MEXICO Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2010
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
MEXICO observatory for the protection of human rights defenders ANNUAL REPORT 2010 Political context In 2009, human rights policy was not a priority in Mexico, and former President Felipe Calderón continued with his strategy of using military forces in the fight against organised crime. This strategy included the participation of the army in operations – instead of the police – against drug trafficking. This generated a real de facto State in which the level of human1 rights violations increased without effective control by any civil body . Torture, arbitrary detentions, disappearances, murders and other attacks committed by the security forces were not being investigated by the competent civil authorities and the use of the military justice to judge the 2abuses committed by the military contributed to maintaining impu- nity . Furthermore, it is of serious concern that defenders who reported human rights violations were subjected to particularly violent repression, with the assassination of at least seven defenders in 2009. With regard to the abuses carried out by the police force, the Mexican Government has shown a lack of will to prevent the repetition of such abuses by naming Mr. Wilfrido Robledo as new Head of the Ministerial Federal Police, whereas the latter was involved in the planning and implementation of operations that resulted in serious human rights violations in San Salvador Atenco and Texcoco on May 3 and 4, 2006. Furthermore, Mexico con- tinued to fail to accept its responsibility to investigate and punish those responsible for State crimes committed in the so-called “dirty war”, in spite of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) ruling that 1 / See Report by the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Centre (Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez - Centro PRODH) for the UN Human Rights Committee, Sin controles, sin castigo: las violaciones del Estado mexicano a los derechos civiles y políticos, December 21, 2009. 184 2 / Idem. ANNUAL REPORT 2010 recognised the existence3 of an environment of systematic human rights abuses at that time . The struggle for the rights of indigenous peoples and the exploitation of natural resources remained one of the most important issues on which defenders continued to work in Mexico. The repression of indigenous communities was particularly noticeable in the States of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero, where the highest levels of poverty were recorded and where a large part of the indigenous population lives. The community defenders were, therefore, one of the groups most affected by the violent repression. CAS Furthermore, as Mexico is a country of origin, transit and destination for RI E M migrants, it does not take an effective approach to the transnational net- A works of gangs that operate outside of the law, violating the fundamental rights of migrants, in many cases with the collusion of local, municipal, State and federal authorities. It is particularly alarming that, according to figures published by the National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos – CNDH), approximately 18,000 migrants a year are kidnapped in Mexico by organised criminal gangs which the authorities either tolerate or collude with. These crimes take4 the form of torture, extortion, sexual abuse and in many cases, murders . Impunity of human rights violations committed against migrants was widespread and civil society organisations that report5 the abuses against migrants were victims of intimidation and attacks . In February 2009, the Mexican State was examined by the United Nations Human Rights Council within the framework of the Universal 3 / See IACtHR Ruling, Caso Radilla Pacheco vs. Estados Unidos Mexicanos, November 23, 2009. The IACtHR condemned the Mexican State for the enforced disappearance of Mr. Rosendo Radilla Pacheco, an outstanding social leader from Guerrero who was illegally detained on August 25, 1974. Thirty-four years later, his whereabouts are still unknown. The ruling also reiterated that military justice does not guarantee impartiality in the investigation and trial of human rights violations committed by members of the military against civilians. As of the end of 2009, compliance with the IACtHR ruling was still pending. Moreover, on March 27, 2009, a Mexican collegial court confirmed a resolution exonerating the Mexican Federal Court that absolved former President Luis Echeverría Álvarez of genocide for the Tlatelolco slaughter, thereby closing the main trial still open for crimes committed during the dirty war. The slaughter occurred on October 2, 1968 when dozens of students died after soldiers and paramilitaries fired on them in the Tres Culturas square in Tlatelolco. At that time, Mr. Echeverría was the Governor’s Secretary in President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz’s Government. 