth Anniversary of Banavil Displaced, Seeking International Monitoring of Problem of Internal Forced Displacement

Victims of internal forced displacement @SIPAZ

Eight years after their forced internal displacement (FID) and the forced disappearance of Alonso Lopez Luna, a Tseltal family from the Banavil community, Tenejapa, continues to seek solutions to their demands.

It is important to remember that the main demands are in line with Recommendation CEDH / VGEAAI / 003/2017 of the State Commission of Human Rights of the State of Chiapas. This recommendation was approved on April 24th, 2017 by the Secretary General of the State of Chiapas.

The anniversary of the forced displacement of the family is commemorated a few days after the Joint Service of Characterization of Displaced Population (JSCDP) made an exploratory visit to Mexico (including a special visit to Chiapas), with the objective of “strengthening the technical capacities of the players that affect the attention of internal forced displacement; as well as contributing to quantitative and qualitative research work on the phenomenon in the country, in addition to establishing bases for a long-term strategy and joint work on prevention and care policies.” They concluded their visit by presenting recommendations to the Mexican State.

In addition, on November 22nd, organizations, victims of forced internal displacement, members of the academic sector, human rights defenders and journalists requested through a letter addressed to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, “which is included in the agenda for special procedures visits next year 2020, the visit of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, who has requested a visit to Mexico since 2015.”

For more information in Spanish:

Solicitud de visita a México de la Relatora Especial sobre los derechos humanos de los desplazados internos en carácter prioritario (CMDPDH, 22 de noviembre de 2019)

Participa CEAVE en mesa de trabajo para el Desplazamiento Forzado Interno (Fiscalia General del Estado de Chihuahua, 2 de diciembre de 2019)

Recomendación: CEDH/ 03/2017-R. (CEDH)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: A 7 años de los hechos violentos que suscitaron el desplazamiento forzado de familias de Banavil (7 de diciembre de 2018)

Chiapas: displaced families from Banavil return to their home to celebrate the Day of the Dead (November 3, 2018)

Chiapas: Banavil Displaced Families Remember the Death of Antonia Lopez Luna (March 5, 2017)

Chiapas: Desplazados de Banavil siguen exigiendo justicia tras 5 años de desplazamiento forzado (2 de diciembre de 2016)

Chiapas: Banavil Displaced Families Announce Provisional Return to their Community for Day of the Dead. (November 2, 2016)

Chiapas: “Without Public Policy and Budget, Girls, Boys and Adolescents in Chiapas do not Have the Conditions to Enjoy their Rights” – REDIAS

On November 20th, within the framework of the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Girls and Boys, the Network for the Rights of Children and Adolescents in Chiapas (REDIAS in its Spanish acronym) issued a statement entitled “Without public policy or budget, girls, boys and adolescents in Chiapas do not have conditions to exercise and enjoy their rights.”

Although REDIAS acknowledged that Chiapas has “quality legislative frameworks on the subject,” it considered that there are still “great challenges” so that girls, boys and adolescents in Chiapas can exercise and enjoy their rights mostly due to “contexts of inequality, violence and discrimination that are aggravated in the face of poverty in which 83.8% of the child population in the state lives.” It recalled in particular that Chiapas has the highest infant mortality rate in the country, mainly due to preventable diseases; 18% do not attend school; the state has the third highest infant and adolescent pregnancy rate in the country; more than 4,000 girls, boys and adolescents were victims of forced displacement from January 2017 to September 2019 “without any effective program or strategy of the authorities to prevent, address and stop this situation”; and the suicide rate in adolescents has increased.

REDIAS urged the authorities to fulfill their obligations with the rights of children and adolescents and denounced “delays and omissions in the implementation of the Law on the Rights of Girls, Boys and Adolescents of the State of Chiapas (LDNNACH in its Spanish acronym).” It also warned about “the ignorance of public officials about the legal framework that protects the rights of children, as well as the absence of financing for the proper functioning of existing protection mechanisms.”

