May 29th 2003

Serious violations of the rights of human rights defenders in Oaxaca and in Chiapas

We have received reports of two very serious cases of violations of the human rights of human rights defenders. The victims in both cases are defenders of the human rights of Mexico's indigenous peoples. In Oaxaca, Raúl Gatica Bautista, one of the founding members of the Ricardo Flores Magón Indigenous Popular Council of Oaxaca (CIPO–RFM), received a particularly disturbing death threat. In Chiapas, two lawyers, Miguel Angel de Los Santos and Alejandra del Valle, were beaten by state police personnel while attempting to interview an arrested client, José Manuel Martínez Pérez, who is himself a human rights defender and a member of the Network of Community Human Rights Defenders.

1. On May 23rd, 2003, in the town of San Isidro Monjas Xoxocotlan, Oaxaca, the home of Raúl Gatica Bautista, founding member of the CIPO–RFM, was broken into by unknown persons. Sr. Gatica's more valuable belongings (in terms of their resale value) such as small electrical and electronic appliances, were not stolen. However, documents pertaining to the CIPO–RFM's April Assembly were taken, as were Sr. Gatica's passport and birth certificate as well as computer diskettes and CDs and national and international directories. His books and papers were scattered over the floor. On top of the otherwise disordered heap of books and papers, were magazines that had been opened to pages where there were photographs of people who had been shot. Personal photographs of Sr. Gatica himself were found torn to shreds, and on his bed had been left photographs of dead fish. His clothes were found on the roof of the house and on nearby trees. There was orange–coloured spray paint on the walls of the rooms and inside the refrigerator, and the floor of the bedroom was covered with fecal excrement. In two places in the house, there were drawings of either a cross or a skull and the words "Raul" and "you're dead".
   
   When the state police came to investigate at the scene of the crime, they said that they could find no fingerprints and , when pressed they stated that the break–in must have been the work of children – a conclusion that the CIPO–RFM finds highly improbable.
   
   In the opinion of the CIPO–RFM, the persons responsible for the break–in have ties to the state government and to powerful interests within the state of Oaxaca. The crime has been duly reported to the authorities and the number of the preliminary investigation file is #413/CDA/2003.
   
   In its May 26th edition, the newspaper La Jornada reported that within the next few days the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Rights, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, will be visiting the state of Oaxaca. One of the organizations which he is scheduled to meet is the CIPO–RFM.
   
   BACKGROUND:
   
   The CIPO–RFM is a grassroots movement whose members work in their local communities in the defence of human rights, on productive projects and environmental conservation, and in the provision of basic social services. It has a strong emphasis on indigenous rights and its programmes also include the training for traditional local authorities on questions such as the protection of indigenous rights under ILO Convention 169. It includes special programmes for women. The CIPO–RFM's two thousand members have been subjected to frequent attacks and acts of harassment and intimidation since the organization was formed in 1997. (The last urgent action sent out by the SJC on their behalf was in July, 2002. For details of that action, please consult our web–site.)
   
   The incidents of death threats and intimidation that occurred during 2002 were reported to the Office of the State Attorney General (File #52 FM 2002), without any apparent action having been taken by that government body. The CIPO–RFM reports that during the year 2002 there was considerable friction between the organization and the Mayor of Tanetze de Zaragoza. The latter was trying to abolish the local bus service that, through the efforts of the CIPO–RFM, had been set up in order to serve the indigenous people in the area.
   
   Raúl Gatica Bautista, a Mixtec social activist who has won prizes for his creative writing, has for twenty years worked in defence of the human rights of Mexico's indigenous peoples. He has been illegally arrested and imprisoned no less than thirteen times and is also a victim of enforced disappearance and torture (for which reason he was the subject of Recommendation 26/99 of the National Human Rights Commission). He has been accused of belonging to several armed guerrilla groups and has a number of outstanding charges against him – seven for alleged crimes coming under state jurisdiction and three for alleged federal crimes.
   
   
2. On May 21st, 2003, during a state police raid in the community of Nuevo Tepeyac in the municipality of Villa Las Rosas, Chiapas, six un–authorized bus operators were wounded, one seriously by gunfire, and twenty–seven people, including two minors, were arrested. About one hundred un–authorized operators, in an attempt to exercise pressure on the government in order to obtain permits, had been holding five authorized bus drivers hostage. (They had previously held and subsequently released a state civil servant.) Human rights organizations believe that this operation (the alleged purpose of which was to free the five bus drivers who were being held) was carried out with unnecessary violence. Among those arrested was para-legal José Manuel Martínez Pérez, a member of the Network of Community Human Rights Defenders, who, at the time of his arrest, was engaged in taking notes on the prevailing situation.
   
