National/International: WOLA presents new report: “Human-rights violations against migrants continue”

On 18 Novembrer 2015, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) published a report on the human-rights situation of migrant and refugee persons in Mexico from 2014 to present, with a focus on the changes implemented since the start of the Southern Border Program.  Compiled by nine civil organizations based in Mexico and the U.S., the report “An uncertain path: Justice for crimes and human-rights violations against migrants and refugees in Mexico” exposes the problem of security and access to justice for migrants.  Since the implementation of the Southern Border Program, the operations, arrests, and deportations of migrants in Mexico have increased significantly, and so have human-rights violations.  Migrant homes have observed a rise in the abuses and crimes committed by organized and State agents against this population, including kidnapping, robbery, extortion, and trafficking of persons.  In the case of girls and women, more sexual violence has been reported.  As a result of these measures, the number of arrests of foreigners rose 73% between July 2014 and June 2015, relative to the same period the previous year.  “If the indicator for the Southern Border Program is the arrest of persons, obviously it has been very successful, but if it is placed within the context which it was developed, that is to protect the human rights of migrants, it has failed […].  In Mexico, where there are migrants, there is violence,” observed Maureen Meyer, member of WOLA. Beyond this, the civil groups have demanded that the Mexican State “guarantee access to justice, compensation for damages incurred, humanitarian visas, and refuge for the migrant population.”

According to the report, the U.S. government has offered political and economic support for Mexico to carry out the Southern Border Program since the burgeoning number of arrivals of unaccompanied children and adolescents to the U.S. border.  This support has to do with especially with activities related to border security in southern Mexico.  In light of this situation, the civil organizations made nine recommendations to the U.S. and Mexican governments to address the problem.  Among these is one directed at the National Institute for Migration, calling on it to strengthen internal control and to prevent violations of human rights.

For more information (in Spanish):

Informe “Un camino incierto. Justicia para delitos y violaciones a los derechos humanos contra personas migrantes y refugiadas en México” (Oficina de Latinoamérica en Washington, WOLA, 18 de noviembre de 2015)

Sin desagregar por sexo denuncias de agresiones a migrantes (Cimac Noticias, 18 de noviembre de 2015)

Siguen violaciones a DH de migrantes: WOLA (El Universal, 18 de noviembre de 2015)

ONG: crecieron detenciones de migrantes, pero también abusos (La Jornada, 18 de noviembre de 2015)

“Un camino incierto: Justicia para delitos y violaciones a los derechos humanos contra personas migrantes y refugiadas en México” (Fundar, 11 de noviembre de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

National/international: The IACHR expresses concern before hardening of Mexican authorities toward migrants (30 June 2015)

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

Chiapas/National: Bishops of southern Mexico pronounce themselves on the “drama of migration” (8 February 2015)

Chiapas: Tila ejido denounces “military-police” operation in Tila

On 19 November, authorities from the Tila ejido denounced a “military, police, and paramilitary” operation on their lands, “WHICH […] IS STILL CIRCULATING INSIDE THE EJIDO.”

The operation began on 18 November, when the soldiers and police besieged the populace, establishing checkpoints to the entrances to Tila.  According to Radio Zapatista, “this operation takes place within the context of a growing demand for the withdrawal of City Hall, which is illegally settled on ejidal lands and has been clearly linked to paramilitarization in the region.”  The ejidatarios denounced as well the false commissars who have been named by the state government by means of illegal processes and documents, “including a paramilitary leader who was incarcerated for five years for having participated with the Paz y Justicia group.”  In parallel, the ejidatarios denounced that groups of youth were being armed and trained as a “paramilitary force” which in the context of the recent elections clarified that “ALL THOSE WHO ARE WORKING IN CITY HALL ARE THE SAME PEOPLE WHO MASK UP TO CARRY OUT VIOLENCE DURING ELECTORAL SEASON SO AS TO CONTINUE HOLDING ON TO POWER LIKE THE PARAMILITARIES THEY ARE.”  Zapatista Radio claimed that the operation launched on 18 November “makes evident the complicity among the government, the Army, and different police forces with paramilitarization in the region.”

