Guerrero: Denunciation of the Mexican State before the Inter-American System of Human Rights due to the death and torture of student-teachers in Ayotzinapa, 2011

Photo @Tlachinollan

On 12 December, relatives of the student-teachers from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College, Jorge Alexis Herrera Pino and Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús, who were killed during a police operation carried out by state and federal agents in December 2011 in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, together with Gerardo Torres Pérez, a student-teacher victim of torture, denounced the Mexican State before the Inter-American System on Human Rights due to the violation of its basic obligations as stipulated in the American Convention and the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Sanction Torture. The same day, student-teachers and relatives of Gabriel and Jorge Alexis took over the streets of Chilpancingo to arrive at the same place where the crimes took place.

It bears mentioning that, on 12 December 2011, State officials violently displaced the protest being carried out by students from Ayotzinapa. Two student-teachers were executed extrajudicially, being Jorge Alexis and Gabriel, whereas three others were injured by gunfire, 24 were arrested arbitrarily, and one student, Gerardo, was tortured. Despite the existence of evidence that clearly accounts for the violations that took place, to date the violations that have been denounced continue in impunity, as a communique from the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights notes: “The Mexican State has in no way adopted the necessary and adequate measures to prevent and guarantee that similar acts do not repeat themselves.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Ayotzinapa otra vez (La Jornada, 15 de diciembre de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: Body of tortured and executed Ayotzinapa student, Julio César Mondragón, is exhumed (21 November 2015)

National: Mobilizations within and outside the country for the first anniversary of the forcible disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa (10 October 2015)

Chiapas: Actions for the one-year anniversary of the Ayotzinapa disappearances (8 October 2015)

Guerrero: New aggressions against students in Ayotzinapa

Photo @ADNPolitico

On 14 November, students of Rural Normal schools in the country, in support of their comrades at the “Raúl Isidro Burgos” Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa, held a march in Chilpancingo and occupied public buildings to reject what they have called violent actions taken against them.  The mobilization took place to recall the repression, they said, to which they were subjected five years ago by state police, upon being displaced by tear gas from the site of the state Congress.  They also demanded justice for the murder of their comrades who were killed on 12 December 2011.  Even on 10 November, there was another act of repression targeting students carried out by police on the federal highway between Iguala and Chilpancingo, where five students were reportedly detained and subsequently tortured as they were participating in activities to raise funds for the Wednesday march.

Diego Castro Rodríguez, spokesperson for the Ayotzinapa school, denounced that to date there had not been clarified the murder of his comrades, Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús and Alexis Herrera Pino, who were killed during the displacement of protest on 12 December as carried out by state police in their attempt to put an end to the blockade of the Sol highway.  Furthermore, they have requested that the Chamber of Deputies report on the advances in the political trial they have demanded against Governor Ángel Aguirre for his presumed responsibility for these acts.

Lastly, on 15 November, armed men intercepted and attacked normalist students from Ayotzinapa and the bus-driver who was returning them to Chilpancingo, after having taken members of social organizations to support the march on 14 November in Atoyac.  The spokesperson Diego Castro Domínguez reported that this new attack is a clear attempt at repression taken to put an halt on mobilizations to demand justice for the murder of Gabriel Echeverría y Jorge Herrera.

For more information (in Spanish):

Marchan en Guerrero normalistas de Ayotzinapa (El Universal, 14 de noviembre de 2012)

Interceptan hombres armados camión de normalistas que regresaban a Chilpancingo (La Jornada de Guerrero, 15 de noviembre 2012)

Normalistas de Ayotzinapa marchan en Chilpancingo (La Razón, 16 de noviembre 2012)

Demandan normalistas justicia en Guerrero (Reforma, 15 de noviembre 2012)

Marchan normalistas de Ayotzinapa (Milenio, 16 de noviembre de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: “The Ayotzinapa case cannot remain in impunity” – OMCT (16 August 2012)

Guerrero: Ayotzinapa denounces impunity six months after the deaths of two students (17 June 2012)