   On May 22nd 2003, human rights lawyer Miguel Angel de Los Santos, accompanied by another lawyer, Alejandra del Valle, went to conduct an interview with Sr. Martínez Pérez who was being held at the installations of the Chiapas State Investigation Agency. Lic. de Los Santos was violently attacked by Arturo Salgado Cordero, an army officer who is the head of the State Investigation Agency. When Lic. del Valle attempted to come to his rescue, she was beaten and thrown against the wall by several other policemen who had arrived on the scene after hearing shouts. The two lawyers were held for several minutes and then, without any explanation, pushed out of the building. It goes without saying that they were unable to interview Sr. Martínez Pérez or any of the other detainees.
   
   On May 23rd, Sr. Martínez Pérez was released from detention. The following day, May 24th, fifteen other detainees were released. Ten people remain in prison facing legal proceedings.
   
   According to the May 24th edition of the newspaper La Jornada, on May 23rd the Chiapas state government sent out a news release announcing that it was investigating the report of human rights organizations concerning the "alleged" attack on the two lawyers. It also stated, that if they were found to be called for, corrective disciplinary measures would be taken against Arturo Salgado and other persons involved in the alleged incident. There was no reported mention of Sr. Martínez Pérez or of the other detainees, although Governor Salazar reportedly said, during a meeting with business representatives, that his government had neither a harsh nor a gentle hand but rather a firm hand without tolerance for anarchy or chaos.
   
   

In the opinion of a number of highly–respected Mexican human rights organizations, ,"the government of Pablo Salazar has been hypocritical in its stance on human rights issues – on the one hand, there has been much discussion and paid publicity to convince people that the state government respects human rights, but, on the other hand, its actions contravene its own public position. Police operations such as the one carried out in Nuevo Tepeyac often occur under the guise of "application of the rule of law", leaving in their wake injured and illegally–arrested prisoners who are held incommunicado and without legal representation... It is a government that violates human rights, that has continued the practice of torture, that violates the right of arrested persons to due process, that is intolerant of criticism, and that has already provided ample evidence that human rights do not play a large part in its policies – except as human rights violations."

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Miguel Angel de Los Santos has been engaged in the defence of the indigenous citizens of Chiapas since 1994; he is especially known for his defence of civilian Zapatista supporters. The Network of Community Defenders are young people who have been chosen by their communities to work as human rights defenders in and with rural indigenous communities in Chiapas. They are trained paraprofessionals who, in addition to carrying out human rights education, conduct preliminary investigations of human rights abuses in local areas and file written complaints with the appropriate government authorities. They have presented cases to international human rights bodies such as the Inter–American Human Rights Commission and the International Labour Organization.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please write to the Mexican government to express your shock at learning of the attempted intimidation of Raúl Gatica Bautista on the eve of his organization's meeting with the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Rights, and of the violent attack on lawyers Miguel Angel de Los Santos and Alejandra del Valle and and the arbitrary detention of para–legal José Martínez Pérez by Chiapas State police personnel. Please stress that in both cases the victims of human rights abuses were defenders of the rights of Mexico's indigenous peoples.

Please ask for urgent measures to safeguard the physical and psychological integrity of Raúl Gatica Bautista and the other members of the CIPO–RFM and of their respective families. Please request a thorough investigation of this incident so that those responsible can be brought to justice.

Please ask for effective steps to be taken, in Chiapas and elsewhere in Mexico, to guarantee proper respect for the role of human rights lawyers and paralegals and to ensure that they are able to carry out their work under secure conditions.

Please write to the Canadian government to make them aware of these two very serious incidents, asking them to make known to the Mexican government Canadian concern regarding violations of the rights of human rights defenders.

Please point out to the Canadian government that both of these incidents have taken place in a context of continued violations of the rights of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, and that it would appear that behind the Mexican government's reluctance to take meaningful steps to ensure respect for the collective rights of indigenous peoples lie commercial considerations linked to the natural resource wealth of the territories inhabited by these peoples.

(You may be interested to learn that the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Rights, Rodofo Stavenhagen, has very recently stated that economic and social policies and globalization have had really disastrous consequences for the social and economic rights of the indigenous peoples. He referred to negative effects on the health and education systems of indigenous communities and the destruction of the environment.)

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
radio@presidencia.gob.mx webadmon@op.presidencia.gob.mx

If you are unable to get your message through, please send it to the Mexican Embassy in Ottawa with a brief covering letter requesting that the message be forwarded immediately to President Fox.

Please send copies of your letter to the following persons:

Lic. Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía
Gobernador del Estado de Chiapas
Palacio de Gobierno,Tuxtla Gutiérrez Chiapas, MEXICO
FAX: 011 52 961 20917 salazarp@prodigy.net.mx secpart@prodigy.net.mx

Lic. José Murat Casab
Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de Oaxaca
Oaxaca, Oaxaca, México
Fax: 011–52–951–516–3737 (If possible, please send your messge by fax)
gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx

Lic. Ricardo Sepúlveda
Director General de Derechos Humanos
Secretaria de Gobernación (Federal 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
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

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