For more information in Spanish:

“Sin política pública ni presupuesto, niñas, niños y adolescentes en Chiapas no cuentan con condiciones para ejercer y disfrutar de sus derechos” (REDIAS, 20 de noviembre de 2019)

Omisión mantiene vulnerable a infancia chiapaneca: Redias (Aquí Noticias, 20 de noviembre de 2019)

Funcionarios desconocen Convención sobre los derechos de los niños y las niñas (Diario de Chiapas, 20 de noviembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional/Chiapas: nada que festejar en el día del niño (3 de mayo de 2019)

Nacional: Presentan ‘Plan emergente para garantizar la integridad, la seguridad y la vida de las mujeres y niñas de México’ (11 de marzo de 2019)

Enfoque : Violencia contra menores en México – Realidad y Búsqueda de Respuestas (4 de marzo de 2019)

Guerrero/National: Buildings where Documents Related to Ayotzinapa Case Deliberately Burned

@Cuarto Oscuro

On November 11th, the families of the 43 students of the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, in September 2014 held a private meeting with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and members of the Truth and Access to Justice Commission for the Ayotzinapa Case. The president repeted his commitment to do everything possible to find the whereabouts of the normalistas. Family members insisted that several former officials be consigned, including the former Attorney General of the Republic, Jesus Murillo Karam and Tomas Zeron, who was responsible for the Criminal Investigation Agency of the agency.

“In several lines of research there are elements to be able to consign responsible people. Mainly they are former public officials who participated in the events. We ask that police who participated in the attacks on the students on September 26th and 27th and officials who did the investigations badly be consigned,” said Vidulfo Rosales, lawyer for the La Montaña Tlachinollan Human Rights Center and family representative at the end the meeting. Rosales also reported that searches are being conducted in ten different locations located mainly in Guerrero, such as Tepecoacuilco, Cocula, Iguala and municipalities adjacent to Taxco. On the information that the Army could provide in the clarification of the case, he declared that “they gave a part, but it is incomplete. On the other hand, they have given an important participation in providing security in the search theme.”

Also before the media, the Under-Secretary of Human Rights of the Ministry of the Interior, Alejandro Encinas, said that the case file is in “a process of total reconstruction, it is not starting from scratch, there are many issues that have already been investigated but it suffers from many failures in the way it was put together.” He said that the Attorney General’s Office (FGR in its Spanish acronym) is preparing the elements to summon to declare the officials involved in the construction of the case.

For his part, Felipe de la Cruz, spokesman for the group of relatives of the students, considered that at the meeting the federal government showed willingness to clarify the case; and that is on the path of leading to the truth. However, he said that if there is be no satisfactory results for January 9th when the next work session takes place, the mobilizations will rise in tone.

Strikingly, and just two days later, several unknown subjects set fire to the facilities of the ex-headquarters of the municipal police in Iguala, where documents related to the disappearance of the 43 were kept, including written testimonies on the activity of municipal police during the night of the 26th and early on September 27th, 2014, some of them possibly responsible for having delivered several of the young people who are now missing to alleged hitmen of the Guerreros Unidos criminal group. Everything was reduced to ruins but gasoline bottles were found, which confirmed that the incident was caused.

For more information in Spanish:

Queman documentos relacionados con desaparición de normalistas en Iguala (El Financiero, 13 de noviembre de 2019)

Gobierno de AMLO está en la ruta de llegar a la verdad sobre Ayotzinapa: padres (Revolución 3.0, 12 de noviembre de 2019)

Padres de los 43 le exigen a AMLO dar ya resultados, o retomarán sus protestas con mayor fuerza (Sin Embargo, 12 de noviembre de 2019)

Consignarán a exfuncionarios ligados a indagatorias sobre Ayotzinapa (La Jornada, 11 de noviembre de 2019)

Atrapan a otro implicado en caso Ayotzinapa… y lo sueltan por 10 mil pesos (Aristegui Noticias, 11 de noviembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional: Padres de las 43 normalistas de Ayotzinapa marchan en CDMX, múltiples manifestaciones en el país marcan el quinto aniversario de la desaparición (27 de septiembre de 2019)

Guerrero: FGR reiniciará investigación del caso Ayotzinapa “casi desde cero” (20 de septiembre de 2019)

Guerrero/Nacional : Liberación de 24 inculpados más en caso Ayotzinapa provoca reacción en distintos actores vinculados al mismo (17 de septiembre de 2019)

Guerrero/Nacional: Familiares de los 43 normalistas desaparecidos en Iguala en 2014 se reúnen con AMLO (12 de septiembre de 2019)

Guerrero: Nueva etapa en la investigación del caso Ayotzinapa, crean la Unidad Especial de Investigación y nombran a Omar Gómez Trejo como su titular (1ero de julio de 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)

Chiapas/National/International: Overcrowding at Huixtla Migration Detention Center Denounced

@Cuarto Oscuro

In a statement published on November 4th, the Human Rights Observation and Monitoring Collective in Southeast Mexico reported that, after conducting several monitoring visits in the central migration corridor of Chiapas, it confirmed “a series of conditions and events of great concern”, among them, the overcrowding of 66 people in the Huitxtla Migration Detention Center (center initially planned for a maximum of 30 people) while “food, access to drinking water and health care are deplorable.”

