Guerrero: 4 years since the forcible disappearance of ecologist peasants from the Costa Grande

Photo @EDUCA Oaxaca

On 7 December, four years passed since the forcible disappearance of the leaders of the Organization of Ecologist Peasants from Sierra of Petatlán and Coyuca de Catalán, Eva Alarcón Ortiz and Marcial Bautista Valle. The daughter of Eva, Coral Rojas Alarcón, said, “I am convinced that they have been killed, but they deserve a burial. I want to find my mother and Marcial.” Marcial Bautista and Eva Alarcón were forcibly disappeared on 7 December 2011 in the Grand Coast of Guerrero by a group of armed men that according to eyewitnesses were being protected by the Army and agents from the ministerial police. The activists had dedicated themselves to the management, conservation, and sustainable use of the forests. The defense of the forests led them to denounce abuses committed by the Army and the illegal work in which police had been involved.

Since the disappearance of her mother, Coral has sought justice and become a human-rights defender, collaborating with the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and the federal police (PF) to seek out clandestine graves and to identify victims. She reported that they had found bodies in Michoacán and Guerrero, “and I believe that each identified person is a triumph.” She shared that the judicial process in the case of Eva and Marcial continues, with the last “declaration saying that they were killed. This is the only line of investigation from the PGR.” She refers to the declarations made by a hitman who was arrested by the Army in February 2012 in Tecpan de Galeana, who supposedly confessed to his participation in the forcible disappearance of the social activists. According to unofficial information obtained in recent days, the hitman José Jhonny López Galván, “El Güero,” had made these statements to the federal public ministry and had driven the soldiers to the site where the burned remains of the community leaders were found. According to preliminary investigation, these remains did not belong to Eva or Marcial, and to date, “there is no scientific evidence showing they have been killed.”

For more information (in Spanish):

“Autoridades apuestan al olvido” en desaparición de campesinos activistas ¨(La Jornada, 3 de agosto de 2013)

La única línea en el caso de los dirigentes ecologistas, desaparecidos hace 4 años, es que los mataron (Sur Acapulco, 3 de diciembre de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: two nephews of ecological leadership are murdered (16 November 2012)

Guerrero: Urgent Action for disappeared ecologists (8 February 2012)

Guerrero briefs: Two ecologists are kidnapped by armed men in the Sierra de Petatlán (14 December 2011)

Guerrero: violence in the Sierra de Petalán (17 October 2011)

Guerrero: Lucio Cabañas’ widow and her sister are murdered (17 July 2011)

Guerrero: Second murder of ecologists in the Sierra de Petatlán (9 June 2011)

Guerrero: The ecologist campesino Javier Torres Cruz is murdered (6 May 2011)

Guerrero: Teachers in Acapulco successfully sabotage educational evaluation

Photo @El Universal

At a press conference on 3 December, the subsecretary for Planning and Evaluation of the Ministry of Public Education (SEP), Otto Granados Roldán, said that a group of teachers had registered for the performance evaluation toward the end of disrupting it. Some 70 teachers who registered sabotaged the network of 2,800 computers contained in the Imperial World of Acapulco. Nonetheless, 500 teachers continued completing their exam. The SEP in Guerrero indicated that it would prosecute the teachers who disabled the network, and that they would be sanctioned.

The day before the evaluation, some 3,000 teachers from different institutions and educational levels were transferred to the Acapulco port and put up in luxury hotels, such as the Princess, Pierre Marqués, and the Imperial World Resort, property of the Autofin group, which is owned by the capitalist Juan Antonio Hernández. The next day, to enter the World Imperial Forum, teachers passed through police checkpoints featuring anti-riot equipment and high metal bars. Some 6,000 federal police were sent to Acapulco to protect the World Imperial Forum, where the evaluation was held. During the test, many were bothered by the lack of computers and the behavior and presence of the police. Many teachers attempted to leave, but the police forced them to say. When the governor Héctor Astudillo arrived later to the Imperial World Forum, personnel from the SEP offered money to teachers so that they would continue taking the exam.

