Mexico Week In Review: 07.24-07.30

[cisdc]

Mexico Week In Review: 07.24-07.30
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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 view newsletter archives, visit: 
http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/mexico-week/

"Para Todos, Todo; Para Nosotros Nada"
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NOTE: The newsletter will not be published next week. We will return 
to normal publishing on August 6. --.ed

JUAREZ FEMICIDES: GOVERNMENT QUIETLY DROPS MURDER PROBES

Federal officials have quietly closed a three-year inquiry into the 
rape-strangulation of 14 women and teenagers in the border city of 
Juarez, leaving relatives with little hope the killings will ever be 
solved. The federal Attorney General's Office intervened in 2003, 
promising it would try to solve cases plagued for years by 
allegations of state police corruption and incompetence. Federal 
prosecutors privately returned the cases to state authorities in June 
because they didn't find evidence of a federal crime, according to 
the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office. The federal Attorney 
General's Office didn't respond to repeated requests from The 
Associated Press for comment.

The victims' families weren't told the investigation had been closed; 
they read it in the local newspaper. "It fills me with rage, with a 
feeling of impotence, because they never investigated anything," said 
Josefina Gonzalez, whose 20-year-old daughter's remains were found 
with those of seven other young women in 2001. In addition to those 
eight killings, federal authorities also dropped investigations into 
the slayings of six teenagers, aged 15 to 18. They were among about 
100 young women who were sexually assaulted, strangled and dumped in 
the desert outside Juarez since 1993.

Relatives of the victims have long demanded President Vicente Fox do 
more to solve the killings in the city of about 1.3 million people 
across the border from El Paso, Texas. Police made many arrests, but 
the killings continued. Movie stars like Jane Fonda and Sally Field 
took part in a 2004 protest to demand justice for the victims. The 
killings also inspired two as-yet-unreleased movies, including one 
starring Jennifer Lopez. Over the years, police have suspected a 
serial killer, gangs or even organ-smugglers in the deaths. But no 
strong evidence has emerged to support the theories.

In Mexico, murder is a state, not a federal crime. But after the 
victims' relatives said state investigators were inept and corrupt, 
federal officials jumped into the investigation of the 14 killings in 
2003 to see if there was evidence of a federal offense, such as organ 
trafficking or organized crime. The federal government's involvement 
in the 14 cases failed to pacify critics, leading Fox to establish a 
Juarez-based special prosecutor's office in January 2004 to monitor 
all investigations into the killings and look for possible gaps. 
Guadalupe Lopez Urbina, the first special federal prosecutor assigned 
to Juarez, recommended criminal charges against dozens of current and 
former law enforcement officers for alleged negligence in handling 
the cases. However, only two state investigators were charged with 
negligence, and a judge later threw out the cases.

State officials claimed they solve the majority of female homicides, 
but contended they lack the resources and training to deal with these 
killings, which appeared related to one another. "In these cases, it 
is evident that state authorities were incapable and unwilling to 
provide justice," said Eric Olson, a Latin America expert at Amnesty 
International USA. "It is then the federal authorities' obligation to 
provide safety, security and justice for their citizens."

In January, the Attorney General's Office created a national 
prosecutor for crimes against women headquartered in Mexico City. The 
Juarez office became one of three regional offices. The same day the 
national office was announced, federal authorities released a final 
report saying the slayings of women in Juarez were not serial 
killings and that the city was not even the most dangerous in Mexico 
in terms of the killings of women. Critics say the Fox administration 
is apparently washing its hands of the matter. "At this point our 
best bet is to look for international justice," said Marisela Ortiz 
of Bring Our Daughters Home, a group of victims' relatives. The 
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights agreed in March to 
investigate allegations that state officials planted evidence and 
failed to go after the real killers. "We're back to square one, but I 
no longer believe the killers will ever be found," said Gonzalez, one 
of three mothers who filed the accusations with the commission. "If 
there is no justice here, there will be divine justice."

Source: Associated Press: 07/25
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ELECTION UPDATE: AMLO SAYS HE IS PRESIDENT, VOWS PROTESTS

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), who lost the vote count to 
conservative rival Felipe Calderon by a tiny margin, said in a 
television interview that a rally on Sunday in Mexico City would show 
his backers have the energy to keep up protests. "I am already 
president. I won the presidential election. I am president of Mexico 
by the will of the majority of Mexicans," Lopez Obrador told 
Univision's "Here and Now" show, scheduled to be aired on Thursday. 
"I think the people will not tire," he added. "We are going to beat 
(our opponents) because the people are on our side."

AMLO, whose fraud allegations are being examined by Mexico's 
electoral court, has torn into Calderon in countless interviews in 
recent days. His rival has opted to keep a lower profile and set 
about preparing his presidency. Despite strong rhetoric about a 
"dirty war" against him, Lopez Obrador has kept protest rallies by 
his backers peaceful. This week, supporters protested in the lobby of 
an upscale hotel and lit hundreds of candles in the Zocalo square. 
AMLO plans to announce a civil resistance campaign at a rally in 
central Mexico City on Sunday as the next step in pushing for a 
vote-by-vote recount. "We are not going to sit here with our arms 
folded," he said in an advance copy of the interview made available 
to Reuters.

Asked whether civil disobedience could include blocking roads and 
taking over Mexico's international airports or highways, Lopez 
Obrador said: "Everything that could mean civil resistance. 
Everything that could mean defending the vote, defending democracy. 
The limit is nonviolence."

