Mexico Week In Review: 06.07-06.13

[cisdc]

Mexico Week In Review: 06.07-06.13
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Published since 1994, 'Mexico Week In Review' is a service of the
Committee of Indigenous Solidarity (CIS).  CIS is a Washington, D.C.
based activist group committed to the ongoing struggles of Indigenous
peoples in the Americas.  CIS is actively supporting the struggles
of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico while simultaneously combating
related structures of oppression within our own communities.

To request free searches of our news archive or to contact us
directly, write: cisdc at zzapp.org

"Para Todos, Todo; Para Nosotros Nada"
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ZAPATISTA FARM LEADER SLAIN

A farm leader with ties to the Zapatista National Liberation Army
(EZLN) has been slain and officials said they were trying to find the
killers. Unknown assailants shot Eduardo Vazquez three times, used a
machete to hack off two of his fingers and ran over him with a car in
broad daylight near the town of Chilon. Authorities originally ruled
the killing an act of common crime, but said they now believe
Vazquez's death could have been a premeditated homicide. No one was
arrested in the case and police are still trying to determine a
motive for the killing.

An activist, farm and Indigenous leader, Vazquez was one of several
members of the Zapatistas who were imprisoned on dubious charges in
the years following the group's short-lived, January 1994 rebellion
in the name of Indigenous rights and socialism. He was released from
the Cerro Hueco prison in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of
southernmost Chiapas state, in 2001 as the government of President
Vicente Fox moved to reopen negotiations for a lasting peace with the
Zapatistas. Those talks have since stalled, however. Human rights
groups across Chiapas condemned the killing, saying Vazquez was
targeted because of his loyalty to the Zapatistas.

Source: Associated Press: 06/09
====

CIUDAD JUAREZ FEMICIDE: CLAIMS OF NO SERIAL KILLER - CHIHUAHUA DISAGREES

In a strange turn of events, after a new federal investigation turned
up no evidence of serial killings among the first 50 women's murders
it examined in Ciudad Juárez, it is now Chihuahua state law
enforcement that is arguing for a pattern of serial murders in the
border city.  In the past, while federal officials were considering
their possible involvement in Cd. Juárez, it was the state that was
attempting to push the number of deaths downward. On Thursday, June
3, 2004, the federal Special Investigator of Crimes Related to
Women's Homicides, María López Urbina, gave her first major report to
an audience that included Mexican President Vicente Fox and federal
Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha.  According to López,
"...in this first group of analyzed cases there are no indicators of
serial crimes among them."

López and her team examined 50 of 307 femicides that have occurred in
Cd. Juárez since 1993.  An AP article indicated that these cases were
the first examined because they were the first received by federal
investigators from the state of Chihuahua.  López repeatedly dodged
questions about whether any of the 50 cases were from among the more
than 100 which fit a serial pattern.  Because details of which
killings were examined by federal officials were not discussed, it is
unknown whether any of the cases related to any of the eight bodies
found in a cotton field in Cd. Juárez in November 2001 were examined.
Many of these cases are related to the ECCO computer school and there
are other cases related to this same business in Chihuahua City
(although the federal investigation is not looking into killings
there). However, these cases would appear to fit a serial profile.

Manuel Esparza Navarrete, who for years has been the spokesperson for
Chihuahua's special investigation into the killings and is now the
spokesperson for the combined state-federal investigation, said that
law enforcement has established the presence of "serial killers in
Ciudad Juárez."  Strangely, in 2002, Esparza himself minimized the
number of killings.  At a time when the press, NGOs and the head of
Chihuahua's Supreme Court were saying that there had been 93
femicides that fit the profile of abduction, rape and murder, Esparza
said that there had been only 67.

Another finding from López Urbina's report is that 81 of 167
Chihuahua law enforcement officials and agents that were or are
currently involved in the investigation of women's murders in Cd.
Juárez are now under investigation themselves.  They are being
investigated for alleged negligence in investigating the crimes.
López said she would not name any of the 81 people because they are
currently being investigated by Chihuahua law enforcement.  She did
however state that seven state lead investigators are among those she
indicated. According to the Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario, there
have only been seven lead investigators since the office was created
in 1998.

When families of some of the Cd. Juárez victims went to Mexico City
and tried to enter López Urbina's press conference they were told
they were not on the list of those invited and were not permitted to
enter the function, according to an article in El Diario.  Only
Ramona Morales, the mother of victim Silvia Rivera Morales, was on
the official list.  However, after Morales and other family members
saw Commissioner Guadalupe Morfín Otero entering the event with her
family, they were finally admitted to the event.  Morfín was the
first federal official sent to Cd. Juárez to look into the killings.
She was not given strong prosecutorial powers though and is focusing
instead on making the city safer.  Once inside, Alfredo Limas--a
member of a Cd. Juárez anti-violence NGO--said that he and family
members were followed around the room wherever they went. Limas, a
professor at the Autonomous University of Juárez, said "I had a woman
following me, listening to what I said, she went wherever I went,
always fixed on me."