For more information (in Spanish):

Maestros sabotean evaluación en Guerrero (Milenio, 3 de diciembre de 2015)

Guerrero: el fracaso de la evaluación docente (La Jornada, 8 de diciembre de 2015

Participan 68% en evaluación docente en Guerrero (El Universal, 4 de diciembre de 2015)

Guerrero: evaluación docente fue suspendida… para algunos (CNN, 3 de diciembre de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: Teacher from Acapulco dies after violent repression of a protest by the Federal Police (10 March 2015)

National: Thousands of teachers march against the educational reform (4 October 2013)

Oaxaca: Multiple protests and demands that Oaxaca overcome “state of siege”

Photo @ Página 3

Since 4 June, units from the Federal Police, the National Gendarmerie, and the Army have occupied Oaxaca due to the possibility that the teachers of this state would impede the electoral day that was held on 7 June, according to official sources. On 18 July, the security forces were reinforced after the state government assumed control of the State Institute of Public Education, an administrative entity that was previously overseen by the Section 22 of the teachers’ union. To date, over seven thousand forces have been involved in the operation.

Human-rights defense groups and social organizations from the state have called on the governor, Gabino Cué Monteagudo, to press for the immediate withdrawal of the policial and military forces from the state, following their warning that such a presence provides “evidence of the criminalization of social protest.” “In Oaxaca is lived an undeclared state of emergency,” warned several civil organizations in a public declaration.

Beyond this, the president of the Council for Political Coordination of the LXII state legislature, Jesús López Rodríguez, declared it as being unnecessary that the federal forces remain after Section 22 announced it would not boycott the beginning of the school year. “We point out to the state executive that if we could come to an agreement of peaceful coexistence with the teachers’ movement and the social movement, it would not be necessary for the federal forces to stay,” López Rodríguez observed. Beyond this, he assured that the governor went over the authority of the state congress in requesting the presence of federal forces directly from Enrique Peña Nieto, and the legislator added that there is no evidence of social instability. In his opinion, the militarization of the state only provokes fear and psychosis because “it would seem that Oaxaca is living a stage of long-term instability, and this is untrue.” He further noted that “the fear that the teachers would paralyze the state is unjustified because they are returning now to their classes. We support this move.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Exigen organizaciones retirar de Oaxaca a militares y agentes de Policía Federal (Educa, 13 de agosto de 2015)

La militarización de Oaxaca y el magisterio (La Jornada, 18 de agosto de 2015)

Líder del Congreso pide desmilitarizar Oaxaca (Proceso, 19 de agosto de 2015)

Fuerzas federales cumplen más de un mes en Oaxaca a petición de Cué y su estancia no ha sido oficializada (Página 3, 19 de agosto de 2015)

La tentación autoritaria (Noticias Net, 19 de agosto de 2015)

Guerrero: March in Tlapa de Comonfort, one month after the murder of Antonio Vivar Díaz

Federal police invade the Tepeyac community, Tlapa, 7 June 2015. Photo @Tlachinollan

On 7 July, a month after the murder of Antonio Vivar Díaz, an activist from the Popular Guerrerense Movement (MPG), at the hands of federal police, some 2,000 teachers, retirees, and neighbors of the Tepeyac community marched in Tlapa to demand justice and punishment for those responsible. On 7 June, election day, Federal Police arrested eight people from El Tepeyac while lacking any arrest-orders. The tensions between the federal police and neighbors was controlled at about 8pm, when it was agreed that the 8 prisoners would be released and transferred to Tlapa, in exchange for 30 federal police who had been taken by the community. Regardless, this agreement was broken by the police and military, who entered forcibly using tear-gas to rescue the detained police. This action caused the death of the activist and teacher Antonio Vivar Díaz by gunshot.

The Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights, in a report on 7 July notes that “the victims of the grave human-rights violations […] find themselves in a very high-risk situation. For this reason it is critical that the State implement the necessary measures to protect the lives and physical and psychological integrity of the victims, witnesses, and all other residents of the Tepeyac community […].” In this way, on 7 July, the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) released an open letter to the Secretary for Governance and the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) which demands that “an immediate, exhaustive, effective, and impartial investigation be launched into these acts, particularly the death of Antonio Vivar Díaz,”

For more information (in Spanish):

Marchan maestros y estudiantes en Tlapa; exigen justicia por el activista asesinado por federales (El Sur de Acapulco, 8 de julio de 2015)

Los ocho de Tlapa no se conocían ni fueron detenidos en la CETEG (El Sur de Acapulco, 6 de julio de 2015)

OPINIÓN | Las ejecuciones del Ejército en Guerrero (CDHM Tlachinollan, 6 de julio de 2015)

Ficha Informativa (CDHM Tlachinollan, 7 de julio de 2015)

Carta Abierta (OMCT, 7 de julio de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: PRI wins elections within violent context (25 June 2015)

Guerrero: Murders and death-threats against candidates for June elections (17 May 2015)

Guerrero: CRAC and residents of Papaxtla denounce violent searches and seizures

(@QuadratínMéxico)

Residents of Papaxtla, Chilapa municipality, Guerrero, and members of the Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities (CRAC) have denounced the violent harassment of seven homes in the community. According to La Plaza, on 27 May, some 50 police from the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and the Federal Police (PF) arrived in unmarked vehicles, masked and carrying heavy weapons, and proceeded to break the security line at the principal access-point of the community, entering violently into homes. Though they lacked search warrants, they seized arms and the electoral card of commissioner Pablo Narciso Rosario. According to El Sur, the material they confiscated in the home of the CRAC coordinator, Genaro Francisco, included a .22 caliber rifle, a .20-odd rifle, a .22 pistol, and a 9mm pistol, in addition to ammunition, and three radios. They also mentioned the presence of a helicopter flying over the zone at low elevation.

Bernardino Sánchez Luna, coordinator of the Communal Police of Rincón de Chautla, has requested that the state government return the arms to the organization, as they had been acquired by the people to protect themselves and the territory. In this way, he distanced the CRAC from participation in the occupation of Chilapa city on 9 to 14 May, as perpetrated by an armed group.

The day after the violent searches, another convoy of State forces, ministerial police, and military arrived to Papaxtla, supposedly after having received reports of armed men in the community. Communal police and residents of the community explained their possession of arms as having to do with their membership in the CRAC. Thereafter, the Army and police withdrew.

For more information (in Spanish):

Denuncia la Crac de Chilapa allanamiento militar y policiaco en Papaxtla (La Plaza, 28 de mayo de 2015)

Irrumpen policías embozados en siete casas y amenazan a vecinos en Papaxtla, Chilapa (El Sur, 29 de mayo de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero/National: Emergence of Committee of Women for the Liberty of Nestora Salgado (2 September 2014)

Guerrero: soldiers and policemen burst into the La Concepción Commmunity after a Cecop assembly in which the case of Marco Antonio Muñoz Suástegui was reported on(29 August 2014)

Guerrero: Navy kidnaps coordinator of CRAC en Olinalá (13 September 2013)

Oaxaca/National: authorities attempt to repress “Migrant Way of the Cross”

Ciudad Ixtepec (@SIPAZ archive)

The “Migrant Way of the Cross,” comprised of about 400 Central American migrants and activists, began on 24 March in Chiapas and arrived a week later in Oaxaca.  After spending five days at the Migrants’ Home in Ciudad Ixtepec, it planned to leave on 9 April toward Mexico City.  The plan there was to meet with human-rights organizations and a group of senators toward the end of denouncing the human-rights violations that undocumented migrants, principally Central American in origin, face while traversing the country en route to the United States.

However, the migrants were not allowed to leave Ciudad Ixtepec, as units from the federal police and the National Institute on Migration (INM) erected three checkpoints in the zone and threatened the bus operators, warning that they would arrested for human trafficking.  For this reason, the operators refused to transport the migrants.

