Mexico Urgent Action
17 October 2002
At 9.15pm on September 23rd 2002, a member of the cooperative was walking home from evening classes when she was accosted by four men who tried to drag her into a taxi, telling her that they were going to take her away and that they were all going to rape her. Fortunately, several passers–by came to the rescue of this part–time student and cooperative member, and not only did she manage to get away, but the four men were themselves arrested.
However, despite the fact that this was clearly a case of attempted abduction and rape, the state authorities only charged the men with causing bodily harm (lesiones) and subsequently released them.
The attacked woman has filed an official complaint #Av. Prev. 575/2002. in the hope that this will lead to the men's being punished. At this time, she is afraid that they may attack her again and is even fearful for her life.
K'inal Antzetik believes that, if this attack and other similar attacks described below are left unpunished, the current campaign of intimidation against defenders of the rights of women and of indigenous peoples, as well as against persons working for social justice, will continue. They see all women in San Cristóbal as being threatened by the climate of insecurity, and indigenous women and poor women as being especially vulnerable.
The above attack is not an isolated incident. In the opinion of K'inal Antzetik, it is part of a climate of violence in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. Since 1994 (the year of the Zapatista uprising) the organizations which are the targets of current acts of violence have periodically been subjected to death threats, to sexual assaults, to anonymous phone calls, to physical attacks in the street, to insults, and to surveillance of their homes or places of work. In the same month of September, 2002 other members of the Jolom Mayaetik Cooperative and of K'inal Antzetik also suffered acts of persecution and harassment.
The above incidents are taking place in a situation where those responsible for attacks on independent social organizations or civilian Zapatista supporters continue to enjoy impunity. The four assassinations of Zapatista supporters that took place in the month of August 2002 have still not been punished. Despite information from eyewitnesses, nobody has been arrested, although in one of the cases arrest warrants have been issued. (For more information on these attacks on civilian Zapatista supporters, please see Urgent Actions # 998, August 22nd, and #999, August 29th.)
On October 16th, twenty–seven members of the paramilitary organization Paz y Justicia were sent to prison for the crimes of robbery, illegal privation of liberty, carrying arms that are for exclusive military use, injuries, damage, and criminal association. The State Attorney General's Office has also indicated that there is reason to believe that some of the arrested men are also guilty of arson, rape, and complicity in seven murders and three or more disappearances that took place in the northern region of Chiapas between 1995 and 2000. Also on October 16th, warrants were issued for the arrest of twenty–six other members of Paz y Justicia. Including one of its main leaders as well as the former municipal president of Tila. The latter was charged with corruption and improper exercise of office.
However, as was emphasized by human rights lawyer Miguel Angel de los Santos in an interview published in La Jornada on October 16th, it seems that there has been a political decision (by the federal and Chiapas state governments) not to prosecute members of previous governments with regard to the creation of paramilitary groups. In Lic. de los Santos' opinion, the participation of civil servants in the planning of the Acteal massacre has been documented and there therefore is a basis on which to proceed. Similarly, the past links between high–ranking army officers and the paramilitary organization Paz y Justicia are publicly known.
In its May report on the displacement of persons caused by the war in Chiapas, the Fray Bartóme de Las Casas Human Rights Centre refers to public servants who failed to take the necessary steps to prevent acts of paramilitary violence. Elsewhere, the report lists the names of paramilitary members now in prison after having been found guilty of perpetrating the massacre which took place in the community of Acteal in the municipality of Chenalho in December 1997. According to Hermann Bellinghausen of the newspaper La Jornada, those who are in prison do not even represent half of those who took part in the massacre and who are still living in the municipality of Chenalho. Moreover, the former Executive Secretary of the State Council of Public Security, Jorge Enrique Hernández Aguilar, who, according to La Jornada, was responsible for the paramilitarization of the Chenalho region, managed to have his arrest warrant cancelled by means of a legal technicality. He is now associated with a newspaper in the state capital Tuxta Gutierrez.
Please write to the government of Mexico to express your concern with regard to the continued impunity of persons responsible for planning and carrying out acts of paramilitary violence in the state of Chiapas. Please emphasize to the government the fact that a real peace can only be built on the foundations of justice, including the punishment according to the law of persons found to be in any way responsible for these acts of criminal violence, and full respect for the collective rights of the indigenous peoples.