Sources: Frontera NorteSur: 06/07; El Diario (Cd. Juárez): 06/04-05;
El Norte (Cd. Juárez): 06/06; Associated Press: 06/03
====

RECENT BOMBINGS QUESTIONED

Newspapers worldwide have carried the stories - three bombs exploded
in closed-for-the-weekend foreign owned Mexican banks in the predawn
hours of May 23.  The explosions were set off in Jiutepec, a small
town south of Mexico City in the state of Morelos.  The claimed
perpetrators - heretofore-unknown dissenters calling themselves the
"Comando Jaramillista Morelense 23 de Mayo."  Legitimized immediately
as another guerrilla group advocating social justice by the media in
Mexico, a yet unanswered question is who really was behind the acts?
Populist or rural poor advocates?  Land reformists?  Terrorists?
Subversives?  Student radicals - old or new?  Could they simply be
common criminals trying to mask whatever acts, present or future,
behind a political façade?  Or maybe this was something yet more
partisan in nature, one more Kafkaesque-like act in the Byzantine
world of Mexican politics?

The so-called "commando" group reportedly took their name from Rubén
Jaramillo, a peasant activist and leader who was killed, along with
his family, by military forces on May 23, 1962.  But this latest
Jaramillista group had never been heard of before.  A note was found
near a fourth device that conveniently failed to explode.  The note
condemned the economic policies and "neoliberal counter reforms" of
President Vicente Fox Quesada, who it said "has shown that moral and
political hegemony have no limits under the imperialist hegemony."
It also called for the resignation of Morelos Governor Sergio Estrada
Cajigal, a member of Fox's National Action Party, or PAN.  Estrada
had been under pressure by the political opposition in the state to
resign following revelations of supposed ties to drug traffickers,
charges that Estrada adamantly denies.  When he refused to resign,
the Morelos state legislature initiated impeachment proceedings that
are now bogged down in the courts.  On June 2 the self-proclaimed
Jaramillista commando was heard from again.  This time they sent a
communiqué to members of the media in the southern state of Chiapas,
home of the now famous Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).
The missive again attacked the bourgeoisie.  "We warn that what the
popular revolutionary movement has gained has not been enough to
detain exploitation, exclusion, corruption, impunity, cynicism,
grandeur, repression and terror by the powerful," the note said.  As
to the May 23 bombings in Morelos, the communiqué said that the
attack was directed against "banking institutions fraudulently
privatized by the neoliberal governments."  It also noted that care
was taken lest the explosions might have caused injuries, "so that
they cannot classify us as terrorists."

The attention getting midnight explosions were relatively small
detonations, although international media reports were much more
bombastic - and with few to no follow-up stories.  In Morelos, the
bombs were first said to be dynamite and then there were reports that
plastic explosives were used.  Another report said that TNT had been
found, while a local police commander said they were probably set off
by remote control.  As it turns out, investigators now have evidence
that what was used were commercially available small explosive
devices normally used in the construction industry.  They were placed
in plastic containers and rigged with clocks, the timing devices
apparently being the most sophisticated part of the makeup.  But who
is behind the bombings, that by whatever standard were serious,
frightening and yes acts of terror?

Going beyond the theory of Ockham's razor, after the May 23
explosions Julio Hernández wrote in the Mexico City daily La Jornada
"on many occasions supposed (guerrilla) acts have been prepared in
government basements."  Governor Estrada, who has denied any
involvement in the affair, has expressed strong suspicions that
"political actors" in the state are involved, not members of what he
claims to be a non-existent guerrilla group.  According to Estrada,
the investigation by Mexico's Attorney General points to a group of
perpetrators who are trying to politically and socially destabilize
Morelos and his administration.  The Morelos state Secretary of
Government, Jesús Giles Sánchez (PAN), more specifically points the
finger towards "the political parties," whereas members of congress
in Mexico City were even more blunt.  José Sigona Torres (PAN,
Morelos) attributed the bombings to "leftwing extremist groups tied
to the PRD," an unsubstantiated charge that a Democratic Revolution
Party (PRD) spokeswoman challenged as grossly irresponsible.  Back in
the state and in a seemingly vicious circle, PRD leaders claim that
public perception is the bombings may "have been fabricated in order
to divert attention from the real problems of non-governance that
exist in Morelos, and due to possible ties of some state government
officials to drug trafficking."