The priest Alejandro Solalinde denounced these actions as a “boycott” and a demonstration of what migrants suffer.  A dialogue table was then agreed to that would include Ardelio Vargas Fosado, head of the INM, to negotiate the transit of the 400 migrants to Mexico City.  Nonetheless, to date no agreement has been come to, and the risk continues that the members of the caravan will be deported.

For more information (in Spanish):

Fracasan negociaciones para continuar Viacrucis del Migrante (La Jornada, 11 de abril de 2015)

Viacrucis del Migrante parte de Oaxaca rumbo al DF (El Universal, 9 de abril de 2015)

El Viacrucis del Migrante avanza rumbo al DF (La Jornada, 9 de abril de 2015)

Impiden salida del Viacrucis del Migrante encabezado por Solalinde (La Jornada, 9 de abril de 2015)

INM boicotea vía crucis migrante, denuncia Solalinde (SDP Noticias, 9 de abril de 2015)

Sale Viacrucis del Migrante hacia el DF pese a operativos del INM (Agencia Quadratin, 9 de abril de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

National/Chiapas/Oaxaca/Tabasco: Founding of the Collective of Defenders of Migrants and Refugees (23 April 2015)

Mexico/National: Honduran migrant dies of drowning in presence of INM agents, says La 72 (22 March 2015)

Mexico/Tabasco: INM agent’s legal demand against Fray Tomás González(13 November 2014)

Mexico/Chiapas: Caravan of Central American Mothers, “Bridges of Hope,” in San Cristóbal (16 December 2014)

National/Chiapas: Massive raids against migrants and attack on human-rights defenders (3 May 2014)

Mexico/National: Honduran migrant dies of drowning in presence of migration agents, says La 72

Fray Tomás González in Acteal. Photo @ SIPAZ archive

On 17 March, “La 72, Home and Refuge for Migrant People,” located in Tenosique, Tabasco, directed by the human-rights defender Fray Tomás González, released an Urgent Action (UA) due to events “that leave us absolutely indignant,” with reference to the death of a Honduran youth.  On 6 March, agents of the National Migration Institute (INM) working with federal police in Tenosique stopped a freight-train at the Chacamax station, 60 kilometers from Palenque, where they began a search.  Among the hundreds of persons traveling atop the train, the Honduran youth in question suffered a panic attack, jumped off the “Beastly” train, and entered the river, where he began to drown and then requested assistance.  In the end, the youth died.  According to the man who gave witness, the INM “agents said: ‘leave that fucker,'” as the UA claims.

In addition, the UA indicates that the migrants who had been witnesses “both of the savage raid as well as death of the youth and what followed [noted] that the persecution by the migration agents lasted more than 2 hours.  Once they saw that the youth was drowning, they withdrew and provided no assistance; the corpse remained for 10 hours on the river bank, cared for by the other migrants who witnessed the acts.  People from the local community also testified and told us of many crimes and human-rights violations that the INM agents commit.”

Lastly, the document ends with a call “on national and international human-rights organizations” to express themselves “in light of these lamentable acts and others that have been caused by the Southern Border Program.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Acción Urgente: El INM Y La PF a través del Programa Frontera Sur provocan la muerte de  personas Migrantes Centroamericanas (Voces Mesoamericanas, 18 de marzo de 2015)

El Programa Frontera Sur no cesa la represión en contra de personas migrantes (La 72 – Refugio para personas migrantes, 12 de enero de 2015)

Agentes de Migración y de la PF dejan a hondureño ahogarse (Proceso, 18 de marzo de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Mexico/Tabasco: INM agent’s legal demand against Fray Tomás González (13 November 2014)

Mexico/Chiapas: Caravan of Central American Mothers, “Bridges of Hope,” in San Cristóbal (16 December 2014)

National/Chiapas: Massive raids against migrants and attack on human-rights defenders (3 May 2014)

National: Migrant pilgrimage arrives in Mexico City (2 May 2014)

Mexico: Caravan of Central American mothers seeking out their children(2 November 2012)