The ejidatarios have requested “SOLIDARITY SO THAT ALL ORGANIZATIONS, COLLECTIVES, AND PERSONS BE AWARE OF WHATEVER MAY HAPPEN.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Denunciamos operativo militar policiaco y paramilitar en Tila (La Otra Ejido Tila, 20 de noviembre de 2015)

Ejido Tila denuncia operativo militar, policiaco y paramilitar (Radio Zapatista, 20 de noviembre de 2015)

Ejido Tila: denunciamos operativos militar policiaco paramilitar (Red Contra la Represi+on y por la Solidaridad, 20 de noviembre de 2015)

Chiapas: Ejido Tila denuncia operativo militar, policiaco y paramilitar. (Radio Pozol, 20 de noviembre de 2015)

Tila: ch’oles gritan por su independencia y autonomía ejidal frente a la violencia paramilitar (Radio Zapatista, 18 de septiembre de 2015)

TILA (Ejido Tila, 16 de septiembre de 2015)

F0r more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Ejidatarios from Tila denounce confrontation between PVEM and PRI, with 4 injured (21 July 2015)

Chiapas: Ejidatarios from Tila denounce attempt at usurpation (21 January 2015)

Chiapas: Ejidatarios from Tila receive threats following march to commemorate 80th anniversary of the ejido (26 October 2014)

Chiapas: Ejidatarios from Tila denounce new attempt to loot land (22 January 2014)

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: Attack on Ayotzinapa students leaves 8 seriously injured and 13 arrested

March to reject attack on student-teachers @El Sur

On 11 November, 8 buses carrying about 150 student-teachers from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Teachers College were stopped by federal, state, and ministerial police as well as the military on the highway between Chilpancingo and Tixtla. According to media, the police attacked the buses three times, leaving 20 students injured and requiring hospitalization, while 8 of these have been seriously injured, and 13 arrested.

According to the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights, “the units of the different police corporations treated these students cruelly and inhumanely,” detailing that “approximately 5 of these students had their pants forcibly removed by state and ministerial police and were told obscene things and threatened with torture, while others were beaten over the head.” Beyond this, one of the arrested student-teachers who has been released declared that “there is a comrade who has had his leg broken, while another had his lips split by a kick to the face, and others were burned with cigarettes after having been arrested. I was strangled with a scarf and they had me hanging.” In this way, there is information that the police shattered the windows of the buses, fired tear-gas grenades, trapped a group of 7 students in a bus using four gas-grenades, thus preventing their exit for 20 minutes. The students in question were arrested just after escaping.

In reaction to these attacks, some of the student-teachers fled to the mountains. At first, there were reports that 20 students had been disappeared, but these were presented with life at midnight. Beyond this, thanks to social pressure, the arrested were transferred to the Human Rights Commission of Guerrero State, where their injuries were certified, and after which they were released. There have been several marches to reject the violence exercised against the students, such as one that was led by relatives of the 43 student-teachers disappeared on 26 September 2014 together with 500 other student-teachers from Ayotzinapa. For its part, the United Front of Public Teachers Colleges of Guerrero State (FUNPEG) announced the suspension of its dialogue with Governor Héctor Astudillo Flores (PRI), in response to the repressive action. Some of the protests have joined the rejection of the educational reform and the assessment of teachers.