Source: Mexidata.Info: 06/07
====

IMMIGRATION NEWS I: MEXICO PUTS WATER BARRELS IN DESERT

Mexico has placed barrels of water in the desert to lower the number
of illegal immigrants who die attempting to cross the border into the
United States in scorching temperatures, authorities said.
State-funded migrant welfare organization Grupo Beta told Reuters it
has set up four water stations equipped with 55-gallon barrels of
water in the Sonora Desert just south of the border with Arizona.
Since last Oct. 1, U.S. Border Patrol agents say, 10 illegal
immigrants have died of dehydration as they attempted to walk across
the cactus-strewn section of desert.  The death rate is usually much
higher in the summer, when temperatures soar above 104 Fahrenheit (40
Celsius). The number of migrants from Mexico and the rest of Latin
America who died crossing the border reached 346 in the 12 months to
Oct. 1, 2003 -- the highest level in three years.

"The project to make drinking water available on this stretch of the
Mexican border is new, and it could save many lives during the hot
summer season," Haydee Benetez, a spokeswoman for Grupo Beta in Agua
Prieta, said by telephone.  "A lot of illegal migrants who pass
through here have already made a long journey across the desert on
foot with few supplies or none at all, and are in bad shape before
they even get to the frontier," she added.

The water stations are marked by 30-foot tall flagstaffs to make them
visible to migrants above the tall brush and scrub of the desert.
Each is equipped with at least one barrel of water.  The stations
were donated by the nonprofit organization Humane Borders based in
Tucson, Arizona. The organization, which is backed by human rights
and faith-based groups, has set up 42 stations on the U.S. side of
the border since March 2001.  Group spokeswoman Elizabeth Ohmann said
providing water stops for migrants was especially vital this summer,
as the rain-starved Sonora Desert region enters a fifth year of
drought.  Since last October, U.S. Border Patrol agents in Tucson
have rescued 242 migrants along the stretch of border, up from 188
rescues in the same period a year earlier.

Source: Reuters: 06/09
====

IMMIGRATION NEWS II: BORDER DEATHS IN NEW MEXICO, ARIZONA

On June 11, 17-year old Mexican citizen Victor Hugo de Jesus Montalvo
died while crossing into the US through the desert west of Columbus,
New Mexico. Socorro Cordova, spokesperson for the Mexican Consulate
in El Paso, Texas, said that according to witnesses, smugglers gave
the boy stimulant pills which made him more susceptible to
dehydration and heatstroke.

In Douglas, Arizona, three men charged with smuggling may face
additional charges in connection with the death of Brazilian migrant
Felician Divino Welton. The suspects were arrested after Welton's
body was found in their SUV; investigators think the men were trying
to dump the body. Investigators believe Welton became ill from
dehydration while crossing into the US through the desert near
Douglas the week of May 31, and that he died soon after in a nearby
trailer where agents later detained another Brazilian and 13 Mexicans.

Source: Immigration News Briefs: 06/12
====

BUSH WINS LONG-SOUGHT GOAL OF U.S. ACCESS FOR AGING MEXICAN TRUCKS

The Supreme Court's unanimous ruling this week giving President Bush
the authority to allow approximately 30,000 Mexican trucks onto U.S.
roads marks the culmination of a long campaign by Mr. Bush. During
his tenure as governor of Texas, President Bush signed a letter to
the Clinton Administration criticizing its refusal to open the border
to Mexican trucks. In 2001, under the North American Free Trade
Agreement, the Bush administration issued new regulations that would
allow tens of thousands of aging trucks from Mexico to haul freight
anywhere in the U.S. without having to meet U.S. clean air standards.
Mexican trucks pose a greater pollution risk than trucks licensed in
the U.S., which must adhere to stricter emission standards. The
regulations were delayed through a lawsuit filed by a broad coalition
of organizations including Public Citizen, the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters, the American Lung Association, the
California Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, the California Trucking
Association, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense
Council. The groups argued that the regulations disregarded key
requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the
Clean Air Act. They pointed out that the administration should have
considered the environmental impacts of opening the border.

The Supreme Court's decision, overturning a ruling by the 9th US
Circuit Court of Appeals, also means the administration will not have
to do a detailed environmental impact study. "This ruling gives a
green light to allow trucks to cross the border with no regard for
their effect on the environment," said Public Citizen President Joan
Claybrook. "Communities on both sides of the border are already
struggling with severely polluted air. This ruling in essence tells
those communities they must fend for themselves, because the federal
government isn't going to help them by ever acknowledging or
accurately describing the impact of its own decisions on their air
quality."

The older, Mexican diesel trucks are more likely to emit high levels
of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides. The fine particles
composing this pollution are easily inhaled deep into the lungs where
they can remain embedded for long periods of time. Hundreds of
community health studies have linked daily increases in fine particle
pollution to reduced lung function, greater use of asthma
medications, and increased rates of school absenteeism, emergency
room visits, hospital admissions, and premature death.  Exhaust is
also a known carcinogen.   "This is yet another example of how the
Bush administration's approach to trade puts communities at risk and
weakens our hard-won clean air protections," said Stephen Mills,
director of the Sierra Club's International Program. "The Bush
administration shouldn't put trade deals ahead of public health.
Instead they should make sure that environmental protections are part
of trade agreements."

