Mexico Week In Review: 05.19-05.25

[cisdc]

Mexico Week In Review: 05.19-05.25
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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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FEMICIDE UPDATE: DEATH THREATS AGAINST WOMEN'S ACTIVISTS

Prominent women's rights activists in the northern Mexican state of 
Chihuahua have reported receiving a new round of threats. Members of 
Ciudad Juarez's Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (May our Daughters 
Return Home), a group of relatives of murdered women, canceled their 
participation in a screening of the Hollywood movie Bordertown 
scheduled for their hometown because of death threats received by 
e-mail and on cell phones. "Now the threat is more real," said 
Marisela Ortiz, Nuestras Hijas spokeswoman.

Titled Verdades que Matan in Spanish, the film stars Jennifer Lopez 
as a US reporter who probes the Ciudad Juarez femicides. The movie 
also features Antonio Banderas, Martin Sheen, Kate de Castillo, and 
Maya Zapata. Directed by Gregory Nava, the film has not been released 
on the big screen in the US and is only available on DVD. After years 
of production and delays in its release, Bordertown finally achieved 
a limited showing in some Mexican theaters last week. In Ciudad 
Juarez, unidentified journalists have also reportedly received 
threats warning them against promoting the film. In a Mexico City 
press conference on May 12,  Nava said the movie was possibly not 
released in the US because of its critical portrayals of the North 
American Free Trade Agreement and the maquiladora industry. Nava also 
revealed that when Bordertown's producers were in Ciudad Juarez a 
crew member was kidnapped and tortured into telling his tormentors 
the hotel where film material was stored. Local policemen then lifted 
the material, according to Nava. Many scenes in the movie were filmed 
in Nogales, Sonora, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, among other 
locations.

Nava was recently interviewed by a reporter for Ciudad Juarez's El 
Diario newspaper. The journalist pressed Nava about exaggerating the 
murders, propagating presumed "myths," surrounding the killings and 
profiting from the suffering of victims and their families. Defending 
the film, Nava blamed Mexican authorities, free trade and US 
companies for creating an environment in Ciudad Juarez in which 
women's lives have no worth. "Women in Juarez live in terror, their 
life has no value, and this is what we have to change," Nava said. In 
an earlier interview with the Mexican press, Nava charged that 
governments on both sides of the border were doing nothing to address 
the femicides. "It is horrible, but it is easier for the authorities 
from Juarez, from Chihuahua and from the United States to cover up 
the situation. It is a grand injustice."

The Diario interview mentioned incidents of harassment against 
Bordertown staff, but it did not report the alleged kidnapping of the 
crew member. Prior to Ortiz's denunciation of death threats against 
members of Nuestras Hijas, Chihuahua City lawyer Lucha Castro, 
director of the Women's Human Rights Center, reported receiving a 
similar threat. Castro has long represented the mothers and family 
members of young women from Chihuahua City slain in a manner very 
similar to the more-publicized Ciudad Juarez rape-murders. According 
to Castro, an unidentified male caller threatened her on May 14. 
Castro then filed a criminal complaint with the Chihuahua State 
Office of the Attorney General, and two officers were assigned to 
protect the human rights attorney. Activists also demand that the 
Chihuahua state government protect Marisela Oritz and the other 
members of Nuestras Hijas. The death threats against women's rights 
activists come amid an unprecedented wave of narco-violence in Ciudad 
Juarez and Chihuahua state. More than 400 slayings attributed to 
organized crime have been reported this year alone, and fear of 
further carnage is gripping society. In recent days, e-mails and 
messages to cell phones in Ciudad Juarez have warned people to stay 
home during the coming weekend or at least exercise extreme caution 
because of an alleged plan to carry out spectacular executions on 
public thoroughfares.

The threats against women's movement leaders likewise occur in a 
broader context of violent attacks and legal pressure against social 
activists of all stripes. Since March, Chihuahua farm movement leader 
Armando Villareal has been murdered, and labor and women's rights 
activist Cipriana Jurado, has been arrested on federal charges 
stemming from a demonstration nearly three years ago. Arrest warrants 
are reportedly pending against dozens of other farmers involved in a 
payment strike against the Federal Electricity Commission.

Mexican and foreign activists contend that a deteriorating human 
rights environment characterizes the country. Juan Ignacio Garcia, 
Spanish member of the International Civil Commission for the 
Observation of Human Rights, cited Ciudad Juarez as among human 
rights cases crying for redress from the authorities. The 
international community is seriously concerned about the femicides, 
murders of journalists and other human rights violations, Garcia 
said. "We know that public opinion is aware of all this, and it would 
be good for the Mexican government to show a measure of stronger will 
and attend to these cases," Garcia added.

Sources: Frontera NorteSur (FNS): 05/22; Frontenet: 05/22; El Paso 
Times: 05/22; Cimacnoticias: 0519,22; El Diario de Juarez: 
05/16;.Pagina 24/Agencia Reforma: 04/21
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MILITARY TAKES OVER TOWN'S POLICE FORCE

There are no police anymore in Villa Ahumada. Even the mayor has 
fled. Drug gangs have virtually seized this town of 1,500 not far 
from Texas, as Mexico's cartels grow increasingly audacious. The 
Mexican military took over the police department this week because 
all 20 officers on the force have either been killed, run out of town 
or quit, officials said. Mayor Fidel Urrutia took refuge in the state 
capital of Chihuahua City - 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) away - where 
he's waiting for the soldiers to recover his town. "Security will be 
in the hands of the army and the state (police) ministries, and it 
will remain like that indefinitely," Chihuahua state police spokesman 
Marco Antonio Moreno said.