Please write to the Chiapas state government asking for immediate measures to be taken to halt the campaign of intimidation and harassment to which members of K'inal Antzetik and the Jolom Mayaetik Cooperative are being subjected. Please request a prompt and thorough investigation of the incidents reported under Av. Prev. 575/2002 and Av. Prev. Al 40/1340/02–9 and for those found to be responsible for these illegal acts to be duly punished.
Please write to the government of Canada informing them of these incidents of harassment targetting women's organizations in the state of Chiapas. Please point out to the Canadian government the fact that, despite the very recent legal actions against fifty–three members of Paz y Justicia, impunity is still the rule rather than the exception in Chiapas. Please ask the Canadian government to make known to the Mexican government their concern regarding the continued climate of violence in Chiapas.
Please remind the Canadian government that the second phase of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner's Technical Cooperation Programme for Mexico includes indigenous rights as one of its four focus areas. (Phase Two of the technical cooperation programme, which includes the opening of a special office in Mexico City, is about to begin.) Please ask the government if there is any way in which Canada can give specific support to this programme and particularly to its indigenous rights component.
ADDRESSES:
For Mexico:
Lic. Vicente Fox Quesada
Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Residencia Oficial de Los Pinos
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec
C.P. 11850, México D.F, MEXICO
FAX: 011 52 55 522 4117 OR 516 9357 OR 515 1794
vicente@fox2000.org.mx or radio@presidencia.gob.mx or go to www.gob.mex and from there to interactivo to send a message
Gobernador Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía
Governor of Chiapas:
Palacio de Gobierno del Estado de Chiapas
Av. Central y Primera Oriente
Colonia Centro, C.P. 29009
Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas
Mexico
Fax: 011 52 9(61) 612 09 17 salazarp@prodigy.net.mx or secpart@prodigy.net.mx
Please send copies to:
Lic. Ricardo Sepúlveda
Unidad para la Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Humanos
Secretaría de Gobernación
Bucareli 99, primer piso, Col. Juarez, México D.F., CP 06699, MEXICO
Fax: 011 52 55 546 5350 546 7388 segob@rtn.net.mx
(Lic. Sepúlveda is in charge of the recently–created governmental body for the promotion and defence of human rights.)
Dr. José Luis Soberanes Fernández
Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos
Periférico Sur 3469, Col. San Jerónimo Lidice, C.P. 100200, México D.F., MEXICO
FAX: O11 52 55 681 7199 correo@cndh.org.mx
Lic. Mariclaire Acosta, Subsecretaria de Derechos Humanos y Democracia
FAX: 011 52 55 117 4334 327 3195 macosta@sre.gob.mx
Her Excellency María Teresa García Segovia
Ambassador for Mexico
45 O'Connor St, suite 1500, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1A4
FAX: 613 2235 9123 info@embamexcan.com
and to kinal@laneta.apc.org
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
B4 125 Sussex Drive
FAX: 613 943 0606 susan.gregson.agh@dfait-maeci.gc.ca
17 October 2002
CAMPAIGN OF HARASSMENT AGAINST WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS IN SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS; CONTINUED IMPUNITY IN CHIAPAS
We have received the following report from the social organization K'inal Antsetik, which works to promote the rights of indigenous women in the state of Chiapas. It concerns an attack on a member of the cooperative Jolom Mayaetik.At 9.15pm on September 23rd 2002, a member of the cooperative was walking home from evening classes when she was accosted by four men who tried to drag her into a taxi, telling her that they were going to take her away and that they were all going to rape her. Fortunately, several passers–by came to the rescue of this part–time student and cooperative member, and not only did she manage to get away, but the four men were themselves arrested.
However, despite the fact that this was clearly a case of attempted abduction and rape, the state authorities only charged the men with causing bodily harm (lesiones) and subsequently released them.
The attacked woman has filed an official complaint #Av. Prev. 575/2002. in the hope that this will lead to the men's being punished. At this time, she is afraid that they may attack her again and is even fearful for her life.