Source: BushGreenwatch: 06/09
====

CORN TORTILLAS LOSING POPULARITY

Status-conscious Mexicans are starting to turn their backs on what
has been the chief staple of the diet since before there was even a
country called Mexico: the corn tortilla. While Americans wrap
tortillas around grilled meats at a record pace, the increasingly
urbanized and globalized Mexican consumer is moving on to sliced
bread, processed foods and a little more protein, nutrition experts
and industry officials said. "This is partially a status issue," said
Salvador Villalpando, a researcher at the National Institute of
Public Health. "The tortilla is considered a rural foodstuff."
Advertising for bread, chips, cookies and cakes is driving consumer
tastes, he added.

Average tortilla consumption has fallen 15 percent in four years,
according to new figures from the Mexican Chamber of Corn Processors.
The average urban Mexican consumes 185 pounds of tortillas a year, or
about 1,700 tortillas. The figure four years ago was 215 pounds, or
nearly 2,000 tortillas. Rural consumption has fallen as well. And
while the drop amounts to less than one tortilla per day per person,
industry officials say the trend is alarming for the 4,000-year-old
maize disc. The tortilla is still Mexicans' No. 1 source of calories.
But Jose Enrique Tron, the corn chamber director, said rising incomes
have made meat a bigger part of diets.  Another factor is the
government's lifting of tortilla price controls five years ago. Sales
have fallen as prices have doubled and quality has suffered.  "The
tortillas in the United States . . . are better than those in Mexico
City," Tron said.

Source: Dallas Morning News: 06/08
====

OAXACA: GOV. DENIES HE STAGED SHOOTING

Oaxacan Gov. José Murat accused the government of orchestrating a
campaign to discredit his version of a supposed assassination attempt
against him for political reasons. The same day, federal prosecutors
issued arrest warrants for a group of Murat's bodyguards for
tampering with evidence related to the shooting, local media
reported.  Murat traveled to Mexico City to refute reports published
by El Universal and other papers that federal prosecutors have
determined Murat invented the alleged attempt on his life in March.
Murat said the Attorney General's Office (PGR) was waging a campaign
of political persecution against opposition parties, "first against
the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and (Mexico City Mayor
Andrés Manuel) López Obrador and now against me." He demanded that
the PGR turn over the investigation of the shooting outside the famed
Hotel Victoria in Oaxaca City to state prosecutors.  "The PGR is
conducting an investigation influenced by political motivations,
denying us information and the right to submit evidence as well as
leaking delicate information to the media," Murat said.  In late
March, Murat willingly handed over the investigation of the shooting
to federal prosecutors, saying he was the "first one who wanted to
get to the bottom of all this."

Murat and his bodyguards had testified that as the governor drove his
mini-van up to the hotel on the morning of March 18, a group of
masked assailants had opened fire on his vehicle with automatic
weapons. In the press conference, Murat gave reporters copies that he
said were from the PGR's investigation.  In the memos, prosecutors
discussed three different scenarios of how they could conclude the
case and evaluated the political repercussions of each conclusion.
First, Murat's bodyguards could be charged with perjury, tampering
with evidence and destruction of property. Second, three people close
to the governor could be charged with failing to report a crime to
the police. Or, third, the PGR could declare the shooting was an
assassination attempt but that the assailants could not be
identified. The memos said the third option would be viewed as "a
failure" by the PGR.  The memos showed the investigation had
concluded that the shots which pierced the windshield of Murat's gray
Nissan Quest mini-van had actually been fired within the vehicle and
that the witnesses had invented the story of the assassination
attempt as a cover up. They allegedly went so far as to plant
evidence at the scene and alter other physical evidence, such as
smashing the windshield.  Local media reported that bystanders said
Murat was actually leaving the hotel when the shots broke out, and
that the shots were preceded and followed by shouts between occupants
of the vehicle. Other witnesses said Murat had allegedly partied in
the hotel the previous night with three female stars from a risque
television show. The starlets denied that version in earlier press
reports.  Murat also denied he was with the women.  "They are
rumors," Murat told reporters. "That day I had dinner with the
archbishop and later I went to bed."

The PGR reportedly issued arrest warrants for Murat's former chief
bodyguard, Manuel Moreno Rivas, and six other policemen and
bodyguards for allegedly tampering with evidence. Moreno was also
charged with perjury and abuse of authority.  Moreno was named the
state's chief of police after the shooting.

Source: El Universal: 06/02

end: Mexico Week In Review: 06.07-06.13
--