Late Saturday, some 70 assailants barged into town and killed the 
police chief, two officers and three residents. At least eight people 
were kidnapped. The killings came a month after soldiers arrested 
eight men, including a police officer, during the burial of an 
alleged drug hit man in Villa Ahumada, about 80 miles (130 
kilometers) south of El Paso, Texas. Cartels across Mexico have been 
launching brazen attacks, beheading police and killing soldiers in 
response to a military and federal police crackdown. Since taking 
office in 2006, President Felipe Calderon has sent more than 25,000 
troops to drug hotspots. Shootouts occur almost daily, especially 
along the U.S. border and in other states where the cartels have a 
strong presence.

Source: Associated Press: 05/20
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TOWN'S POLICE FORCE QUITS IN FEAR

A southern Mexican town's 15-member police force has quit for fear of 
being assassinated in retaliation for a shootout with gunmen, a 
security official said. Zirandaro was the second town in less than 
two weeks to be left without its police force as Mexico's drug 
cartels wage increasingly bold attacks against security forces. On 
Monday, the military took over a town near Texas after all 20 of its 
police officers were either killed, run out of town or quit.

Eight members of Zirandaro's police never returned to work after a 
May 13 shootout with gunmen that left a 32-year-old man dead, said 
Juan Heriberto Salinas Altes, the public safety secretary of the 
southern state of Guerrero. The other seven officers - including the 
police chief - quit days later. "The Zirandaro police quit the 
service because they feared the criminals would return to seek 
revenge," Salinas Altas told a news conference. The identities of the 
gunmen were not known, but Salinas Altas said cells of both the 
Sinaloa and Gulf cartels were operating in the area. About 20 
Guerrero state police officers have taken over security 
responsibilities in Zirandaro, a town of about 24,000 people.

President Felipe Calderon has said the attacks against Mexican police 
show that cartels feel threatened by his crackdown against drug 
trafficking. Since taking office in 2006, he has sent more than 
25,000 troops to drug hotspots. But the disintegration of two 
municipal forces shows how vulnerable police feel in a country where, 
despite efforts to fight corruption, they can't be sure their 
colleagues are not on the cartels' payrolls. Earlier this month, 
Mexico's acting federal police chief was killed in his home by an 
assassin who had keys to his house. A fellow federal police officer 
and four other people with alleged ties to the Sinaloa cartel were 
arrested in the killing.

President Bush's administration has pushed Congress to approve an 
initial US$550 million (euro349 million) to help fight drug crime in 
Mexico and Central America. The U.S. Senate approved only US$450 
million (euro285 million) for the plan on Monday, while the House has 
approved US$461.5 million (euro293 million). The U.S. ambassador to 
Mexico, Antonio Garza, nonetheless said approval of the funding 
"signaled congressional support for this important measure to enhance 
ongoing U.S. programs for cooperating and coordinating with the 
Mexican government." The two chambers must agree on a final version 
of the bill before sending it to Bush for final approval.

Source: Associated Press: 05/23
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TOP STATE POLICE OFFICIAL KILLED

Mexico's drug violence has claimed another top police official: the 
second-in-command in the central state of Morelos. The body of Victor 
Enrique Payan was found with a second, unidentified Morelos state 
police officer in the trunk of a car south of Mexico City, city 
police official Miguel Amelio Gomez said.

Attached to their bodies was a message warning against joining the 
Sinaloa drug cartel, based in the northwestern state of the same 
name. Authorities could not immediately explain the message, but were 
investigating to see if the officials had any ties to drug 
traffickers. Mexican police have a history of corruption, and a 
number of police and soldiers sent to fight the cartels have ended up 
joining them. Mexico's president has sent more than 24,000 soldiers 
nationwide to fight drug gangs. The traffickers have responded with 
unprecedented violence, beheading police and killing soldiers.

Source: Associated Press: 05/21
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UNION ATTACKED IN CAPITAL

The Authentic Labor Front (FAT), an independent Mexican labor group, 
announced on May 13 that one of its affiliates is set to declare a 
strike at the Central de Abasto, Mexico City's huge wholesale food 
market, on May 30. For the past four years the affiliate--the Union 
of Workers of Commercial Buildings, Offices and Stores, and the Like 
and Related (STRACC)--has represented 41 workers who clean bathrooms 
in the flowers and vegetables area of the giant facility, which is 
operated by the Federal District (DF) government. The workers are 
mostly women, and several are older or have disabilities.

Recently the Central de Abasto's management contracted the bathroom 
maintenance out to a small new private company, Operadora Comercial 
SAFE, SA de CV (OESSA). This company claims it is subcontracting the 
work to another company, Great Limp, which it says already has a 
union. On Apr. 29 OESSA management took the STRACC workers offsite 
and attempted by pressure and false pretenses to have them sign 
letters of resignation. Management got 14 to sign before the workers 
could contact union officials; after that the rest refused. The union 
members continued to work until May 6, when management appeared with 
a group of judicial and auxiliary police and arrested the workers, 
some of whom were injured in the operation. The police held them for 
14 hours, supposedly for "illegal exercise of particular rights," 
which can carry a sentence of three months to one year in prison. 
Since then the STRACC members have not been allowed to work.

Source: Weekly News Update- Nicaragua Solidarity Network Of Greater 
New York: 05/18

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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: 05.19-05.25
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