Mexico Week In Review: 10.16-10.22

[cisdc]

Mexico Week In Review: 10.16-10.22
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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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CHIAPAS: WARNING OF POTENTIAL VIOLENCE

A Chiapas human rights center has warned of incidents that could lead
to a confrontation between Zapatista support bases and ranchers and
or Chiapas municipal and state authorities, in a new attempt to evict
them from land claimed by the EZLN. The Fray Bartolome de Las Casa
Human Rights Center stressed that the intention of the police to
avoid a violent action is unclear, as they established themselves in
the area in an intimidating manner, ostensibly to prevent threatened
violence from the ranchers´ association, but left without any change
in the circumstances.

The human rights organization reported the forceful eviction on
August 3 of 11 families of "Choles de Tumbala" in Palenque, Chiapas,
and the Zapatista Junta of Good Government -- "New Seed that is going
to Produce" -- denunciation of this and reoccupation of the estate by
300 EZLN men, women and children on October 1. Since then,
detachments of the sector police moved to the area near Choles de
Tumbala with low flying helicopter flights over the estate. Attempts
to contact Ministry of Government Roger Grajales Gonzalez were
unsuccessful, the center reports, and they were informed by the
Chiapas Ministry of Government technical coordinator Alberto Leon
Moreno that the Palanque Rancher´s Association president Pedro Fons
demanded a new eviction of the estate or "he would do it."

Social and civil organizations have established a civil peace camp in
the area to dissuade possible aggression. The human rights center has
called for letters to President Vicente Fox asking that the
government refrain from, and prevent violence, and instead use
dialogue to reach a peaceful and definitive solution.

Inb other news, Chiapas is now the third Mexican state to adopt a
statewide alliance of popular organization with the aim of
establishing parallel power on the model of the Popular Assembly of
the People of Oaxaca, following Guerrero and Oaxaca itself. The
launching of the "Popular Assembly of the People of Chiapas" (APPC)
was announced in a statement by 15 social and labor organization,
including local Section 7 of the national teachers union, local
Section 50 of the health workers union, and the Frente Campesino y
Popular de Chiapas, whose leader Romero Farrera Vicente pledged to
hold meetings to build the new organization in every region of the
state.

Sources: Prensa Latina: 10/17; www.ww4report.com: 10/18
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OAXACA UPDATE I: SENATE DASHES PEACE HOPES

Mexico's Senate rebuked Oaxaca state Gov. Ulises Ruiz for failing to
halt a violent political crisis set off by protests against his rule,
but legislators stopped short of forcing him from office. Eight
people, most of them protesters, have been killed in a five-month-old
conflict, and demonstrators who accuse Ruiz of authoritarianism have
paralyzed the pretty state capital Oaxaca with street barricades.

Senators rejected a call to fire Ruiz, of the opposition
Institutional Revolutionary Party, saying they did not have the legal
powers to remove him from office. But they passed a motion strongly
criticizing his handling of the crisis in Oaxaca, a magnet for
foreign tourists with its Indian craftwork, mezcal alcoholic drink
and mountain scenery. "The problem stems from the bad government of
Oaxaca. It's where the basic causes of the conflict are, it's where
the way to a solution should lie," said Santiago Creel, head of the
ruling National Action Party's senators. The crisis started with a
teachers' strike, but leftist and Indian groups have joined the
protests calling for Ruiz to step down. He has refused to quit.

Source: Reuters: 10/19
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OAXACA UPDATE II: ANOTHER TEACHER MURDERED, APPO ON ALERT

Oaxaca Attorney General Lizbeth Cana Cadez said that the murder of an
indigenous striking teacher may have been committed as provocation to
accentuate tension while teachers consider returning to classes after
more than 150 days on strike. Panfilo Hernandez Vazquez was shot with
three gunshot wounds to the abdomen as he returned from a
neighborhood meeting of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca
(APPO), in the El Pozo neighborhood.

The APPO decreed "maximum alert" for its camp-in downtown due to
reports that PRI (Revolucionaria Institucional party) would send
"shock troops" to disband the occupation, with rumors of planned mass
arrests of APPO members and teachers. They also agreed to continue
the sit-in at the Senate in the capital.