For more information (in Spanish):

Brutalidad policiaca contra estudiantes de la Normal Rural de Ayotzinapa (Tlachinollan, 13 de noviembre de 2015)

Suspenden en Guerrero diálogo con el gobierno; protestan contra represión (La Jornada, 13 de noviembre de 2015)

Normalistas de Oaxaca repudian represión a estudiantes de Ayotzinapa (Proceso, 13 de noviembre de 2015)

Policías persiguen y se enfrentan a normalistas: 8 estudiantes hospitalizados y 12 liberados (Animal Político, 12 de noviembre de 2015)

[México] Después de la brutal agresión policial del 11 de noviembre, aparecen los normalistas que huyeron a los cerros (12 de noviembre de 2015)

Padres de Ayotzinapa y normalistas marchan para protestar por la agresión del miércoles (Sin Embargo, 13 de noviembre 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/National: “Fruitless” meeting between relatives of the disappeared from Ayotzinapa and EPN (8 October 2015)

Guerrero: Group of Experts on Ayotzinapa case presents its report 6 months on (13 September 2015)

Chiapas: Conflicts between police and teachers over protest of evaluations

Conflict between teachers and police. Photo: @Revolución Tres Punto Cero.

On 18 October took place the diagnostic exam for teachers in Chiapas, being a measure adopted to evaluate these teachers, as implemented following the educational reforms pushed by the government of Enrique Peña Nieto (EPN). According to the National Institute for the Evaluation of Education (INEE), this evaluation seeks to “contribute with professional development to assist in the elevation of quality of instruction for students and equity in educational outcomes,” though it has caused a great deal of polemic among various sectors of the magisterium, who understand it as a means of rationalizing selective dismissals. According to the Secretary for Education in Chiapas, Ricardo Aguilar Gordillo, “whoever does not take the test should have his or her job removed.”

In Ocozocuautla, access to the place for evaluation was blockaded by members of section 7 of the Union of Educational Workers (SNTE) and the National Coordination of Educational Workers (CNTE), who reject the educational reform and carried out direct actions to express their opposition.

According to Revolución Tres Punto Cero, teachers from section 7 of Chiapas “were repressed violently when they were about to begin a protest that they qualified as being peaceful, which was to be joined also by section 40.” Some testimonies denounced that units of the federal police, the gendarmerie, and the state police fired rubber-coated bullets and tear gas, and that injured teachers subsequently received no medical attention. The CNTE distanced itself from acts such as the burning of buses and attempts to burn a gas-pipe, affirming instead that “infiltrators committed arson […] and affected the vehicles belonging to the teachers; we have evidence that these were police infiltrators,” they noted, assuring that attacks from the police were defended against using only sticks and stones. According to Chiapas Paralelo, “authorities reported that three police were injured and one kidnapped by the teachers. The teachers in turn denounced that three of their comrades had been injured by rubber-coated bullets, four beaten by police, and two others arrested. Later, police and teachers exchanged ‘hostages.’” There were also reports of the destruction of two vehicles belonging to journalists who were covering the action.

Despite the attempt made by the CNTE to blockade access, some of the teachers succeeded in taking the exam. The Education Ministry reported that another date will be chosen for those who could not complete it last weekend.

For more information (in Spanish):

Maestros en Chiapas son reprimidos por PF y Gerdarmería; usaron gases lacrimógenos y bombas de goma (Revolución Tres Punto Cero, 18 de octubre de 2015)

Policías desalojan a maestros que bloqueaban carretera en Chiapas (Proceso, 18 de octubre de 2015)

Chocan CNTE y policía en Chiapas (La Jornada, 18 de octubre de 2015)

La SEP reprogramará la evaluación de maestros en Chiapas ante el boicot de la CNTE (Chiapas Paralelo, 19 de octubre de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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)

Guerrero: PGR’s investigation of Iguala case continues to be lacking: CNDH

Photo @SIPAZ

Following the review of the information and status of the investigation of the Iguala case, the head of the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH), Luis Raúl González Pérez, declared as “incomplete” the investigation undertaken by the Federal Attorney General’s Office into the forcible disappearance of the 43 student-teachers from Ayotzinapa, 10 months after the crime.  The CNDH found contradictory evidence, failures in the process, omissions, and a lack of attention and necessary assistance to clarify the events of 26-27 September 2014 in Iguala.  One of the omissions that the CNDH identified is that, nearly 10 months after the Iguala case transpired, the PGR lacks the identity cards of the 43 students.

