National/Guerrero: Federal Judge Gives Prison Sentences to Three Accused of Torture in Ayotzinapa Case

@Web

On March 26th, three former security officials were sent to prison for their alleged participation in the torture of detainees in the investigation of the case of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School who disappeared in Iguala in 2014.

Different sources reported that the Special Investigation and Litigation Unit for the Ayotzinapa case obtained a formal prison order against the officials “Isidro Junco Barajas, who currently served as Deputy Director of Operational Control of the Security Directorate of the Chamber of Deputies (…) Ezequiel Peña Cerda, now area director at the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) and the marine Ariel Agustin Castillo Reyes.”

“According to judicial sources, Ezequiel Peña Cerda and Ariel Agustin Castillo Reyes, in addition to the crime of torture, were charged with the crime against the administration of justice and abuse of authority,” the media reported.

On March 17th, the three former officials were detained by the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) for their involvement in the arrest of Carlos Canto, who was allegedly involved in the disappearance of the missing students, who was tortured to force his confession.

For more information in Spanish:

Juez dicta prisión a tres acusados de tortura en el caso Ayotzinapa (Política Expansión, 26 de marzo de 2020)

Dictan formal prisión por tortura a tres implicados en el caso Ayotzinapa (El Proceso, 26 de marzo de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/Guerrero: First Legal Actions against Officials in Ayotzinapa Case Investigation (March 24, 2020)

National/Guerrero: Meeting on New Evidence in Ayotzinapa Case (March 9, 2020)

Chiapas/Guerrero: Two Police Officers Held for Attacks on Parents of the Ayotzinapa 43 Disapeared; Investigation of Students who Participated in Protest Continue (February 26, 2020)

Chiapas/Guerrero: Parents of Ayotzinapa 43 Attacked with Tear Gas in Tuxtla Gutierrez (February 17, 2020)

National/Guerrero: Agreement to Reintroduce Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts in Ayotzinapa Case. Number of Disappeared Increases in the Country (January 14, 2020)

National/Guerrero: First Legal Actions against Officials in Ayotzinapa Case Investigation

On March 17th, three suspects involved in acts of torture against those accused of the case of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School who disappeared in Iguala in 2014 were arrested by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).

According to different sources, “Isidro Junco Barajas, who currently served as Deputy Director of Operational Control of the Security Directorate of the Chamber of Deputies (…) Ezequiel Peña Cerda, now area director at the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) and the marine Ariel Agustín Castillo Reyes.”

In addition, “the former director of the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC), Tomas Zeron de Lucio, and the ex-head of the Federal Ministerial Police, Carlos Gomez Arrieta, against whom the FGR would have requested the intervention of Interpol, are about to be arrested,” the newspaper Proceso reported.

Organizations accompanying the relatives of the disappeared students reported that they welcome and recognize “the first legal actions of the FGR against officials who committed torture and/or irregularities in the investigation of the Ayotzinapa case, since they confirm what the families have always denounced: the manipulation of the investigation.”

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) also ruled in this regard, stating that “it observes the development of the investigation in light of Mexico’s human rights obligations”, and hopes that the arrest warrants “against those who participated in acts of obstruction of justice in the enforced disappearance of the 43 normalistas from Ayotzinapa are taken independently.”

For more information in Spanish:

La CIDH aplaude actuación de FGR en caso Ayotzinapa (El Proceso, 18 de marzo de 2020)

Detienen a marino por tortura en caso Ayotzinapa (El Debate, 18 de marzo de 2020)

Detienen a ex policías que torturaron a imputados por caso Ayotzinapa (La Jornada, 17 de marzo de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/Guerrero: Meeting on New Evidence in Ayotzinapa Case (March 9, 2020)

Chiapas/Guerrero: Two Police Officers Held for Attacks on Parents of the Ayotzinapa 43 Disapeared; Investigation of Students who Participated in Protest Continue (February 26, 2020)

Chiapas/Guerrero: Parents of Ayotzinapa 43 Attacked with Tear Gas in Tuxtla Gutierrez (February 17, 2020)

National/Guerrero: Agreement to Reintroduce Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts in Ayotzinapa Case. Number of Disappeared Increases in the Country (January 14, 2020)

National/Guerrero: Meeting on New Evidence in Ayotzinapa Case

Photo @ XeVT

On March 5th, a meeting was held in the National Palace in which relatives of the 43 students of the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa disappeared in Iguala in 2014, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), representatives of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General’s Office participated.