The Mexican Senate, after much debate, voted to not declare Oaxaca
ungovernable and not to remove State powers, nor remove the governor
as demanded by Section 22 of the Teachers Union and the Oaxaca
assembly.

La Jornada daily reported that after the shooting APPO "mobile
brigades" brought a preventive police officer to the main plaza,
accusing him of having shot the teacher, but the Teachers Union
Special Prosecutor's Office announced that he had been mistakenly
apprehended. APPO spokesman Florentino Lopez Martinez said this new
murder, eight others have been killed, is part of the hostility,
intimidation and aggression against the movement that demands removal
of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz. He said the people would make recourse to
international entities, such as the Inter-American Human Rights
Commission.

Source: Prensa Latina: 10/20
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GOVERNMENT REJECTS BIOTECH CORN PLANTING

Mexico this week barred Monsanto Co. and other biotechnology
companies from planting genetically engineered corn, rekindling
fierce debate in that country over the technology. Environmentalists
said the government's decision will help prevent biotech corn from
contaminating native varieties in Mexico, the birthplace of corn and
still a storehouse of genetically valuable native species.

But the decision, announced by Mexico's Agriculture Department,
angered some biotech supporters that said it would limit access to
plants that could reduce pesticide and herbicide use and have other
advantages for local farmers. Columnist Sergio Sarmiento, writing in
the newspaper Reforma called it "cowardly." Genetically modified corn
"is already in use in many parts of the world and it has enormous
benefits, both in terms of the environment and production, given that
it reduces pesticide use," Sarmiento wrote.

Even environmentalists don't think the government's decision is the
last word. "This is temporary, because there is so much pressure from
the multinationals," said Gustavo Ampugnani of Greenpeace Mexico.
"They are going to put a lot of pressure on the incoming
administration" of president-elect Felipe Calderon, who takes office
Dec. 1.

The decision turned down all seven requests filed by companies
including St. Louis-based Monsanto, Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont
Co.'s Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. subsidiary, and others. "We
were surprised by this decision," said Eduardo Perez Pico, director
of technological development at Monsanto's Mexico subsidiary, which
had applied to start experimental fields in the northern states of
Sinaloa, Sonora, and Tamaulipas. "These are not centers of origin or
biodiversity of corn," Perez Pico said, referring to the areas where
corn ancestor plants or primitive varieties grow naturally. Under
current law, such areas are off-limits to biotech planting, in part
to protect the genetic traits of those ancestor varieties in case
their traits are needed for hybridization efforts in the future.

In areas of Mexico where corn is determined to be a non-native or
non-original crop, "there is the possibility of a permit being
granted for the first phases of experimental projects," said Pedro
Mata, of Mexico's food safety agency. Mata said the ruling hinged on
an ongoing debate over whether any area of Mexican can be designated
as a non-origin region for corn. "The researchers and experts are
still discussing it, and there are some controversies," Mata said.
There is no deadline for drawing up the map of "safe" areas. Mexico
imposed a moratorium on the planting of genetically modified crops in
1998, but in 2005, President Vicente Fox signed a bill that set out a
framework for approving such planting in the future.

Source: muzi.com: 10/19
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IMF OFFICIAL TO JOIN CALDERON'S TEAM

Mexico's President-elect Felipe Calderon will name Agustin Carstens,
a deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, to
head his economic transition team, the IMF said. Carstens, 48, will
leave his post at the IMF to join Calderon, according to the
statement. The appointment makes Carstens a front-runner to become
Mexico's finance minster under Calderon, said Chappell Lawson, a
political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. "He's clearly a front-runner but these appointments don't
make it a sealed deal," Lawson said. "His name is good for the
markets because people know him and trust him."

Carstens had served as Mexico's deputy finance minister prior to
taking the third-highest position at the lender, based in Washington,
in 2003. Carstens, asked by reporters on Oct. 4 whether he would
become finance minister said he was "happy" at the IMF and praised
Calderon. "I have to recognize that President-elect Calderon's
project is very interesting, it's visionary, and I think Mexicans
should support it," he told reporters at a banking conference in
Mexico City. During the interview Carstens said social needs
including how to fight poverty were the country's main challenges.
"Mexico needs to analyze how it's going to be able to offer solutions
to these problems with the resources that it has," he said.