4 / See National Human Rights Commission for Kidnapping Cases of Migrants (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos sobre los Casos de Secuestro de Migrantes) Report, Informe Especial sobre los casos de secuestro en contra de migrantes, June 15, 2009. 5 / See Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Jorge Bustamante, Mission to Mexico, United Nations Document A/HRC/11/7/Add.2, March 24, 2009. 185 observatory for the protection of human rights defenders Periodic Review (UPR). The Council made a series of recommendations, including that the State take concrete action to improve the criminal justice system, the levels of torture and inhuman treatment, impunity, excessive use of force, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, criminalisation of social protest, the situation of human rights defenders, Government action to guarantee the correct implementation of international treaties, as well as to evaluate the use of preventive detention (“arraigo”). Out of the 91 recommendations presented to the Mexican State, eight6 were not accepted, which were primarily related to military jurisdiction . On November 16, 2009, the IACtHR ruled against the Mexican State on the “Campo Algodonero” case that refers to the disappearance and murder of the following young people: Claudia Ivette González, Esmeralda Herrera Monreal and Laura Berenice Ramos Monárrez, whose bodies were found in a cotton field in Ciudad Juárez on November 6, 2001. This ruling highlights, among other issues, the failure of the Mexican State to act when faced with violence against women and the phenomenon of7 feminicide in an environment of structural gender-based discrimination . Ongoing repression of indigenous peoples and peasants’ rights In Guerrero State, the enforced disappearance and assassination of Messrs. Raúl Lucas Lucía, President of the Organisation for the Future Organización para el Futuro del Pueblo Mixteco of the Mixteco8 People ( – OFPM) , and Manuel Ponce Rosas, OFPM Secretary, marked the begin- ning of 2009, setting out the violence faced by indigenous rights defenders in Mexico. On February 14, 2009, Messrs. Raúl Lucas Lucía and Manuel Ponce Rosas were arrested in the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres, State of Guerrero, by three individuals who identified themselves as police officers without presenting an arrest warrant. On the night of February 20, 2009, their lifeless bodies were found in las Cazuelas, in the municipality of Tecoanapa, in the coastal region Costa Chica of Guerrero. The victims 6 / See Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review on Mexico, United Nations Document A/HRC/11/27, May 29, 2009. 7 / See IACtHR Ruling, Caso González y otras (“Campo Algodonero”) vs. México, November 16, 2009. 8 / Mr. Raúl Lucas Lucia worked on the defence of human rights of 32 “Mixteca” indigenous communities in the Costa Chica and Montaña region, Ayutla de los Libres municipality, for more than 10 years, coordinating his work with the “Tlachinollan” Mountain Human Rights Centre. In 1994, Mr. Luca Lucía created, together with Tlapaneco indigenous people, the Mixtecos and Tlapanecos Peoples’ Independent Organisation (Organización Independiente de Pueblos Mixtecos y Tlapanecos) through which they started to document and publicly and legally denounce the abuses committed in various communities by members of the Mexican army and police forces. Subsequently, in 2002, the two peoples decided to unite under the name of Organisation for the Development of the Mixteco People (Organización para el Desarrollo del Pueblo Mixteco - ODPM) with the aim of promoting the coordination of work in the 186 region in demanding respect for the rights of the Mixteco people. ANNUAL REPORT 2010 had reported abuses and rape committed by members of the Mexican army and police forces against indigenous communities in the area. On December 28, 2009, the CNDH issued a recommendation on this case in which the lack of response from the authorities following the request to investigate the disappearance, which resulted in an extrajudicial execution, was clear. At the end of 2009, the Federal Attorney General (Procuraduría General de la República – PGR) was continuing with the investigation into the assassination of the two leaders. The disappearance and assas- sination served to intimidate the other human rights defenders in the region. Furthermore, on March 17, 2009, Ms. Obtilia Eugenio Manuel, President of the Me’phaa Indigenous Peoples’ Organisation (Organización de los Pueblos Indígenas Me’phaa – CAS OPIM), in the State of Guerrero, RI E M received three text messages that said: “what happened to Raúl (Lucas) A and Manuel