In this regard, the president reported that “today we signed an agreement with the Attorney General of the Republic, Alejandro Gertz Manero and the president of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, Arturo Zaldivar, to work together, with respect for our autonomies, with the purpose of clarifying definitively the case of the disappeared young people of Ayotzinapa and doing justice. It is not just for the State, but for the nation.”

The undersecretary of Human Rights, Alejandro Encinas, detailed some findings from this week; “The Commission for Truth and Access to Justice for the Ayotzinapa case found six remains linked to the search of the 43 students (…) the remains found in the searches were sent to the University of Innsbruck, in Austria, for analysis. It said the University of Innsbruck has already begun evaluating the findings, although it did not estimate a date for possible results.”

In turn, “family members of the 43 disappeared student students from Ayotzinapa asked to create a court to deal with all the files of the process, in order to avoid delays in the delivery of justice. Today we have many criminal cases in several courts that decide with such different criteria that all this does is delay access to justice for the mothers and fathers”, the legal representative of the relatives from the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights, Vidulfo Rosales said.

They also requested “that the federal and municipal police of Huitzuco be investigated for the crime of forced disappearance and torture, in addition to criminal proceedings against those responsible for creating investigations with the use of torture.”

In recent days, through an information note, the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center stated that “the hope that the government of the fourth transformation will fulfill its commitment to find the whereabouts of the 43 students is running out.”

For more information in Spanish:

Convenio de colaboración que celebran el poder ejecutivo federal, la suprema corte de justicia de la nación y la fiscalía general de la república para el esclarecimiento de los hechos del caso Ayotzinapa (Presidencia de la República, 5 de marzo de 2020)

Ayotzinapa. Hallan nuevas pistas en caso de los 43; las analizarán en Austria (El Universal, 5 de marzo de 2020)

Hallan restos vinculados a caso Ayotzinapa; los analizarán en Innsbruck (Animal Político, 5 de marzo de 2020)

AMLO, FGR y Corte firman acuerdo por caso de Ayotzinapa (Debate, 5 de marzo de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/Guerrero: Two Police Officers Held for Attacks on Parents of the Ayotzinapa 43 Disapeared; Investigation of Students who Participated in Protest Continue (February 26, 2020)

Chiapas/Guerrero: Parents of Ayotzinapa 43 Attacked with Tear Gas in Tuxtla Gutierrez (February 17, 2020)

National/Guerrero: Agreement to Reintroduce Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts in Ayotzinapa Case. Number of Disappeared Increases in the Country (January 14, 2020)

Chiapas: Death of Displaced Baby Girl from Rio Jordan, Chenalho

@Otros Mundos

In a statement published on February 26th, Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society denounced the death of Maria Angelica Jimenez Ramirez, an 11-month-old baby, who was part of the displaced families of the Rio Jordan neighborhood who have been refugees in Acteal since August last year in the municipality of Chenalho.

It recalled that they are displaced due to the threats of “the members of the Green Ecologist Party and paramilitaries of the Rio Jordan neighborhood, when their homes were destroyed and looted, on August 10th, 2019, all for refusing to accept charges that are not from the community and not accepting a drainage work.”

It lamented that Maria Angelica died “being a victim of forced displacement and without enjoying the full right to childhood, to health and to live in peace, like other girls and other children who were also displaced with the deceased girl, who are not being guaranteed their rights to peace while living forcibly displaced.”

It claimed that behind this forced displacement is a conflict that “has now been unresolved for five years, although Chenalho’s municipal president Abraham Cruz Gomez has pledged to intervene so that this problem is resolved and as a result, our displaced companions return with justice to their community of origin, but, to date, no meeting has been made with said official authority since he has only been postponing the dates and so the suffering of the displaced has been prolonged.”

Las Abejas Civil Society announced that family members and executives of their organization will bury the infant in the Rio Jordan community cemetery neighborhood, “so we ask that you be aware of our physical and psychological integrity, otherwise we will hold the rural agent in the Rio Jordan neighborhood, Vicente Perez Ruiz, the president of Chenalho, Abraham Cruz Gomez, and Rutilio Escandon Cadenas Governor of Chiapas, responsible”.

