Campesino in Costa Grande of Guerrero assassinated, important witness for the investigation of the 1970s and 1980s "Dirty War".
Dear Friends:
We have received the following message from the World Organization against Torture. It concerns the torture and assassination of an important witness in the ongoing investigation of the mass human rights violations that took place in Mexico in the nineteen–seventies and nineteen–eighties These human rights violations, which particularly targeted peasants, students, and social organizations, are now being investigated by the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Social and Political Movements of the Past.
In the afternoon of November 28th, 2003, HORACIO ZACARIAS BARRIENTOS PERALTA was captured, tortured, and shot to death by unknown persons while he was working in his corn field (milpa) in the community of La Florida, in the municipality of Atoyac de Alvarez, in the state of Guerrero. According to reports, Mr. Barrientos Peralta had been an eyewitness to the detention, torture, execution and disappearance, at the hands of the Mexican army and the police forces, of dozens of peasants (from the municipality of Atoyac de Alvarez) who were fighting for justice and democracy during the 1970s.
Mr. Barrientos Peralta himself had reportedly been abducted and tortured by the army. For two years, he was forced to dress as a soldier and to identify alleged subversives among groups of peasant suspects being held in clandestine prisons or at army checkpoints. He came forward voluntarily to give his testimony to Office of the Special Prosecutor personnel. He had thus become an important witness in their ongoing investigation of the military and police personnel allegedly responsible for the human rights abuses committed against the hundreds of residents of the Costa Grande region of Guerrero who had had ties (or had been suspected of having ties) to the nineteen-seventies guerrilla movement of Lucio Cabañas.
(Those of you who would like to learn more about Lucio Cabañas and the guerrilla movement that he led may want to ready the novel Guerra en Paraíso (War in Paradise) by Carlos Montemayor. It is clear from this very well researched novel that the guerrilla movement was born out of the repression of the organized efforts to bring about the peaceful social change that was, and still is, desperately needed in the state of Guerrero.)
The organization AFADEM (Associación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos y Victimas de Violaciones de Derechos Humanos en México – the association of relatives of the victims of forced disappearance and human rights violations in Mexico) has stated that it had repeatedly warned Office of the Special Prosecutor personnel that it was very dangerous for Mr. Barrientos Peralta to be interviewed in his home and that he should be taken to Acapulco or to Mexico City to make his declaration. His assassination occurred within twenty–four hours of the issuing of a warrant for the arrest of Isidro Galeana Abarca, the former head of the Guerrero State Judicial Police. That warrant had been issued in connection with the disappearance of school teacher Jacob Nájera Hernández., which took place on September 2nd, 1974. It goes without saying that the prosecution has now lost an important trial witness.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The Office of the Special Prosecutor for Social and Political Movements of the Past was set up by the Fox government, within the Federal Attorney General's Office in November, 2001. The efficacy of its work has been questioned by human rights organizations; and the Office has suffered severe criticism from groups, such as AFADEM, that represent the victims and their relatives. Its first attempt to issue arrest warrants against key suspects was blocked by a lower court decision evoking the statute of limitations on the basis of the approximately thirty year time lapse between the perpetrating of the alleged crime and its prosecution. However, the Supreme Court has recently overturned that decision by ruling that the time period for the statute of limitations could not begin to be calculated until such time as the disappeared, or abducted, person re–appeared.
The Supreme Court decision has paved the way for arrest warrants to be issued for two former heads of the (now–dissolved) Federal Security Directorate and a former agent of the Nuevo León state Judicial Police. Further arrests are expected.
In a recent interview with the newspaper La Jornada (December 8th 2003), the Special Prosecutor, Ignacio Carrillo Prieto, stated that in the dirty war of the nineteen–seventies and nineteen–eighties "there were a series of measures taken by the government in order to exterminate a dissident group ..." In response to a question specifically regarding the state of Guerrero, Lic. Carrillo went on to say that "We have documents and testimonies that allow it to be concluded that there was an action designed at the highest level of the state in order to use force to do away with whole groups, to move whole population settlements (poblaciones), to do away with whole population settlements (poblaciones) ..."
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Please write to the Mexican government to express your shock at learning of the tragic outcome of the lack of protection for the important witness Horacio Zacarías Barrientos Peralta.
Please ask for urgent and immediate steps to be taken to guarantee the security and the physical and psychological integrity of all of the other witnesses giving testimony to the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Social and Political Movements of the Past. Please ask for the same protection to be provided to all of the relatives and members of AFADEM and to their lawyers, as well as to all of the residents of the municipality of Atoyac de Alvarez in the state of Guerrero. Please request a prompt and thorough investigation of the assassination of Horacio Zacarías Barrientos Peralta, so that those responsible for planning and perpetrating this crime can be punished according to the law. Please ask for proper compensation for Mr. Barrientos Peralta's family.
Please write to the Canadian government asking them to urge the Mexican government to give all necessary support to the Office of the Special Prosecutor, so that all of those who were responsible for planning and perpetrating the criminal human rights abuses committed against social and political movements in Mexico during the nineteen–seventies and the nineteen–eighties can be brought to justice.
ADDRESSES:
For Mexico:
Lic. Vicente Fox Quesada
Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Residencia Oficial de Los Pinos
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, Mexico D.F., C.P. 11850,
MEXICO
FAX: 011 52 55 522 4117 or 516 9537 or 515 1794
presidencia@gob.mx radio@presidencia.gob.mx webadmon@op.presidencia.gob.mx
vicentefox@presidencia.gob.mx
Please send copies of your letters to:
Lic. Ricardo Sepúlveda
Director General de Derechos Humanos
Secretaria de Gobernación (Ministry of the Interior)
Reforma 99, Colonia Tabacalera
CP 006030, Mexico D.F., MEXICO
Fax: 011 52 55 51 28 02 34
rsepulveda@segob.gob.mx
Dr. José Luis Soberanes Fernández
Presidente, Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos
Mexico D.F., Mexico
correo@cndh.org.mx
Her Excellency María Teresa García Ambassador for Mexico
45 O'Connor Street, suite 1500
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1A4
FAX: 613 235 9123
info@embamexcan.com
Misión Permanente de México ante las Naciones Unidas en Ginebra
16 Avénue du Budé, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
FAX 011 41 22 748 0778
mission.mexico@ties.itu.int
For Canada:
Hon. Bill Graham
Minister of Foreign Affairs
125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G2
FAX: 613 996 9607 Graham.b@parl.gc.ca
Ms. Susan Gregson, Director
Human Rights, Humanitarian Affairs and International Women's Equality Division (AGH)
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
125 Sussex Drive, B4
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G2
FAX: 613 943 0606
susan.gregson.agh@dfait-maeci.gc.ca
If possible, please send copies of your letters to the World Organization against Torture in Geneva omct@omct.org