Guerrero: CNDH confirms serious rights-violations against students of Ayotzinapa (16 January 2012)

Guerrero: Extrajudicial execution of students from the Rural Normal of Ayotzinapa (21 December 2011)

Guerrero: “The case of Ayotzinapa cannot remain in impunity” – OMCT

Students from Ayotzinapa during the eighteenth anniversary of Tlachinollan @SIPAZ

On 2 August, the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) expressed its profound concern regarding the possibility that the homicides of the two students from the Normal Rural School “Raúl Isidro Burgos” in Ayotzinapa, which occurred during a protest on 12 December 2011, remain in impunity.  The organization calls on the competent authorities, particularly the State Attorney General’s Office (PGJE), to observe its obligation to investigate the crimes with due diligence, defending the interests of the victims within this ongoing penal process, and following the conclusions of the investigations carried out by the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH) and set forth in the Recommendation 1 VG/2012.  Specifically, the OMCT expressedits concern regarding the rulings in favor of those accused of the murder of the two students, Jorge Alexis Herrera Pino and Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús.

The OMCT was informed by the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights regarding the ruling recently handed down in favor of the two municipal police associated with the PGJE who had been accused of the murders of the two students.   Due to the resolution that has been given already, the judge should present another one that determines the juridical situation of the accused.  The OMCT recalls that the CNDH, in its Recommendation, identified two ministerial police as those responsible for the deaths of the two students, basing itself in extensive supporting evidence.

For more information (in Spanish):

Declaración pública (OMCT, 2 de agosto de 2012)

OMCT pide que no quede impune caso Ayotzinapa (El Universal, 2 de agosto de 2012)

OMTC: El caso de los estudiantes de Ayotzinapa no debe quedar en la impunidad (Luna Sexta, 4 de agosto de 2012)

Tlachinollan sobre caso Ayotzinapa

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: Ayotzinapa denounces impunity six months after the deaths of two students (17 June 2012)

Guerrero: CNDH confirms serious rights-violations against students of Ayotzinapa (16 January 2012)

Guerrero: Extrajudicial execution of students from the Rural Normal of Ayotzinapa (21 December 2011)

Guerrero: Ayotzinapa denounces impunity six months after the deaths of two students

On 12 June, six months after the displacement of the Sol Highway, the students association of the Normal Rural of Ayotzinapa released a communiqué demanding that the law be applied against those responsible for the deaths of the students Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús and Alexis Herrera Pino, who were students of this institution who patricipated in the December mobilizations.

They denounce: “Six months after this authoritarian act of intolerance during which youth protest was met with bullets, we say that Ayotzinapa continues to demand justice […]. [T]hose who are responsible for the murders of our comrades have not been sentenced and they could benefit from impunity, while those responsible for torture also continue to experience impunity and the politically and intellectually responsible continue without having been called to justice.”

They indicate furthermore that “The historical Recommendation 1VG/2012 of the CNDH continues not to be observed.  On the contrary, we as human-rights defenders confront new death-threats such as the ones that have led Vidulfo Rosales Sierra [lawyer for the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights, who was representing the Ayotzinapa case and had to leave the country due to death-threats] to take extreme measures to protect himself.”

Referring to the I am 132 movement, which they officially joined on Sunday 10 June, they note that “Today throughout the country the youth, male and female, are raising their voices so that we be recognized as a social movement that is capable of leading the awakening of our country.  We remember that Jorge Alexis Herrera Pino and Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús gave their lives for protest, being 19 and 21 years of age.”

On 10 June, youth and teachers carried out marches in Guerrero to support the national movement #Iam132 to reject presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto in Chilpancingo, Acapulco, Taxco y Atoyac.  They also advanced local demands such as calls for better education and less violence, and better study and working conditions,among other things.  In Chilpancingo, beyond being heard “Ibero maintains itself, while Guerrero rises up!”, a slogan that alludes to the university that is the origin of the #IAm132 movement, there could also be heard “12 December is not forgotten; this is a combative struggle!”

