Mexico Week In Review: 05.21-05.27

[cisdc]

Mexico Week In Review: 05.21-05.27
=================================================================
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"
=================================================================

MURDERS OF WOMEN ALARMING

The escalation of murders of women in Mexico State, 62 so far this 
year, is alarming local authorities. Patricia Martinez, special 
prosecutor for the Commission of Attention to Homicides against 
Women, termed the situation extremely serious in the state of Mexico, 
and the most vulnerable age group is that between 11 and 20 years. 
Martinez said that an important number of victims worked at bars in 
the Metropolitan area, particularly Naucalpan municipality, one of 
the most industrialized and populated by military personnel.

At least 15 cases this year are girls ranging from eight to 16 years, 
in addition to the murders of toddlers under three years by close 
relatives like parents, neighbors or friends. The official noted that 
these 59 ongoing crime investigations join the 68 begun in 2006, when 
129 women were murdered.

Source: Prensa Latina: 05/21
====

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE STALKS WOMEN

Domestic violence is not a phenomenon exclusive to Mexico. But the 
figures you are about to read are chilling. Between 1999 and 2005 it 
is believed that more than 6,000 women and girls were murdered. That 
is an average of 1,000 every year, three murders a day. Put most 
graphically, a girl or a woman is murdered every eight hours, the 
overwhelming majority of the deaths the result of violence in the 
household. They are the kind of statistics you would expect of a 
country at war. It is happening in cities and the countryside, and 
across every socio-economic divide. Sometimes the men use guns or 
knives, whilst others use their hands.

"I was regularly beaten," says Maria, a woman whose name we have 
changed, but whose story will be familiar to many. "Over six years 
the attacks went on, both physical and psychological. It was awful. 
He even threatened our three children. I couldn't leave, I didn't 
know what to do." Eventually Maria did get out and is now in a 
women's refuge. Earlier this year, a law was enacted making such 
violence a criminal offence. "It has taken a long time," says 
Angelica De La Pena, the member of congress who sponsored the new 
law. "For the first time," she says, "there is legislation that 
defines violence as psychological, physical, sexual or any other type 
of violence that harms or is likely to harm women's dignity, 
integrity or freedom." This once hidden subject is now firmly out in 
the open. It has even made it on to Mexican television.

One of the most popular soap operas here is La Madrastra, or The 
Stepmother. Recently, there was a shocking storyline that wove 
domestic violence into the plot. It was some of the most graphic 
mainstream television I have witnessed. In the main scene, a woman is 
attacked by her boyfriend. But this was not just some sanitized 
television version of a complicated social issue. The "attack" 
involved the woman ending up on the floor with the man straddling her 
in a rape sequence. The end only came with the arrival of another man 
who hauled off the assailant and promptly punched him. It all went on 
for several uncomfortable minutes. This was primetime television 
giving real time coverage to a once taboo subject.

Mexico has already earned unwanted international attention for its 
record of violence against women because of the ghastly events in 
Ciudad Juarez, a city on the Mexico-US border.

In the past decade, hundreds of women have been killed there and in 
surrounding areas, their bodies often recovered from remote desert 
graves. Suspicion has focused on individual or group serial killers, 
though others now believe a large proportion of the deaths are the 
result of domestic violence. These killings, too, have now led to 
screen time, with events depicted in a film called Bordertown and 
starring Jennifer Lopez.

"It is very good that people are finally dealing with this subject," 
says Wendy Figueroa who helps run a women's refuge in Mexico City. 
"But television programs or films alone wont stop it," she says. 
"What is needed is education for both men and women so people know 
what their rights are."

There are other outlets dealing with it as well. The government has 
produced television and radio adverts where an abusive husband is 
trying to convince his battered wife he loves her. The voice-over at 
the end comes in and warns women not to be duped by the soothing 
words of the attacker. But not everyone is convinced about all this 
attention for domestic violence.

We were given access to Mexico City's main jail. In it, we met Jorge, 
again it is not his real name, who was convicted of murdering his 
wife. "The new law is biased against men," insisted Jorge, a man who 
like many others, remains in complete denial of his wrongdoing. "The 
evidence against me was lies," he told us. "I never did it." Jorge 
later walked out on our interview without warning. It came after we 
repeatedly asked him about his attitude to women and to domestic 
violence. Mexico's men are, for the most part, not the sort who 
resort to their fists, or worse, to make their point. But enough do 
to make the reality of domestic violence a scourge on this society.

Source: BBC: 05/22
====

NEWSPAPER CLOSES AMID THREATS

One of Mexico's leading regional newspapers has said it is shutting 
temporarily amid continuing attacks and threats from suspected drugs 
gangs. The offices of Cambio Sonora have come under grenade attack 
twice since April The newspaper is based in Sonora state on the US 
border, which last week saw a battle between drug gangs and security 
forces that left 22 people dead.

