Excerpts
from the Report to the Canadian Government by the
Canada
– Central America/
Mexico
Urgent Action
In
preparation for the 56th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights
This
report is dedicated to the memory of PEDRO RAMIREZ DE LOS SANTOS, a young
indigenous campesino who was assassinated by the Mexican army in April 1999, and
about whom the following lines were published in the Fifth Report of the
Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre of the Mountain Region of Guerrero:
"Pedro
has not died
He
lives in the memory of all of the men and women
Who
struggle for absolute respect for human rights
He
will always be there in the hearts of all
Who
are engaged in the building of a world
Where
his widow Francesca and his four children
Will
be treated as human beings."
The
Urgent Action Network and its 1999 Report on
Mexico
In
the Spring of 2000 the Social Justice Committee will celebrate the twenty-fifth
year of its existence. For the past ten years, together with the Comité chrétien
pour les droits humains en Amérique latine and the Christian Task Force on
Central America, the Social Justice Committee has co-ordinated the Canada
Central America Mexico Urgent Action Network. The work of the Urgent Action
Network may be defined as an expression of Canadian concern regarding violations
of basic human rights in
Mexico
and
Central America
.
The
following report, which is based on our past year's work, is not and has no
pretensions of being an exhaustive report on the human rights situation in
Mexico
. It is rather the reflection of important aspects of the aspirations for social
justice of major segments of Mexican civil society - of their peaceful struggles
and, all too often, of their suffering. Corresponding to the Network's
priorities, the report does not deal with the many miscarriages of justice
associated with the state's response to drug-trafficking and associated criminal
activities in northern
Mexico
. In addition, it does not attempt to duplicate the work of the very effective
networks of trade unionists and journalists in the areas of labour rights and
freedom of expression. While not ignoring northern
Mexico
, our report is undoubtedly biased towards the southern part of the country.
Nevertheless, it is our conviction that the types of human rights violations
that are particularly prevalent in the south are to be found in many of the
states of the union.
Introduction
During
the year of 1999 and the first two months of 2000, the Urgent Action Network has
received reports of human rights violations from eight states and from the
Federal District
.
The
most noteworthy aspect of the human rights situation in
Mexico
during this time period has been the government's general failure to respond to
the recommendations and expressions of concern of international human rights
bodies. In 1998, a resolution of the then Sub-commission on the Prevention of
Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities of the United Nations Commission
on Human Rights specifically enjoined Mexico to ensure respect for the rights of
its indigenous peoples and to promote and protect the work of human rights
defenders. We ourselves, members of the Urgent Action Network, are painfully
aware that it is precisely situations regarding the Mexican government's failure
to guarantee indigenous rights or to protect and promote the work of human
rights defenders that have given rise to the majority of human rights appeals
that we have received during the past year.
Attacks
on human rights defenders
The
second half of 1999 saw a very serious campaign of harassment and threats
against the internationally-known and highly-respected Miguel Agustin Pro Human
Rights Centre (PRODH). The head of the PRODH's legal team, Licenciada Digna
Ochoa, was particularly targeted. She was the victim of two temporary
abductions, including nine hours of intensive and abusive interrogation which
culminated in attempted murder (by suffocation from an open propane gas
cylinder). It is important to note that Lic. Ochoa has been responsible for the
legal defence of the victims of very serious human rights violations allegedly
committed by the Mexican Army in the state of Guerrero.
The
Urgent Action Network and other human rights organizations found especially
troubling the fact that, despite international protests and despite the
professed concern of Mexican government ministers and of the National Human
Rights Commission, the government was unable or unwilling to halt the campaign
against the PRODH
During
the past year, we have also received reports of death threats against Lic. Juan
López Villanueva of the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Human Rights Centre in
Chiapas
and against Arturo Solis, the president of the Centre for Frontier Studies and
for the Promotion of Human Rights located in the state of Tamaulipas. In
Oaxaca
, there have been two cases of spurious criminal charges brought against lawyers
engaged in the defence of indigenous people who have been accused of belonging
to the EPR guerrilla organization.