K'inal Antzetik believes that, if this attack and other similar attacks described below are left unpunished, the current campaign of intimidation against defenders of the rights of women and of indigenous peoples, as well as against persons working for social justice, will continue. They see all women in San Cristóbal as being threatened by the climate of insecurity, and indigenous women and poor women as being especially vulnerable.
BACKGROUND:
The above attack is not an isolated incident. In the opinion of K'inal Antzetik, it is part of a climate of violence in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. Since 1994 (the year of the Zapatista uprising) the organizations which are the targets of current acts of violence have periodically been subjected to death threats, to sexual assaults, to anonymous phone calls, to physical attacks in the street, to insults, and to surveillance of their homes or places of work. In the same month of September, 2002 other members of the Jolom Mayaetik Cooperative and of K'inal Antzetik also suffered acts of persecution and harassment.
- On September 10th, a woman who works with K'inal Antzetik was stopped by two men in civilian clothes just after she had spent several minutes in the Cathedra plaza, where a public meeting was being held to protest the decision of the Supreme Court of Mexico to uphold the congressional law on indigenous rights (for more information on the law on indigenous rights, please see Urgent Actions 994, July 12th 2002 and #996, August 6th 2002, as well as the latest issue of the Upstream Journal) and to draw attention to the climate of violence in indigenous communities (see Urgent Actions #998 and #999) Forcibly holding her by her arm, the two men questioned this woman on her links to the Highland Regional Coordination of Civil Society in Resistance (Coordinadora Regional de los Altos de la Sociedad Civil en Resistencia). The latter was one of the organizations that coordinated the march and the public meeting referred to above, both of which took place in San Cristóbal de Las Casas on September 10th (very shortly after the Supreme Court's decision was anoounced).The woman stood up to her attackers, screaming at them to let her go, and she finally managed to get away from them. She filed an official complaint # Av. Prev. All 40/1340/02–9.
- That same day, September 10th, two men entered the office of the partner of a woman who works with the Jolom Mayaetik Cooperative. They questioned him about her (his partner's) daily life and work and asked if she was taking part in the above–mentioned march.
- On September 12th, unidentified persons were observed keeping watch on the home of another K'inal Antzetik member
- On September 21st, another woman member of the Jolom Mayaetik Cooperative was followed on the street by two men who suggested that they "accompany" her. Although she made it clear that she did not want their presence, the two men continued to pester her. Finally she went up to a man and a woman who were walking down the street together, and they walked with her to her home (thus shielding her from the two men who had accosted her).
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The above incidents are taking place in a situation where those responsible for attacks on independent social organizations or civilian Zapatista supporters continue to enjoy impunity. The four assassinations of Zapatista supporters that took place in the month of August 2002 have still not been punished. Despite information from eyewitnesses, nobody has been arrested, although in one of the cases arrest warrants have been issued. (For more information on these attacks on civilian Zapatista supporters, please see Urgent Actions # 998, August 22nd, and #999, August 29th.)
On October 16th, twenty–seven members of the paramilitary organization Paz y Justicia were sent to prison for the crimes of robbery, illegal privation of liberty, carrying arms that are for exclusive military use, injuries, damage, and criminal association. The State Attorney General's Office has also indicated that there is reason to believe that some of the arrested men are also guilty of arson, rape, and complicity in seven murders and three or more disappearances that took place in the northern region of Chiapas between 1995 and 2000. Also on October 16th, warrants were issued for the arrest of twenty–six other members of Paz y Justicia. Including one of its main leaders as well as the former municipal president of Tila. The latter was charged with corruption and improper exercise of office.
However, as was emphasized by human rights lawyer Miguel Angel de los Santos in an interview published in La Jornada on October 16th, it seems that there has been a political decision (by the federal and Chiapas state governments) not to prosecute members of previous governments with regard to the creation of paramilitary groups. In Lic. de los Santos' opinion, the participation of civil servants in the planning of the Acteal massacre has been documented and there therefore is a basis on which to proceed. Similarly, the past links between high–ranking army officers and the paramilitary organization Paz y Justicia are publicly known.