Financial markets, which are rooting for Calderon to be president, 
are keeping a close watch on tensions in Mexico, which slid into 
political crisis when Lopez Obrador contested the ruling party 
candidate's 0.58 percentage point win. Lopez Obrador says vote counts 
were manipulated at some 72,000 of the country's roughly 130,000 
polling stations. He told Univision that tally sheets included some 
1.5 million votes that were not backed up by voting slips. He said 
President Vicente Fox and Calderon were behind the fraud, as well as 
"bandits" within the IFE electoral institute that ran the election. 
"President Fox has been saying openly for two or three years to 
anyone who will listen that there is no way I am going to be 
president. He had a hand in everything," he said.

Lopez Obrador is a former Indian rights activist who blocked oil 
wells in his home state of Tabasco to protest pollution and who led a 
560-mile (900-km) march to Mexico City after losing what he said was 
a rigged state election in 1994. This week, he wrote to Calderon and 
challenged him to agree to a vote-by-vote recount that both would 
respect. Calderon rejected the offer, insisting the election was 
clean.

Source: Reuters: 07/26
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OAXACA STRIKE: GUNMEN ATTACK UNIVERSITY RADIO STATION

Gunmen attacked Oaxaca's university radio station, authorities said, 
the latest incident in a wave of confrontations and protests that 
have driven many tourists out of this historic Mexican city. 
Assailants fired rounds into the station's windows while it was 
on-air, the Oaxaca state government said. Nobody was hurt in the 
attack. Witnesses said the attack was carried out by at least 10 
masked assailants.

The station has supported a wave of protests aimed at ousting Gov. 
Ulises Ruiz, who is accused of rigging the 2004 election to win 
office and of violently repressing dissent. Teachers union head 
Enrique Rueda, one of the protest leaders, accused Ruiz of being 
behind the attack. "[Ruiz] has always responded to popular protests 
with aggression, threats, repression and authoritarianism," Rueda 
said. However, Ruiz's office condemned the attack and said the state 
government was trying to negotiate with the protesters.

Dozens of protesters, including teachers, students and leftist 
activists, guarded the station armed with sticks and stones. The 
protests erupted in late June after police attacked a demonstration 
of striking teachers looking for a wage increase. Since then, 
thousands of demonstrators have camped out in the center of Oaxaca, 
spraying buildings with revolutionary slogans, smashing hotel windows 
and building makeshift barricades. The protests have paralyzed one of 
Mexico's top cultural tourist attractions, where visitors normally 
browse traditional markets for Indian handicrafts, hike ancient 
pyramids and stroll along cobblestone streets to sample mole dishes. 
Tourism is down 75%, costing the city more than $45 million, 
according to the Mexican Employers Federation. Business leaders have 
asked the federal government to intervene.

Source: Associated Press: 07/24
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ZAPATISTAS LABELED "NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT"

The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and the narco-traffic 
in Chiapas "are factors that affect the national security," says an 
internal document of Superior Center of Naval Studies (CESNAV) of the 
Secretary of the Navy. Developed for students of national security, 
high command and officers of the Navy of Mexico with the 
participation of officials with the rank of captain of the Navy, 
colonels of the Army and high-level functionaries of the secretariats 
of Exterior Relations, Government, Communications and Transport and 
the Center for Investigation and National Security (CISEN) the paper 
warned that the state of Chiapas confronts "threats and weaknesses" 
that affect not only that entity but the entire country.

Contrasting the frequent assurances from President Vicente Fox that 
"the issue of the EZLN is practically a thing of the past" and that 
stability and the rule of law have been secured, the course 
participants were told, "the isolation of the EZLN is a factor of 
tension and violence." The material, developed last May is the result 
of a visit to Chiapas, at the beginning of this year, where the 
governor of the entity, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia, the commanders of 
the military zones and region, as well as the commanders of the Naval 
bases in the state, were all interviewed.

[T] he document, obtained by La Jornada, outlines several threats to 
the "social filed," such as: "The absence of a solution to the 
problem of the EZLN could give rise to a new conflict; the 
possibility exists that the EZLN intends to obtain resources via its 
links to organized crime, and the recognition that the foreign factor 
influences in great or small part the rest of the indigenous 
communities."

With respect to the "military field", the analysis affirms that the 
operations of the armed forces in the terrain has been characterized 
"by the exercise of the rule of law and cooperation with national 
institutions in the struggle against new threats to the national 
security particularly the narcotraffic, organized crime and illegal 
migration) and support of the civil population in cases of disaster." 
Nonetheless, the document takes note of "weaknesses" to the military.

It notes that the equipment of the armed forces "is insufficient and 
inadequate" due to lack of resources to obtain equipment of the 
quality and quantity needed "in comparison to that available to the 
narco-traffickers." It states "the majority of the operations that 
have been realized in support of the Prosecutor General of the 
Republic (PGR), the National Institute of Migration (INM) and the 
Public Security" have caused a "diminution of personnel en operations 
stipulated to the armed forces by the Constitution."

It asserts that while "the EZLN and the narcotraffic in the region 
are factors that affect that national security, so are meteorological 
phenomena which are periodically presented and cause damages to the 
civil population, such as occurred with Hurricane Stan." Taking stock 
of the fundamental themes underlying the social problems, the text 
indicates that "the inequality between indigenous and urban 
populations; the increased in organized delinquency thanks to the 
growing presence of Maras Salvatrucha (gangs made up largely of 
Central American immigrants), as well as the impacts of 
meteorological phenomena," generate particular problems.

In this context, the future commanders of the Navy of Mexico and the 
civil functionaries of the federal government are forewarned that 
"foreign groups could use the violation of human rights in the state 
of Chiapas as an argument for interference."

Source: La Jornada: 07/24

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The above articles were originally published and copyrighted by the 
listed sources. These articles are offered for educational purposes 
which CIS maintains is  'fair use' of copyrighted material as 
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

end: Mexico Week In Review: 07.24-07.30
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