In
Chiapas
, reported incidents of harassment have included as their targets members of
human rights centres and of indigenous rights organizations, a community
representative acting as a human rights witness, humanitarian workers, a
renowned Mexican actor, and international human rights observers.
In
Nuevo
Leon
, women human rights defenders have been harassed following their public
complaints regarding the severe mistreatment of prisoners in a penitentiary in
Monterrey
.
Iindigenous
rights
During
1999, military harassment of indigenous communities became so pronounced that
indigenous Catholic church pastoral agents from the states of Hidalgo, Veracruz,
Puebla, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Michoacán, Sonora, Guerrero, Tabasco,
Chiapas, Mexico, Yucatán, and Jalisco recently sent letters to President
Zedillo and to the Minister of Defence asking for army personnel to be withdrawn
from indigenous communities and territories and to be returned to their barracks
(according to articles 11 and 16 of the Mexican Constitution). The pastoral
agents said that (after several years of army occupation of indigenous
communities and territories) the situation has now reached a point where to be
indigenous is to live under military siege.
The
appeals regarding violations of indigenous rights that were received by the
Urgent Action Network were sent principally from the states of
Chiapas
, Guerrero, and
Oaxaca
. In
Chiapas
, it has become increasingly clear that the Mexican government is pursuing a
policy of attrition (using the weapons of hunger and illness), punctuated by
implied threats of an all-out attack by the security forces, against Zapatista
civilian communities and independent social organizations. Examples such as the
difficulties faced by the members of Las Abejas as they endeavour to harvest
their coffee plantations have made it abundantly clear that the government has
no serious intention of disbanding the paramilitary organizations.
In
Oaxaca
, independent social organizations and community authorities continued to be the
targets of harassment and violence by armed governing party supporters. Of
particular concern are events in the Los Loxichas region, where the alleged
presence of the EPR armed guerrilla movement has become the reason, or the
pretext, for widespread military repression of indigenous people.
One
of the most flagrant examples of human rights violations allegedly committed by
the Mexican army occurred in April in the Montaña region of the state of
Guerrero. Two adult campesinos and a ten-year-old boy, one of whom had set out
to tend to his goat flock and the other two of whom had gone to harvest corn,
were shot to death, in two separate incidents in the same geographic area, by
Mexican army personnel. The soldiers subsequently raped two women relatives of
the victims. This case, like other cases involving soldiers and civilians, has
not been turned over to the civilian courts but has been handled by the military
justice system - a situation about which the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial,
Summary, and Arbitrary Executions has expressed serious concern. One of her
recommendations to the Mexican government has been to the effect that legal
reforms be undertaken to enable the ordinary court system to judge all persons
accused of human rights violations, regardless of their profession.
An
urgent appeal from the
municipality
of
Santa Maria Zaniza
in the state of
Oaxaca
invoked the specifically indigenous rights enshrined in Covenant 169 of the
International Labour Organization. Residents of the municipality pointed out
that they had not been properly informed - let alone consulted - about mining
activities on their territory, which are already causing pollution of water
sources. Little or no financial benefit has accrued to the communities in
consequence of these activities, and there has been no compensation for the
environmental damage that has been caused.
In
the opinion of a number of Mexican and foreign analysts, the Mexican
government's refusal to fulfill the San Andres Accords and its attempt to
substitute them with a watered-down alternative that is inconsistent with
Covenant 169 are not unrelated to the wealth (in reserves of petroleum and
minerals and in biodiversity) of the territories that are occupied by indigenous
communities.
Women’s
rights
Although
women's rights have not been the specific subject of any of the Network's appeal
during 1999, it is impossible to neglect the very serious reports from the
Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre of the Mountain Region of Guerrero regarding
violations of the reproductive rights of indigenous women. The Centre has
documented eleven instances in which unilingual (non-Spanish-speaking)
indigenous women have been sterilized without having given their informed prior
consent. In some instances, the operation has been poorly performed and has left
them with lasting abdominal pain. Eight of the women were told that they would
not continue to receive aid through the government programme Procampo if they
did not agree to the sterilization procedure; they were also made to believe
that the procedure was the only way to avoid contracting cancer of uterus. One
of the women was offered a monthly food parcel for her family as an inducement
to accept the sterilization procedure; after four months even the food parcel
had started to dwindle away.