For more information in Spanish:

Fallecimiento de una hermanita desplazada (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 26 de febrero de 2020)

Niña lluvia (Regeneración Radio, 26 de febrero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Desplazan a 36 personas del barrio Río Jordán, Chenalhó (September 18, 2019)

Chiapas: Forced Displacement of Four Families of Las Abejas Civil Society Denounced (August 18, 2019)

Chiapas/Guerrero: Two Police Officers Held for Attacks on Parents of the Ayotzinapa 43 Disapeared; Investigation of Students who Participated in Protest Continue

@Lennyn Flores, El Herlado de Chiapas

At a press conference held on February 22nd in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the head of the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca, reported that two State Police agents were arrested for the violent events that occurred a week before during the eviction of a blockade of students from the Normal Rural Mactumactza School (Chiapas) and relatives of the 43 disappeared student teachers from Ayotzinapa (Guerrero, 2014), and that left a balance of several wounded. Both police officers are accused of attempted murder, inflicting injuries and abuse of authority.

For his part, the Secretary of Health of the state, Jose Manuel Cruz Castellanos, said that of the most seriously injured, a student of the Rural Normal of Ayotzinapa continues with a reserved prognosis, while another is stable (although pending surgery), and another was already discharged.

The FGE also indicated that it continues putting together an investigation file against “the protesters and those who are responsible for the riot crimes, breaches of the peace and bodily and patrimonial integrity of the community and the state and attacks on the communication routes, as well as agrieved injuries of four Chiapas oficers, three men and a woman.”

Present at the press conference, the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Gabriela del Socorro Zepeda Soto, said that “all the necessary investigations are carried out so that the police are certain that while they do their job well, justice will be demanded and their rights will be defended because the Secretariat’s commitment is to serve, protect and maintain order, peace and citizen tranquility.”

For more information in Spanish:

Detienen a 2 policías por reprimir a grupo de normalistas en Chiapas (La Jornada, 22 de febrero de 2020)

Detienen a dos policías por agresiones con papás de 43 normalistas de Ayotzinapa (El Universal, 22 de febrero de 2020)

Detienen a policías por agresiones contra papás de los 43 de Ayotzinapa (El Informador, 22 de febrero de 2020)

Informa FGE sobre evolución de caso de conflicto entre normalistas y antimotines (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 22 de febrero de 2020)

Abren dos carpetas de investigación por desalojo de padres de normalistas en Chiapas (El Universal, 19 de febrero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ :

Chiapas/Guerrero: Parents of Ayotzinapa 43 Attacked with Tear Gas in Tuxtla Gutierrez (February 17, 2020)

Chiapas/Guerrero: Parents of Ayotzinapa 43 Attacked with Tear Gas in Tuxtla Gutierrez

Photo @ Padres y Madres de Ayotzinapa

On the morning of February 16th, the “In search of the 43” caravan for the students who were disappeared in Iguala in 2014, and in which the mothers and fathers of the young people who studied at the Rural Normal School Raul Isidro Burgos d Ayotzinapa are participating with others, arrived at the Mactumactza Normal Rural School in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas. This is part of the visits they have scheduled in all the normal rural schools of the country.

Different media outlets reported that as a joint protest “they intended to carry out a blockade” in the capital of the state of Chiapas. The organizers of the caravan reported that their arrival had been made public since days ago as part of a national information campaign, and that “they were conducting a “flying campaign” (…) inviting to join the demonstration to be held this Sunday afternoon.”

In response to the mobilization “more than two hundred state policemen with tear gas tanks and bombs were posted at the entrance of the Normal School without any valid explanation. Around 8:30 in the morning the Policemen without any protocol began to launch the tear gas towards the fathers and mothers of the 43 and student teachers, the repression lasted for an hour with a balance of three students, two mothers and their three-year-old granddaughter injured. Two students were hit with a projectile on their heads, one of them from Ayotzinapa”, the Montaña Tlachinollan Human Rights Center reported.

Regarding the events, the Ministry of Citizen Security and Protection (SSyPC) reported that they acted “under the eviction protocol with respect for human rights and restored order.” They accused the students and parents of the missing 43 students from Ayotzinapa of “throwing Molotov cocktails, stones and fireworks at those in uniform.”