For more information (in Spanish):

Boletín de prensa de los estudiantes de la Ayotzinapa (12 de junio de 2012)

Exigen aplicar la ley en caso Ayotzinapa a seis meses del desalojo(Milenio, 12 de junio de 2012)

Más educación, menos violencia, reclaman jóvenes del #YoSoy132 (La Jornada, 11 de junio de 2012)

Guerrero: Tlachinollan lawyer receives death threats

On 23 May, the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights denounced that Vidulfo  Rosales Sierra, lawyer for the organization and beneficiary of provisional measures dictated by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACHR), received an anonymous death threat for the work he carries out in defense of human rights in Guerrero.  The text-message in question makes reference to the cases he accompanies for the organization, noting “YOU SHIT LAWYER, STOP DEFAMING THE AUTHORITIES.  YOU OWE US.  YOU INTERFERE WITH LA PAROTA, THE SUPPOSEDLY RAPED WOMEN, AND NOW WITH THE AYOTZINAPO VANDALS: SHUT UP […] YOU WILL DIE.”  The threat is signed by a person known as The Law (La Ley).  Following this death-threat, Tlachinollan formally presented a denunciation before the State Attorney General’s Office and thereafter met with high functionaries of the state government.

In light of these death-threats, several national and international organizations manifested their concern and indicated by means of communiques that these death-threats seek to inhibit the work of Tlachinollan, which presently attends different cases of human-rights violations, among them the defense of the students of Ayotzinapa.  Furthermore, Rosales Sierra has also been a key part of the defense of important cases of human-rights violations that have even reached the IACHR, such as those of the Guerrense indigenous women Valentina Rosendo Cantú and Inés Fernández Ortega, Tlapan women who were raped by soldiers in 2002.

For these organizations, the content of the message reflects that the death-threats against Rosales Sierra “constitute a direct attack on the work that has been undertaken collectively by the organization for the defense and promotion of human rights among the people of Guerrero for the past 18 years.”  They called on state and federal authorities to institute the protection measures demanded by the IACHR and to guarantee the security and physical integrity of Rosales Sierra, his family, and the Tlachinollan team.  Furthermore, they demand that the authorities engage in an effective investigation into these threats.

In the same pronunciation, it was reported that while this threat will be investigated, the lawyer will be out of the  country.  With this, Vidulfo Rosales is the second defender who in less than a month sees it as necessary to leave the country in light of the intensification of death-threats and harassment against his person.  “Despite the announcement of new instruments such as the mechanism of protection for defenders and the recently approved law on this, harassment and aggression against activists continue to accumulate, leading some to leave the country, as the state and federal governments fail to implement effective security measures,” they lament.  They demand the institution of a protection mechanism for human-rights defenders, recalling the “climate of adversity” in which activists operate within Guerrero.

For more information (in Spanish):

Denuncia Tlachinollan que uno de sus abogados recibió amenaza de muerte (La Jornada Guerrero, 24 de mayo 2012)

AU: Amenazas de muerte contra un abogado de DH (Acción Urgente Amnistía Internacional, 24 de mayo 2012)

Denuncian amenazas contra defensor de normalistas (El Universal, 23 de mayo 2012)

Abogado de Tlachinollan recibe amenaza (Comunicado WOLA, 24 de mayo 2012)

Denuncia del Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan por amenazas (La Jornada, 24 de mayo 2012)

Abogado de “Tlachinollan”, segundo activista que sale del país por amenazas (El Proceso, 23 de mayo 2012)

Demandan Organizaciones Nacionales e Internacionales seguridad para integrantes de Tlachinollan (Comunicado de prensa Tlachinollan, 23 de mayo 2012)

Demandan Organizaciones Nacionales e Internacionales seguridad para integrantes de Tlachinollan (CENCOS, 23 de mayo 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: CNDH confirms serious rights-violations against students of Ayotzinapa (16 January 2012)

Guerrero: Extrajudicial execution of students from the Rural Normal of Ayotzinapa (21 December 2011)