At the IMF, Carstens has been involved in providing technical
assistance to member nations. Carstens' appointment is seen as
bringing continuity to economic policies, said Alonso Madero, who
manages $747 million of stocks and bonds at the brokerage Actinver.
"He will help bring about needed reforms and help keep inflation
under control," Madero said.

Source: Houston Chronicle: 10/16
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JUAREZ FEMICIDE: SUSPECT SAYS HE'S LATEST VICTIM OF LEGAL SYSTEM

Edgar Álvarez Cruz spends his days in a prison cell, isolated from
other inmates and fearful, he says, that he's become another
scapegoat in a state with a history of sending the innocent to jail.
Mexican authorities and even the American ambassador to Mexico say
Mr. Álvarez is a key player in the killings of at least 10 women in
the Juárez area. He is charged specifically with the 2001 murder of
Mayra Juliana Reyes Solís, a 17-year-old high school student.

But in an interview inside the state prison known as El Cereso, Mr.
Álvarez, 30, rejected the allegations against him, as well as the
testimony of two associates that authorities are using to help make
their case. Those witness accounts differ on some facts. "I always
knew I would come back to Juárez, but not as a suspect in the killing
of so many women. I'm an innocent man, like many others before me,"
said Mr. Álvarez, clad in an orange prison jumpsuit.

His arrest by American law enforcement officers in Denver in August
was hailed as a major break by the U.S. ambassador, Tony Garza.
Chihuahua state authorities applauded, confident that the
apprehension would resolve at least some of the hundreds of killings
of women that have bedeviled the Juárez area for more than a decade.
And there was hope that the capture would reduce the pressure being
brought by high-profile activists in the U.S. Congress as well as
Hollywood, demanding that the killings be properly investigated.

But this latest chapter in the women's killings, or feminicidos, is
raising familiar doubts about the reliability and fairness of
Mexico's judicial system. Over the years, the slayings have been
attributed to an assortment of people, from Juárez oligarchs to drug
and organ traffickers. Only one man, Omar Sharif Lattif, an Egyptian
scientist, has ever been convicted of any of the crimes - and many
think he wasn't guilty.

The arrest of Mr. Álvarez seems to have been scripted for The
Twilight Zone, said Victor Muñoz of the El Paso-based Coalition
Against Violence Toward Women and Families on the Border. "What
Mexico needs to do is demonstrate to the world that in just one case
it can follow the constitution and the suspect's legal rights from
beginning to end," he said. "That will erase all doubts about
Mexico's judicial system." Sitting in a prison room with three burly
guards hovering nearby, Mr. Álvarez, a short, wiry man with a
receding hairline, insisted there's no truth to the allegations
against him. He criticized the men whose confessions and testimony
led to his arrest. The two, Francisco Granados de la Paz and
Alejandro Delgado Valles, are linked to each other and Mr. Álvarez by
marriage and/or friendship. Mr. Granados' sister married Mr.
Álvarez's brother, according to the suspect. Mr. Delgado and Mr.
Álvarez are childhood friends.

In March, Mr. Granados, in jail at the time in Sierra Blanca, made an
audiotaped confession for Texas Rangers in which he described how Mr.
Álvarez would give him drugs and beer before they picked up women to
kill. He described Mr. Delgado as a witness who went along for the
ride. Mr. Granados also gave a separate statement to Mexican
authorities, which is on transcript. Weeks later, Chihuahua
authorities picked up Mr. Delgado and have since held him
incommunicado as a "protected witness." He gave his own testimony to
state authorities, which also is on transcript.