Rising drug-related violence in Mexico has prompted President Felipe 
Calderon to send troops to several states. Speaking on Thursday, Mr 
Calderon insisted he would not abandon his policy of sending the army 
in to tackle drug-traffickers despite growing criticism. Mr Calderon, 
who has been in office nearly six months, has sent more than 20,000 
troops throughout the country to battle the drugs cartels who have 
been fighting each other for control of territory and drug routes. 
About 1,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence so far 
this year.

Last week, unidentified attackers threw a grenade at Cambio Sonora's 
offices in the state capital, Hermosillo, following a similar attack 
in April - both caused minor damage. The head of the company that 
publishes the newspaper said these attacks were clearly designed to 
intimidate the staff and create an atmosphere of fear and terror. 
"With profound sadness, we have to acknowledge that in Sonora the 
dangers and insecurity that confront...Cambio Sonora have surpassed 
the limits that common sense, patience and human sensitivity can 
tolerate," said Mario Vazquez Rana. The newspaper had already halted 
most of its investigations into organized crime or drug trafficking 
because of the rising level of violence.

Media rights groups consider Mexico to be one of the most dangerous 
countries for reporters in the world. Seven journalists have been 
killed since October and earlier this month, a TV reporter and 
cameraman disappeared in the northern city of Monterrey provoking 
fears they were abducted by a criminal gang.

Source: BBC: 05/25
====

CALDERON INSISTS ON ARMY AS DRUG POLICE

President Felipe Calderon said that he wouldn't back down from using 
federal forces, including the Army, to fight organized crime all over 
the country. "We cannot allow criminals to try to snatch from 
Mexicans either sovereignty or their right to the territories," 
declared Calderon, in response to a congressional petition demanding 
withdrawal of the Armed Forces from public security activities.

The president averred that Army operations against drug crime is 
logical to rescue occupied territories from drug cartels, and he 
declared the government won't just stand by doing nothing because 
that means handing the country over to the criminals. Despite those 
who insist on no government action, we will continue to confront 
crime, he said, asking Mexicans to support the drug crackdown he 
began four months ago.

The Mexican Congress urged the government to strengthen the police 
instead of using the Armed Forces. Legislators urged Calderon to 
remove the 10,000 soldiers from public security activities as it 
encourages an escalation in drug-related violence in the country.

Source: Prensa Latina: 05/24
====

OAXACA UPDATE: HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION CRITICIZES UNREST

Mexico's National Human Rights Commission blamed both authorities and 
protesters for "excesses" during a months of unrest last year in 
Oaxaca, and urged the government to investigate its finding that 
federal police tortured detainees. In its final report on the unrest 
in the southern colonial city, the independent governmental 
commission found that 12 people were killed in the conflict, mostly 
protesters shot by gunmen. The report also slammed the federal 
government for not intervening sooner after state authorities were 
overwhelmed.

What began as a teachers' strike in May 2006 quickly turned into a 
broader protest in which a coalition of leftist groups occupied the 
city center for nearly five months to demand the ouster of the Oaxaca 
state governor. Shortly after the shooting death of Bradley Roland 
Will, a 36-year-old journalist-activist from New York who was killed 
while filming a clash between demonstrators and gunmen, 
then-President Vicente Fox sent federal troops to evict protesters 
from the city center.

Commission President Jose Luis Soberanes said Fox's administration 
had "unjustifiably delayed, for more than a month and a half, in 
complying with its constitutional duty to help restore order and 
peace in Oaxaca." The report also criticized the investigation into 
Will's killing, saying Oaxaca prosecutors had failed to probe the 
facts or bring a good case against his possible killers.

While the commission has the power only to make recommendations, 
Soberanes said he hopes current President Felipe Calderon will 
investigate rights violations including complaints that officers 
tortured at least 13 people being transported to prison. In all, the 
commission received 1,352 complaints of rights violations and found 
hundreds of them justified, mainly for excessive use of force by 
police.

But the report also stated that "it is important to note that, 
without exception, both sides in the confrontation committed 
excesses. Both the demonstrators and public servants committed 
aggression." Soberanes said the protesters, who blockaded the city, 
had mistreated the people of Oaxaca.

The report found that only one death was directly attributed to the 
police raid that ended the blockades, but 11 more were closely 
related - many of them protest supporters killed by unidentified 
gunmen, as well as one protest opponent slashed to death. Others died 
who may not have taken sides in the conflict, such as a motorcyclist 
who broke his neck when he ran into an unseen cable at a barricade 
and a person who died in an ambulance blocked by protesters.