Guerrero: Spanish lawyers confirm the innocence of Maximino García (12 March 2012)

Guerrero: OFPM activist is detained despite having precautionary measures (27 January 2012)

Guerrero: briefs – Attack on OPFM leader (3 September 2011)

Guerrero: Officials in the Ayotzinapa case retract charges against municipal police

Photo @marxistische-aktion.de

The legal experts from the Guerrero State Attorney General’s Office (PGJE) who incriminated the ministerial police Ismael Matadama Salinas and Rey David Hernández Flores in the murder of the two students from the Rural Normal of Ayotzinapa have retracted their charges.  The two police are detained on the charge of having killed two students on 12 December 2011 during a student mobilization.  Antonio Nogueda Carbajal, lawyer of the Ministerial Investigative Police (PIM) comments that “this has to do with a retraction on the part of the experts, which shows clearly that all the accusations against the two agents were fabricated to involve them, though this was all done rather inexpertly.”  Furthermore, he claimed that “I have faith in federal justice and I believe that the resolution of the judicial authority–which will be had in less than a month–will be tied to rights and so favor my two clients, who as we have always said are innocent.”

Regardless, lawyers form the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights contested the motion called for by the ministerial police.  Lawyer Vidulfo Morales says that he has handed documents to the primary judge of the district regarding the events of 12 December “that indicate that the ministerial police are responsible, and they should not remain free, so we ask the judge not to rule in their favor.”

Para más información:

Ayotzinapa: impugnan amparo de policías (El Universal, 18 de abril)

Peritos del caso Ayotzinapa se retractan de cargos contra policías ministeriales (Milenio, 19 de abril)

Promoverá Tlachinollan amparo para normalistas de Ayotzinapa (La Jornada de Guerrero, 19 de abril)

Guerrero: CNDH releases recommendation in Ayotzinapa case

Photo @ Tlachinollan

On 28 March, the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH) released Recommendation 1 VG/2012 regarding the special investigation undertaken in light of the grave human-rights violations committed on 12 December 2011 in the city of Chilpancingo, Guerrero, against students from the Rural Normal “Raúl Isidro Burgos” of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero.  This is the first such recommendation of this nature released by the CNDH, utilizing its new constitutional prerogative that allows it to conduct special investigations in cases of serious rights-violations.

For the CNDH, the 168 public servants of the Guerrero state government who intervened against the manifestation effectively criminalized the social protest being carried out by approximately 300 students on 12 December 2011, thus violating their rights to freedom of assembly.  The report details that of the 168 police officers who participated, 91 carried firearms while it was confirmed that the protestors had no such arms.

The Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights mentions in a summary of the CNDH’s recommendation that the “evidence collected by the CNDH demonstrate grave violations of the right to assembly and as a consequence to the right to life, physical security, and personal integrity, in addition to legality, juridical security,personal freedom, and dignified treatment.  Furthermore, transgressions against the rights to truth and information were observed, as were the rights that the Mexican juridical order recognizes for persons in their role as victims of crime and abuse of power attributable to public officials.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Recomendación No. 1 VG/2012 (CNDH, 27 de marzo)

Resumen de la recomendacion de la CNDH (CDHM Tlachinollan)

Informe Final de la CNDH confirma la legitimidad de la lucha de los estudiantes normalistas de Ayotzinapa y la veracidad de las denuncias(CDHM Tlachinollan, 28 de marzo)

Posicionamiento de los Normalistas de Ayotzinapa sobre el informe de la CNDH (CDHM Tlachinollan, 28 de marzo)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: March in commemoration of Genaro Vázquez – justice demanded for the case of Ayotzinapa (9 February 2012)

Guerrero: precautionary measures requested for education student; 5000 demand political judgment of Aguirre (8 February 2012)

Guerrero: CNDH confirms serious rights-violations against students of Ayotzinapa (16 January 2012)

Guerrero: Extrajudicial execution of students from the Rural Normal of Ayotzinapa (21 December 2011)