“The situation of the Detention Center in Huixtla is not an isolated event,” they said, but similar cases occur in Tuxtla Gutierrez and Comitan de Dominguez.

They also observed cases of family separation after the mass detention of October 12th on the coast of Chiapas and an increase in the detention of unaccompanied children and adolescents despite the fact that they should not legally remain in detention centers.

More broadly, they expressed that “there is particular concern about the dynamics that have been consolidated since the signing of the Mexico-United States agreement on the indefinite detention of people who are“ rescued “by police forces and who must then remain in detention until the prosecution determines the cases, without any guarantee of access to the recognition of victims and information on the judicial and administrative processes of migration.”

For this reason, they demanded that the National Migration Institute suspend “the prolonged and indefinite detention to which it is subjecting people”, respect for the right of asylum, attention to the needs of physical and mental health care and respect for “the standards of treating people deprived of their liberty, completely eliminating the practices of keeping people overcrowded, without adequate food, water or health care, and without considering due process.”

For more information in Spanish:

EL INM MANTIENE HACINADAS A 66 PERSONAS EN EL CENTRO DE DETENCIÓN MIGRATORIA DE HUIXTLA (Colectivo de Observación y Monitoreo de Derechos Humanos en el Sureste Mexicano, 4 de noviembre de 2019)

Colectivo denuncia violaciones a derechos de 66 migrantes en Chiapas (La Jornada, 4 de noviembre de 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: Laguna Larga Continues to Demand Immediate Return 28 Months after Forced Displacement

Photo @ SIPAZ

On October 20th, the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman, Jordan Rodas, and the Fifth Visitor of the Mexican National Human Rights Commission (CNDH in its Spanish acronym), Edgar Corzo, visited families who are victims of forced displacement from the Laguna Larga community (Guatemala) to verify the serious situation facing families in the camp on the border between Guatemala and Mexico.

Currently, the Guatemalan victims have been displaced for more than 28 months, after the community of Laguna Larga was violently evicted by 1400 elements of the Guatemalan army in June 2017. Since then the community has been accompanied by different civil organizations, including; Voces Mesoamericanas, the “All Rights for All” Network (Red TDT), the Legal Office for Human Rights, Candelaria Civil Resistance, Health and Community Development AC (SADEC in its Spanish acronym) and SIPAZ, who, as a follow-up to the process, gave a press conference to air the current situation of the displaced families process.

In the Campeche City, along with displaced representatives, they announced that the situation of the approximately 350 people, including more than 100 boys, girls and adolescents, remains worrying. Representatives of the displaced said they continue to resist at the border waiting for the government of their country to give them guarantees to return.

They announced that during the months of forced displacement “they have survived in conditions of extreme precariousness, which has especially impacted minors, the elderly and pregnant women, groups among which there have already been eight deaths.”

They denounced “the lack of guarantee of access to health, the lack of adequate and quality food, water in conditions not suitable for human consumption, as well as difficulties in the identity procedures of girls and boys born in Mexico.”

Another issue of urgency is the repair of a dirt road between the current site of the camp on the border strip and the ejido of El Desengaño, which currently represents three seriously damaged kilometers. Properly fixing it could substantially improve the lives of families.

The road to the camp @ SIPAZ

In this regard, during a meeting in June 2019, the state government of Campeche and the municipal government of La Candelaria, committed themselves to the construction of the road in a period not exceeding 15 days. “Unfortunately, four months later, this has not happened and is justified between changes of the state government of Campeche and municipality of La Candelaria.”

They urged the state and municipal governments, in a collaborative framework, to immediately comply with the road repair commitment. Failure to do so will continue to put the life and integrity of the people in the camp at risk.