During
her 1999 visit to
Mexico
, the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights was given a report on
indigenous rights by representatives of the twenty organizations which form the
National Coordination of Indigenous Women. The report emphasized violations of
reproductive rights in the states of
Oaxaca
, Guerrero, and
Veracruz
, stating that sterilizations without informed consent are practiced in the
context of government aid programmes such as the National Programme for
Education, Health, and Nutrition and the Support Programme for the Countryside.
Similar complaints regarding the linking of government aid packages to
inadequately-informed consent for sterilization procedures were expressed at a
gathering of indigenous women in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas in late
1999. Such cases have also been documented by health practitioners in
Chiapas
and
Puebla
.
Electoral
rights and post-electoral disputes
The
Network received no less than four appeals from the
municipality
of
Sanitago Ixtayutla
(
Oaxaca
), where the incumbent municipal president refused to accept the electoral
defeat of his chosen successor, causing a protracted conflict.
The
campaign of harassment that followed the opposition victory in the local
elections in Guerrero led to more than one death and to the detention, torture,
and imprisonment of opposition party activists and supporters. These incidents
have taken place in a state which, in the past ten years, has seen more than two
hundred murders or disappearances of opposition activists, and where the
governing party does not even attempt to deny its use of electoral bribes -
(gifts of food, building supplies, etc.) simply stating that such actions are
not contrary to state law.
Situations
such as the above give much cause for concern in this major electoral year of
2000. It is to be expected that a truly democratic electoral choice will be
hardest to achieve in areas where there has been a concentration of poverty
and/or a history of political violence. There may perhaps be a danger of such
areas becoming marginalised political strongholds - constituting in effect a
recalcitrant and neglected one-party mini-state in a largely democratic
landscape.
The
rights of children and young people
Despite
the acknowledged efforts of the Federal District Human Rights Commission to deal
with human rights violations committed by the security forces, Casa Alianza and
other organizations have reported several cases of very serious police abuse of
street children.
In
the opinion of Mexican human rights organizations, the recent mass arrests of
university students, carried out in many cases without valid arrest warrants in
a police operation of questionable legality, is an illustration of the political
subordination of the judicial branch of government. As such, it must also be
seen as a large-scale violation of the civil rights of the affected students.
Neither
the one nor the other of the above situations can be disconnected from a
socio-economic context in which two thirds of the national population is
suffering from important unmet social needs. It is almost a truism to say that
an increase in extreme poverty leads to an increase in the number of children
living in or on the street - and thus to serious violations of the human rights
of children. The policies of state governments that are leading to a reduction
in access to teacher training for rural students, and the federal government's
evident encouragement of the gradual privatization of the public university
system, while less immediately drastic in their results, are also leading to an
erosion of the socio-economic rights of young Mexicans.
Conclusion
Within
a period of eight months, the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights,
the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions, and
the President of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations have
all visited
Mexico
. Their reports and their reported comments have given evidence of their concern
over the persistence of extra-judicial executions, over the continued impunity
enjoyed by the perpetrators of human rights violations, over the pervading
encroachment of the military into the civilian domain, over serious violations
of indigenous rights, and over the failure of the state to provide adequate
protection and support for human rights defenders.
Without
exaggeration, it can be said that the year 2000 will be a year of trial not only
for
Mexico
but for the international community. For the latter, there are at least two
alternative paths.
The
international community can choose the challenging path of supporting the work
of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and of (while fully respecting
national sovereignty)
doing
everything possible to encourage
Mexico
to undertake the reforms that are needed in order to ensure a real respect for
the human rights of all Mexicans. It can offer technical support to facilitate
the holding of elections that are not only honest on voting day but are the
outcome of fairly-run campaigns.