In its May report on the displacement of persons caused by the war in Chiapas, the Fray Bartóme de Las Casas Human Rights Centre refers to public servants who failed to take the necessary steps to prevent acts of paramilitary violence. Elsewhere, the report lists the names of paramilitary members now in prison after having been found guilty of perpetrating the massacre which took place in the community of Acteal in the municipality of Chenalho in December 1997. According to Hermann Bellinghausen of the newspaper La Jornada, those who are in prison do not even represent half of those who took part in the massacre and who are still living in the municipality of Chenalho. Moreover, the former Executive Secretary of the State Council of Public Security, Jorge Enrique Hernández Aguilar, who, according to La Jornada, was responsible for the paramilitarization of the Chenalho region, managed to have his arrest warrant cancelled by means of a legal technicality. He is now associated with a newspaper in the state capital Tuxta Gutierrez.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Please write to the government of Mexico to express your concern with regard to the continued impunity of persons responsible for planning and carrying out acts of paramilitary violence in the state of Chiapas. Please emphasize to the government the fact that a real peace can only be built on the foundations of justice, including the punishment according to the law of persons found to be in any way responsible for these acts of criminal violence, and full respect for the collective rights of the indigenous peoples.
Please write to the Chiapas state government asking for immediate measures to be taken to halt the campaign of intimidation and harassment to which members of K'inal Antzetik and the Jolom Mayaetik Cooperative are being subjected. Please request a prompt and thorough investigation of the incidents reported under Av. Prev. 575/2002 and Av. Prev. Al 40/1340/02–9 and for those found to be responsible for these illegal acts to be duly punished.
Please write to the government of Canada informing them of these incidents of harassment targetting women's organizations in the state of Chiapas. Please point out to the Canadian government the fact that, despite the very recent legal actions against fifty–three members of Paz y Justicia, impunity is still the rule rather than the exception in Chiapas. Please ask the Canadian government to make known to the Mexican government their concern regarding the continued climate of violence in Chiapas.
Please remind the Canadian government that the second phase of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner's Technical Cooperation Programme for Mexico includes indigenous rights as one of its four focus areas. (Phase Two of the technical cooperation programme, which includes the opening of a special office in Mexico City, is about to begin.) Please ask the government if there is any way in which Canada can give specific support to this programme and particularly to its indigenous rights component.
ADDRESSES:
For Mexico:
Lic. Vicente Fox Quesada
Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Residencia Oficial de Los Pinos
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec
C.P. 11850, México D.F, MEXICO
FAX: 011 52 55 522 4117 OR 516 9357 OR 515 1794
vicente@fox2000.org.mx or radio@presidencia.gob.mx or go to www.gob.mex and from there to interactivo to send a message
Gobernador Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía
Governor of Chiapas:
Palacio de Gobierno del Estado de Chiapas
Av. Central y Primera Oriente
Colonia Centro, C.P. 29009
Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas
Mexico
Fax: 011 52 9(61) 612 09 17 salazarp@prodigy.net.mx or secpart@prodigy.net.mx
Please send copies to:
Lic. Ricardo Sepúlveda
Unidad para la Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Humanos
Secretaría de Gobernación
Bucareli 99, primer piso, Col. Juarez, México D.F., CP 06699, MEXICO
Fax: 011 52 55 546 5350 546 7388 segob@rtn.net.mx
(Lic. Sepúlveda is in charge of the recently–created governmental body for the promotion and defence of human rights.)
Dr. José Luis Soberanes Fernández
Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos
Periférico Sur 3469, Col. San Jerónimo Lidice, C.P. 100200, México D.F., MEXICO
FAX: O11 52 55 681 7199 correo@cndh.org.mx
Lic. Mariclaire Acosta, Subsecretaria de Derechos Humanos y Democracia
FAX: 011 52 55 117 4334 327 3195 macosta@sre.gob.mx
Her Excellency María Teresa García Segovia
Ambassador for Mexico
45 O'Connor St, suite 1500, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1A4
FAX: 613 2235 9123 info@embamexcan.com
and to kinal@laneta.apc.org
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
B4 125 Sussex Drive
FAX: 613 943 0606 susan.gregson.agh@dfait-maeci.gc.ca