Source: Associated Press: 05/24
====

BORDER NEWS: WITH US FUNDING, MEXICO TRACKS COMMUNICATION

Mexico is expanding its ability to tap telephone calls and e-mail 
using money from the U.S. government, a move that underlines how the 
country's conservative government is increasingly willing to 
cooperate with United States on law enforcement. The expansion comes 
as President Felipe Calderon is pushing to amend Mexico's 
constitution to allow officials to tap phones without a judge's 
approval in some cases.

Mexican authorities for years have been able to wiretap most 
telephone conversations and tap into e-mail, but the new $3 million 
Communications Intercept System being installed by Mexico's Federal 
Investigative Agency would expand its reach. The system would allow 
authorities to track cell-phone users as they travel, according to 
the contract specifications. It would include extensive storage 
capacity and allow authorities to identify callers by voice. The 
system, scheduled to begin operation within the next month, was paid 
for by the U.S. State Department and sold by Verint Systems Inc., a 
politically connected company based in Melville, N.Y., that 
specializes in electronic surveillance.

Documents describing the upgrade suggest that the U.S. government 
could have access to information derived from the surveillance. 
Officials of both governments declined to comment on that 
possibility. "It is a government of Mexico operation, funded by the 
U.S.," said Susan Pittman, of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of 
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Questions over 
its use should be directed to Mexico, she said. Calderon's office 
declined comment. But the U.S. government's contract specifications 
say the system is designed to allow both governments to "disseminate 
timely and accurate, actionable information to each country's 
respective federal, state, local, private and international partners."

Calderon has been lobbying for more authority to use electronic 
surveillance against drug smuggling. Already this year, drug wars 
have cost hundreds of lives and threatened Calderon's ability to 
govern. Despite federal troops posted in nine Mexican states, the 
violence continues as smugglers fight over shipping routes to the 
U.S.-Mexico border, as well as for control of Mexican port cities and 
marijuana- and poppy-growing regions inland.

It's unclear how broad a net the new surveillance system would cast: 
Mexicans speak regularly by phone, for example, with millions of 
relatives living in the U.S. Those conversations appear to be fair 
game for both governments. Within the United States, legal experts 
say that if prosecutors have access to Mexican wiretaps, they could 
use the information in U.S. courts. Supreme Court decisions have held 
that Fourth Amendment protections against illegal wiretaps do not 
apply outside the United States, particularly if the surveillance is 
conducted by another country, said Georgetown University law 
professor David Cole.

Mexico's telecommunications monopoly, Telmex, controlled by Carlos 
Slim, the world's second wealthiest individual, has not received 
official notice of the new system that will intercept its electronic 
signals, a spokeswoman said this week. "Telmex is a firm that always 
complies with laws and rules set by the Mexican government," she 
said. Calderon recently asked Mexico's Congress to amend the 
country's constitution and allow federal prosecutors to conduct 
searches and secretly record conversations among people suspected of 
what the government defines as serious crimes. His proposal would 
eliminate the current requirement that prosecutors gain approval from 
a judge before installing any wiretap. Calderon says the legal 
changes are needed in the battle against the drug gangs. "The purpose 
is to create swift investigative measures against organized crime," 
Calderon wrote senators when introducing his proposed amendments in 
March. "At times, turning to judicial authorities hinders or makes 
investigations impossible."

But others argued the proposal undermined constitutional protections 
and opened the door to the type of domestic spying that has plagued 
many Latin American countries. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe last 
week ousted a dozen generals, including the head of intelligence, 
after police were found wiretapping public figures, including members 
of his government. "Calderon's proposal is limited to 'urgent cases' 
and organized crime, but the problem is that when the judiciary has 
been put out of the loop, the attorney general can basically decide 
these however he wants to," said John Ackerman, a law professor at 
the Autonomous National University of Mexico. "Without the 
intervention of a judge, the door swings wide open to widespread 
abuse of basic civil liberties."

The proposal is being considered by a panel of the Mexican Senate. It 
is strongly opposed by members of the leftist PRD party. Members of 
Calderon's National Action Party have been lobbying senators from the 
former ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, for 
support. Renato Sales, former deputy prosecutor for Mexico City, said 
Calderon's desire to expand federal policing powers to combat 
organized crime is parallel to the Bush administration's use of a 
secret wiretapping program to fight terrorism. "Suddenly, anyone 
suspected of organized crime is presumed guilty and treated as 
someone without any constitutional rights," said Sales, a law 
professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. "And 
who will determine who is an organized crime suspect? The state 
will." Federal lawmaker Cesar Octavio Camacho, president of the 
justice and human rights commission in the lower house of Congress, 
said he too worried about prosecutorial abuse. "Although the proposal 
stems from the President's noble intention of efficiently fighting 
organized crime," he said, "the remedy seems worse than the problem."

Source: Los Angeles Times: 05/25

====
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: 05.21-05.27
--