The undersecretary of Human Rights, Population and Migration, Alejandro Encinas, asked the state government “for immediate attention for the injured people and an investigation into these unfortunate events, the immediate and specialized medical attention for the young people attacked by the state pólice, Jose Antonio Flores, Javier Lopez Bernal, Alex Alvarez. The investigation and punishment of those responsible for giving the order to repress the caravan of Ayotzinapa is urgent.”

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) reported that the “State Commission has initiated an ex officio complaint; however, the CNDH will be following closely the investigation of the unfortunate events in which several members of the Caravan were injured. The CNDH, for its part, has requested precautionary and/or protective measures for the students of the Mactumatza Normal Rural School, the relatives of the 43 student taechers from Ayotzinapa and members of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center.”

Or more information in Spanish:

Policías reprimen a padres y normalistas en Chiapas; hay 4 hospitalizados (Proceso, 16 de febrero de 2020)

Desalojan en Chiapas a padres de los 43 de Ayotzinapa con gases lacrimógenos (El Financiero, 16 de febrero de 2020)

COMUNICADO | Policías Estatales del Estado de Chiapas reprimen la Caravana en Busca de los 43 (Tlachinollan, 16 de febrero de 2020)

CNDH condena actos de violencia en contra de familiares de los 43 normalistas de Ayotzinapa, cometida por elementos policíacos en la Normal Rural de Chiapas (CNDH, 16 de febrero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: “Walk for Truth, Justice and Peace” Ends at Parliament in Mexico City (January 29, 2020)

Nacional: “Caminata por la Paz” se dirige al Palacio Nacional y exige justicia y seguridad (24 de enero de 2020)

International/National: UNHCHR Calls on Mexican State to Increase Efforts to Effectively Implement General Law on Forced Disappearance of Persons (January 21, 2020)

Chiapas/Mexico: EZLN, CNI and CIG Convene Actions in Defense of Territory and Mother Earth “We Are All Samir” (January 14, 2020)

Oaxaca/Nacional: Nuevas agresiones a periodistas; se modificará mecanismo de protección, Encinas (9 de diciembre de 2019)

National: Rosario Ibarra de Piedra Sworn in as New President of CNDH (November 15, 2019)

National: One Year of AMLO Presidency (December 5, 2019)

Mexico: March “Steps for Peace” (August 19, 2011)

Oaxaca: GesMujer Demands Greater Punishments for Rapists Amidst Rise in Sexual Offenses in the State

@Consorcio

On February 7th, the Rosario Castellanos Women’s Studies Group (GesMujer) called on the Oaxaca Congress to make modifications to the Criminal Code to prevent potential rapists from being released on bail and penalties according to the harm they cause. This is because said Code does not guarantee that the person accused of attempted rape goes to jail: being a crime that does not mark a minimum penalty of six years, it is considered that it does not merit informal preventive detention. It noted that in most sexual assaults, public ministries minimize the impact of aggressions for women: “although it is true, in some cases the objective of rape is not achieved, but damage to emotions is caused, in personal development, in the right to freedom and a life free of violence”, it emphasized.

According to the figures of the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), in 2019, 1,562 sex crimes were reported while, according to statistics from the Oaxaca Public Prosecutor’s Office, only 502 investigation files were opened in this regard (103 of the cases in the capital Oaxaca de Juarez). Sexual violence occupies second place in the most frequent aggressions against women, only after family violence, according to official figures. In addition, it should be taken into account that “sexual violence is much more frequent than what appears in the statistics and this is because in many cases the victims, whether girls, young or adult women, are silent because of shame, fear or because they are made believe that they provoked it,” Parliamentary Consortium for Dialogue and Equity in its Feminicide Counter platform denounced.

For more information in Spanish:

Pide GesMujer castigo más severo para violadores (NVI Noticias, 7 de febrero de 2020)

Al alza delitos sexuales en Oaxaca (NVI Noticias, 31 de diciembre de 2020)

Registran récord de violación equiparada en 2019 ; Oaxaca tiene 202 casos (El Universal, 26 de diciembre de 2019)

Se denuncian en Oaxaca, 4 delitos sexuales al día (El Imparcial de Oaxaca, 9 de diciembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: Femicide Violence Worsens as Year Begins (February 5, 2020)

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

Oaxaca: Aprueban la ley contra la violencia digital de género (July 12, 2019)

Oaxaca: Se suman 37 feminicidios en lo que va del año (April 24, 2019)