Alternatively,
the international community could allow the visits of the international human
rights experts to be used by the Mexican government for cosmetic purposes - in
such a way that a semblance of compliance with the experts' recommendations
could serve as a camouflage for the government's unwillingness to engage in
fundamental reform. In a similar manner, in the electoral context, the
international community could concentrate its interest on the actual voting
process, turning a blind eye to pre-electoral violence and campaign corruption.
There
is no doubt that
Mexico
is a country of great commercial importance for
Canada
and the
United States
, as well as for its other Latin American trading partners and for the European
Union. What the year 2000 will show is whether that commercial importance is
allowed to overshadow everything else, or whether, as is to be fervently hoped,
Canada
, the
United States
, and the countries of the European Union and of Latin America are willing to
give an unequivocal signal to
Mexico
that they place respect for human rights above all other considerations.
Recommendations
The
Urgent Action Network would like to take this opportunity to urge the Canadian
government to choose the first of the two above options, that is to say to place
respect for the human rights of Mexicans above what may appear to be immediate
commercial advantage.
To
this end:
We
are urging the Canadian government to raise the question of human rights in
Mexico in its Item 9 speech at the fifty-sixth session of the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights, expressing especial concern with regard to
violations of the rights of Mexico's indigenous peoples and to the government's
failure to take adequate measures to protect and promote the work of human
rights defenders.
We
are requesting the Canadian government to encourage the Mexican government to
set a date for the visit of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women. In
the context of such a visit, we would expect that violations of reproductive
rights would be considered as part of the pattern of violence to which women are
subjected.
We
are also asking the Canadian government to encourage the Mexican government to
set dates for the visits of the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges
and Lawyers and of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances. We would expect the Working Group to pay special
attention to the violations of indigenous rights occurring within their special
mandate.
The
indigenous campesinos confront issues of the environment and human rights in
Mexico
The
Campesino Ecologists of Guerrero
In
early April 2000, the Social Justice Committee sent out an urgent appeal for the
release from prison of Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, founding members of
the Campesino Ecologists of the Sierra of Petatlán (in the state of Guerrero,
Mexico). The two men, who are considered prisoners of conscience by Amnesty
International, were arrested and tortured by the Mexican army in May 1999. They
are still suffering from the physical effects of their torture. Not only has the
Mexican government not responded to appeals for their release, but they have
recently been moved from the prison dormitory to be segregated in a bathroom,
and Sr. Montiel has been denied adequate medical treatment.
The
texts that follow are a brief description of the Campesino Ecologists (which was
sent to the SJC by the Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights Centre in
Mexico City
) and two statements by Rodolfo Montiel himself. The first of these statements
is his expression of thanks upon receiving the Goldman Prize (sometimes referred
to as the Nobel Prize for the environment) in April 2000. The second longer
statement describes the origins and mission of the Campesino Ecologists.
The
forest resources in the state of Guerrero are among the most important in
Mexico
. In 1995, the then-governor of the state, Ruben Figueroa Alcocer, signed a
forest agreement which gave the
United States
lumber company Boise Cascade exclusive commercial cutting rights in the ejidos
of the Costa Grande region of Guerrero. The company signed a contract with
twenty-four ejidos (all of which were associated with Bernadino Baustista Valle,
who controlled the Ruben Figueroa Union of Ejidos.) The price paid by
Boise
for lumber was three times that paid by local buyers; and tree shipments
arrived around the clock at its processing plant in Papanoa, Guerrero. In
addition to Boise Cascade, groups of local lumber interests were also operating
in the region. One of the local groups was headed by the same Bernadino Bautista
Valle, who, with the complicity of the state government - and latterly with that
of the Mexican army, had for years been sacking the region's forest resources
for his personal benefit.
In February
1998, residents of the region created the organization Campesino Ecologists of
the Sierra of Petatlán. The main goal of the Campesino Ecologists was to end
the over-cutting of the region's forests, which, they feared, could lead within
ten years to the desertification of their mountain region. At first, their
activities were focussed on education, reforestation, and legal action (filing
legal complaints with government authorities regarding the over-cutting). When
their efforts went unheeded by all branches of government, they turned to
nonviolent direct action - setting up roadblocks to stop the transport of
lumber. In apparent consequence, in April 1998, Boise Cascade left the region.