In the written transcripts, obtained by The Dallas Morning News, the
men's recollections differ in places: Mr. Granados told U.S. law
enforcement that the murders occurred in 1993 or 1994 but later told
Mexican authorities the year was 2001. He also described Mr. Álvarez
as the ringleader and refers to the three men as "the red car gang,"
an apparent reference to Mr. Álvarez's old Renault. Mr. Delgado
testified that the murders happened in 2001, inside an old white
Buick, and described Mr. Granados as the ringleader. Mr. Delgado said
he saw Mr. Granados kill two women. "This is the most important case
I have ever had. But it's also the easiest," said Abraham Hinojos
Rubio, Mr. Álvarez's lawyer. "Because once again, we're witnessing
the incompetence, the inability and desperation of authorities as
they try and resolve these murder cases, no matter how many innocent
lives they mess up. All I say to the authorities on both sides [of
the border] is: Where's the proof?"

Mr. Garza, the U.S. ambassador, said he was not surprised that there
may be questions and new information in the murder investigations.
"Alibis, finger-pointing and blame-shifting are part of almost every
criminal investigation," he said. "The important thing is that there
is a clear commitment to solving these crimes that have plagued so
many women and their families in Ciudad Juárez and the state of
Chihuahua." Chihuahua state authorities, all speaking on condition of
anonymity, said that Mr. Álvarez is a strong suspect in the "Cotton
Field" killings - in which the bodies of eight women, including Ms.
Reyes, were discovered in November 2001. The officials say he is
linked to at least two other killings.

Mexican police said that they found a red Renault car that once
belonged to Mr. Álvarez with traces of blood on the back seat, but
that so far they have not been able to extract any DNA evidence. Mr.
Hinojos said he can produce a receipt that shows his client sold the
red Renault to a junkyard in 1998. He also noted that Ms. Reyes, whom
Mr. Álvarez is charged with killing, was reported missing on June 26,
2001. He said a home video shows Mr. Álvarez leaving for Denver on
June 30, 2001. A court file on Ms. Reyes shows that her mother and a
close friend saw her alive in Juárez in September 2001. Mr. Hinojos
said he plans to present the video and other evidence, including
court records, to a judge on Oct. 24. If convicted, Mr. Álvarez could
face up to 50 years in prison.

In the meantime, Mr. Álvarez is asking that he be allowed to confront
his accusers and take a lie detector test and "any other scientific
test" to prove his innocence. "I've never hit a woman, much less kill
one," he said. "I could have asked for political asylum, but I wanted
to fix this mess to show my face to the public, prove to them that I
have nothing to hide, because I'm innocent." He said he "hardly
knows" Mr. Granados, whom he described as a troubled youth kicked out
repeatedly by a brother with whom he lived, allegedly because of drug
use. He denied ever cruising with him, let alone picking up women and
killing them, as Mr. Granados said in his taped confession. Mr.
Granados is in a jail in New Jersey, facing immigration-related
charges. Regarding Mr. Delgado's testimony, Mr. Álvarez expressed
surprise, saying that state authorities must have pressured or
tortured him into making such claims. "I want my accusers in front of
me," he said. "I want them to clear up the lies because I have no
idea why he would say such things about me." Mexican authorities
declined to respond to Mr. Álvarez's claims or requests, saying that
the investigation is continuing.

For now, Mr. Álvarez's family and friends, including his former wife,
Beatríz Sánchez, are helping put together evidence and a detailed
chronology aimed at proving his innocence. The evidence includes
family photos; check stubs from his employer, Denver contractor All
Phase Concrete Construction; and the video that shows him packing his
belongings at a family reunion before he emigrated. He admitted that
some of his friends and relatives had initial doubts about him.
'"When my ex-wife arrived, she asked me to my face, 'You didn't
commit these crimes, did you?' 'No, I didn't.' And she responded, 'I
didn't think you did. But I wanted you to tell me to my face.' " He
said he spends much of his time reading the Bible.

He knows about men like Victor J. García Uribe, 28, known as "El
Cerillo," or "the Match," and Gustavo González Meza, 28, known as "La
Foca," or "the Seal." The two were accused of the same killings Mr.
Álvarez is now suspected of committing. After spending four years in
prison, Mr. García was released for lack of evidence. And in 2002,
Mr. González died of complications from an operation. "I'm another
scapegoat," said Mr. Álvarez. "I fit the right profile: poor and
uneducated."

Source: Dallas Morning News: 10/16

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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: 10.16-10.22
--