“Faced with this context of repeated omissions, breach of commitments and systematic absence of the Guatemalan government, directly responsible for the displacement of the community of Laguna Larga, families continue to demand, as the optimal measure of care and reparation, immediate return,” they stressed

For more information in Spanish:

A 28 meses de desplazamiento forzado, Laguna Larga continúa exigiendo retorno inmediato (Red TdT, 21 de octubre de 2019)

Activistas exigen ayuda humanitaria para guatemaltecos desplazados (Proceso, 21 de octubre de 2019)

Desplazados de Laguna Larga cumplen 28 meses de impunidad (22 de octubre de 2019, Chiapas Paralelo)

Exigen ayuda urgente para desplazados en frontera Campeche-Guatemala (La Jornada Maya, 21 de octubre de 2019)

Piden atención urgente para guatemaltecos desplazados (Novedades Campeche, 22 de octubre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Internacional/Nacional: Dos años después de su desplazamiento forzado, la comunidad de Laguna Larga sigue exigiendo el retorno a sus tierras en Guatemala. (June 6th, 2019)

International/National: Over 100 Guatemalan Campesina Families Take Refuge at Mexican Border (June 11, 2017)

Oaxaca: People Demand Payment of Social Programs During AMLO’s Tour of State

@EFE

On October 6th, during a speech before 2,506 students from Huajuapan High School, Oaxaca, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) faced protests from the public present while referring to advances in various social programs. The president explained that, “they are going to arrive, justice takes time but arrives.” He added that, “if an authority is not popular there they are questioning and questioning the authority! We no longer have to be that way, there has to be unity,” requesting “don’t get us wrong, respect each other, I say it affectionately. It is not the same as before.” In the course of his public appearance, interruptions followed. In the end, AMLO declared that “we have to quench that hunger and thirst for justice, but we have to do it in an orderly manner, with a strategy, that this is what I ask, that you have patience with me and that there is understanding because first we are seeing to things generally, which includes and benefits more people.” Referring to promises of his campaign, he pointed out that, “we are going to root out corruption, it’s not just talk” and that “the Fourth Transformation is neither rhetoric nor demagogy.” In Huajuapan, 74 university-level students receive scholarships of 2,400 pesos per month and 176 young people, who neither work nor study, collaborate in workshops, receiving 3,600 pesos per month.

Before coming to Huajuapan, AMLO visited the community of the Santiago Juxtlahuaca Rural Hospital, also in Oaxaca. It is part of a tour of the 80 hospitals of IMSS Welfare throughout the country. During his visit he was accompanied by Zoe Robledo, the general director of the IMSS, and the Oaxaca governor, Alejandro Murat. There he announced his next visits: “Finishing the health tour, I will start a tour to talk to all the native peoples of Mexico, all cultures. For once, I won’t be going around with secrets, my heart is not a cellar, I always say what I think, if an agreement is reached between all the expressions of the Triqui culture, I start the tour in San Juan Copala (in Oaxaca). If there is an agreement, there we will sign a peace agreement that will be historic.” In addition, he called on people “to unite, no hatred, no resentment, and forgive … we have to forgive and embrace and love and be fraternal, become more and more human.”

For more information in Spanish:

Basta de ‘politiquerías’, pide AMLO en hospitales rurales de Oaxaca (La Jornada el 6 de octubre de 2019)

“¡No llegan!”: Reclaman a AMLO becas de Bienestar en Oaxaca (El Imparcial el 6 de octubre de 2019)

“Vayan respetándonos”, dice AMLO a pobladores de Oaxaca que lo cuestionaron por retraso en becas (Sin Embargo el 6 de octubre de 2019)

La 4T no es retórica, dice AMLO en Oaxaca (Noticias en la mira el 6 de octubre de 2019)

En Oaxaca, AMLO anuncia gira visitar a los pueblos indígenas (Expansión Política el 6 de octubre de 2019)

“No nos vamos a divorciar del pueblo”, afirma AMLO desde Oaxaca (El Heraldo el 6 de octubre de 2019)

Reclaman a AMLO falta de becas Bienestar en Oaxaca (Informador el 6 octubre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: AMLO Presents His First Government Report (September 10, 2019)

Oaxaca: de gira en el estado, AMLO declara que las comunidades indígenas avalan la realización del corredor transístmico (May 4, 2019)

Nacional: AMLO cumplió 100 días en el poder; revisa avances en compromisos (March 12, 2019)

Oaxaca/National: Federal Government Presents National Program for Indigenous Peoples (January 14, 2019)