However local groups continued to over-exploit the forest.
Sr.
Montiel’s statement on the Campesino Ecologists organization:
"At
the end of 1998, we campesinos living in communities in the Sierra de Petatlán
and Coyuca de Catalán mounted a blockade against the deforestation being
carried out by members of the Ruben Figueroa Union of Ejidos. We made two
banners that said, "Stop cutting down trees and burning our forests."
This
cutting and burning had already led to a water shortage in the mountain ranges
of the municipalities of Petatlán and Coyuca de Catalán. What once were rivers
had become little brooks, and what once were brooks had dwindled away into
little trickles of water.
Many people
knew the
Mameyal
River
. It was a large river with lots of freshwater fish and shellfish. Now it has
only quantities of garbage - bottles, plastic wrappers, and foam. The once wide
River Frio is now a brook. Because of the burning, the tree cutting, and the
fact that the cattle ranchers wash their cattle with harmful chemicals right at
the water's edge, the fish are almost gone from the
Frio
River
. The
Petatlán
River
is in a similar condition. It has dried up dramatically since the Spring of
1998. The Hacienda de Dolores River in the
municipality
of
Catalán
was once a large river. Now it is a pitiful little brook, and, as a result of
the widespread burning, its once plentiful fish are now very scarce. After
large-scale fires of this kind, all the ash from the burned trees is washed into
the canyons and rivers, killing the fish and shellfish...
We have
stated that we are against deforestation, against the burning, against
pollution. We are not against individual persons. On the contrary, we hope that
everyone will watch over the environment. To do harm to the environment is to do
harm to ourselves and to our families; it is to attack and destroy what is
really the future of our children and grandchildren. Morover the environment is
a heritage that does not only belong to the local authorities, to the local
communities and ejidos, to the Ministry of the Environment (SEMARNAP), or to
those who run the government. It belongs rather to all of the world's
inhabitants.
The local
authorities tell us to limit our activities to our own community, to the El
Mameyal Ejido. But I, Rodolfo Montiel, do not accept the destruction of the
forest in other ejidos. To cut and burn down the forest is to destroy natural
resources that belong to all of humanity. It is also to destroy the habitat of
the wild animals who are an expression of Life and who have the right to live.
I want us
to recognise that we are to blame for what is happening in our time. There are
eclipses, earthquakes, unknown illnesses that are caused by so much pollution.
Where there is sufficient ground cover, rainfall is beneficial. When there is
not enough vegetation, the rains, as though in anger, carry flood-water to
low-lying areas, bringing death and destruction to people and nature... When
there are many trees growing close together, the clouds discharge their rain.
But if there are not enough trees, the clouds pass by letting fall only a few
drops of rain, and the crops dry up. This hurts the campesinos - as well as
hurting people in other walks of life who are the consumers of the crops grown
by the campesinos.
The
government has the answer in its hand. That answer should not be to persecute,
imprison and kill the campesinos, but rather to support them with productive
projects that do not harm the environment. Firstly, the government should
support reforestation of deforested areas, a process that should be carried out
by those who were responsible for the destruction. The government should help
with tractors and farm equipment, with poultry and pig farms. They should help
the cattle ranchers with mills for processing sugarcane, sorghum, and corn, so
that the ranchers can make feed for their cattle instead of destroying the
forest to create dried-up cattle pastures. Instead of supplying arms and permits
for armed guards to destroy us ... the government should act with honesty and
look for ways to improve our lives.
It must be
remembered that those who kill many people commit genocide and those who destroy
many trees commit ecocide. These are two very similar crimes and one may lead to
the other. Every tree that falls is like an exploding bomb: water sources dry
up; the sea rises; and because the forests are cut down and burned, plant life
is dying. That is to say, the ecosystem is being killed. Our soil is eroding and
becoming less and less fertile. These losses are being felt by the campesinos.
The rays of the sun have become hotter; it is as if the sun were lower in the
sky - as if it had new batteries.