The national ombudsman presented 32 proposals and observations to the authorities from the three levels of government so as to arrive at the truth of the Iguala case.  The organization suggests that nine soldiers be subpoenaed and demonstrates that there are periods in the timeline that are lacking, as well as isolated diligence in the video presented by the former head of the PGR, Jesús Murillo Karam, by which he arrived at the “historical truth” of the events.  Furthermore, González Pérez noted that there must be measures implemented to succeed in improving the accompaniment and support for the victims and their relatives, given that, for many reasons, they have not received adequate attention to date.

In a note published on 23 July, the organizations that have accompanied the relatives of the disappeared stress that “in the same sense as the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) empowered by the CNDH to assist in the case, the CNDH recommends as necessary that the State, Ministerial, and Federal police make their declarations, in addition to at least 9 soldiers.”

For more information (in Spanish):

A 10 meses de Ayotzinapa investigación de la PGR sigue incompleta: CNDH (La Silla Rota, 23 de julio de 2015)

La indagatoria de la PGR sobre Ayotzinapa, incompleta: CNDH (La Jornada, 24 de julio de 2015)

Ayotzinapa: Informe de la CNDH exhibe fallas, omisiones y pendientes de la investigación (Centro Prodh, 23 de julio de 2015)

NOTA | Fallas, omisiones y pendientes en la investigación de la PGR sobre Ayotzinapa: CNDH (CDHM Tlachinollan, 23 de julio de 2015)

CASO_IGUALA (Informe CNDH, 23 de julio de 2015)

Para más información de SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Relatives of disappeared students from Ayotzinapa meet with PGR for first time in four months (22 July 2015)

National/Guerrero: Nine months after the Ayotzinapa atrocity, relatives express taht they will not be silenced (2 de julio de 2015)

Chiapas/Guerrero: Delegation of relatives and comrades of Ayotzinapa students tour CNI communities (29 June 2015)

Guerrero/National: 8 months after the forcible disappearance of the 43 students from the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa, there is no progress (9 June 2015)

Guerrero: Ayotzinapa – seven months of impunity and struggling for justice (3 May 2015)

Guerrero: IACHR experts confirm that the Ayotzinapa case is a forcible disappearance and a crime against humanity (10 April 2015)

National: Mexico, second-worst country in terms of impunity

IGI 2015 presentation (@UDLAP)

On April 20, the results of the 2015 Global Impunity Index (IGI) were presented, by the University of the Americas in Puebla (UDLAP).  The study’s authors concluded that Philippines, Mexico, Colombia, Turkey, and Russia are the worst countries in terms of impunity–in this order.  It should be stressed, nonetheless, that the analysis of official data regarding security, justice, and human rights was applied to only 59 countries, not the 193 member-nations of the United Nations, given that 134 lack the requisite systematic information.

The report establishes a series of recommendations: for example, the need to have more judges in the justice system (the index estimates an average of 17 judges per 100,000 citizens, while Mexico has only 4 per 100,000), or the fact that “it is not necessary to invest more resources to expand the number of police, but rather this should be focused on the effective guarantee of their actions,” especially when “a deficiency is seen in nearly half of the population arrested without charge (46%).”

For more information (in Spanish):

México ocupa el lugar 58 de 59 países en materia de impunidad (UDLAP, 20 de abril de 2015)

Alertan por niveles de impunidad en México (El Universal, 21 de abril de 2015)

México es el segundo país con mayor impunidad en el mundo, según informe(CNN México, 21 de abril de 2015)

La Impunidad en México (El País, 21 de abril de 2015)

México, el segundo país con más altos índices de impunidad (sólo debajo de Filipinas) (Animal Político, 20 de abril de 2015)

México, segundo lugar en Índice Global de Impunidad (La Jornada, 20 de abril de 2015)