This is why
I invite all of you, all of us who eat and drink what the earth produces, to
demand that our common heritage be respected and that its resources be used
constructively rather than destructively. Let us become more aware, because it
is for the good of your children, of your grandchildren, and of all the
generations to come. We who are only here in passing must leave air that is pure
for those who come after us to breathe."
Indigenous
Campesions and the Monte Azules Biosphere Reserve
In May
2000, the Social Justice Committee sent out an appeal regarding the situation in
Chiapas
including recent threats by the Mexican government to evict the indigenous
communities that are in the nucleus or the buffer-zone of the Monte Azules
biosphere reserve. Some of these communities are predominantly Zapatista and
belong to the
Ricardo
Flores
Magon
Autonomous
Municipality
; others belong to the independent campesino organization ARIC Independiente y
Democrática. The latter held in forum in the municipality of
Ocosingo
,
Chiapas
, on May 20th. The following paragraph is an excerpt from the Forum's final
declaration:
"We
indigenous peoples are not enemies of biodiversity. Contrary to what some
environmentalists have been saying, our culture is not destructive. Their
criticisms are welcome, but we also invite these environmentalists to look for
solutions to the questions of environmental degradation, marginalisation, and
poverty. We also call upon them to see that there is conservation and
sustainable use of natural resources. In the same way, we invite them to file
legal complaints with the appropriate authorities about the activities of
national and international businesses with regard to patenting, intellectual
property rights, and biotechnology...
We
indigenous peoples demand respect for our rights to land, to social services, to
health, to education, and to food, as these rights are defined in our laws and
in the international agreements signed by the Mexican government. For our part,
we commit ourselves to preserve natural resources."
The
Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities are a constant target of government
harassment. Here is a message from one of them:
"Once
more, we men, women, children, and elderly indigenous campesinos of the Ricardo
Flores Magón territory in rebellion, send you greetings. We are expressing our
resistance, and denouncing the past and present threats of violence and
provocation on the part of the misgovernment (tr. in Spanish mal gobierno,
literally bad government, the term frequently used by the Zapatistas to refer to
the Mexican government), which has tried and is trying by every means to
exterminate us, to seek confrontations with us, and to wear down our struggle...
Because of our dignity and resolution and because we will not surrender our
words or our dreams, the government is condemning us to a silent war of
extermination. Our people have to struggle, suffer, and resist...
We have
already raised our voices to explain to you the pretext that the government is
using to continue to justify its war and its lies: the problem of land and
territory in the area which they call the Lacandon region and Monte Azules
Reserve and which for us is the
Ricardo
Flores
Magón
Indigenous
Territory
. And we have explained at length why, because of history, law, struggle, and
effort, this land belongs to those who have worked it and have won it with their
blood and effort in struggle. For this reason, the eviction is unjust...
We have
explained that we have been working these lands for years and that we have
repeatedly requested official land titles. But one day it occurred to the
President to name the area and to decree the Reserve - without consulting the
people or taking into account their legal rights, without acknowledging their
work on the land and their requests for land titling... And, in the same way, it
occurred to another President to reform the rights of the campesinos that are
guaranteed in Article 27 of the Constitution, thus betraying the Mexican
Revolution and the blood shed by the indigenous campesinos in Zapata's struggle.
It did not matter to the Presidents that, before the Mexican nation, existed
these territories were occupied by our ancestors, and that later the lands had
been sacked by the lumber companies...
Now that
the reforms have been made and the decrees proclaimed, the government does
indeed see us, but they look upon us as invaders and criminals who are engaged
in destructive and illegal activity. They do not see us as indigenous people who
are demanding what is rightfully theirs, but as violent and intractable...
We have
also reported to you how the government arms and uses the paramilitary groups to
cause confrontations between brothers...We reported to you how last month the
misgovernment's institutions began their eviction threats, which included a
worthless proposal for relocation with five hectares of land. We answered no,
because a family cannot live with five hectares, and because for years we have
seen that the government's productive projects are of no use to campesinos and
do not lead to a decent life. These projects only benefit entrepreneurs,
governments, merchants, and unscrupulous middlemen (coyotes). For the campesinos,
there is only more work, exploitation, and suffering..."
