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This section was last updated on November 14, 2011

A Focus on the Rape and Sexual Assaults of 26 Women Protesters By Police for the State of Mexico in the Town of Atenco on May 3rd and 4th, 2006.

 

Crisis in Atenco, Mexico


Police Officers Rape and Sexually Assault Women During Protest Turned Police Riot



Latest News


Foto: Belinda Hernández

Solidarity with the victims of Atenco - Europe

 



Added: Nov. 14, 2011

Mexico

Protest sign says "We need authorities who will indeed protect us - not rapists."

La CIDH admite el caso de 11 mujeres mexicanas que acusan tortura sexual

La Comisión Interamericana investigará una denuncia de violación de un grupo mujeres en un operativo policial en San Salvador Atenco en 2006

Según la documentación de organizaciones civiles, al menos 26 mujeres fueron violadas, de las cuales, 11 acudieron ante la CIDH (Cuartoscuro Archivo).

La Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) admitió investigar el caso de 11 mujeres mexicanas que aseguran que fueron víctimas de tortura sexual durante una represión policial en 2006 en San Salvador Atenco, en el Estado de México.

Durante el 143° periodo ordinario de sesiones, la CIDH emitió un informe para comenzar a investigar la petición 512-08 Mariana Selvas Gómez y otros vs. México, interpuesta en abril de 2008 bajo el cargo de dilación de justicia por la nula investigación en el caso.

“Ni la Fiscalía Especial de Delitos Violentos Contra las Mujeres y Trata de Personas (Fevimtra) ni la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado de México (PGJEM) han realizado una adecuada investigación y ningún policía, de los más de 2,500 agentes que intervinieron, ha sido sancionado”, acusa el Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez (Centro Prodh), que lleva el caso legal de las denunciantes.

La Comisión investigará ahora si el Estado mexicano cometió violaciones de derechos humanos y dará a conocer sus conclusiones en cuanto la parte acusadora y el gobierno mexicano sean notificados sobre las mismas.

La población de San Salvador de Atenco se movilizó en febrero y mayo de 2006 contra la expropiación de tierras en San Salvador Atenco para la construcción de un nuevo aeropuerto internacional en el centro del país. La protesta derivó en un enfrentamiento en el que participaron 2,500 policías de los tres órdenes de gobierno. Dos personas murieron y 207 fueron detenidas.

Organizaciones civiles como el Centro Prodh denuncian que durante el operativo del 3 y 4 de mayo de 2006, al menos 26 mujeres fueron víctimas de tortura sexual; de las cuáles, 11 presentaron una querella ante la CIDH.

Estas mujeres denunciaron que los agentes las detuvieron por participar en los disturbios y que en los vehículos donde eran trasladadas a un penal sufrieron violencia sexual, física y verbal.

Una de las denunciantes, Italia Méndez, escribió una carta en el quinto aniversario del operativo en Atenco: "La tortura sexual ejercida contra nosotras las mujeres en los operativos fue un hecho difícil de afrontar y denunciar, dimensionar tal violencia contra nuestros cuerpos nos resultaba desbordante, sin embargo, el mantenernos juntas y enfrentar al Estado de forma colectiva nos permitió afrontar y desmontar el discurso del poder en el cual nosotras debíamos sentir vergüenza y no podíamos hacer nada con lo ocurrido”.

En julio de 2010, la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (SCJN) ordenó la liberación de 12 integrantes del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra (FPDT), que estaban sentenciados a penas de entre 31 y 112 años de cárcel por el delito de secuestro equiparado tras haber participado en la protesta.

Un año antes, la Corte dictaminó que los policías que fueron parte del operativo cometieron graves violaciones a las garantías individuales. Hasta ahora, sólo uno ha sido consignado por actos libidinosos, pero no fue encarcelado.

La SCJN también deslindó responsabilidad al expresidente Vicente Fox y al exgobernador del Estado de México, Enrique Peña Nieto.

El exmandatario estatal dijo en 2008 que volvería a ordenar un operativo similar en caso de que fuera necesario restablecer el orden y la paz social. Sin embargo, un año después, reconoció que en el caso existe un “alto grado de impunidad” en cuanto a violaciones y abusos cometidos por los 2,500 policías que participaron, pero dijo que era “prácticamente imposible saber quién las cometió”.

Cinco años después de haber avalado el operativo, Enrique Peña Nieto es el político mexicano mejor posicionado en las encuestas para los comicios presidenciales de 2012.

International Commission will investigate the case of 11 Mexican women who charge sexual torture [at the hands of police]

The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR)  has decided to investigate rape complaints filed by a group of women in regard to a police operation that occurred in the city of San Salvador de Atenco in 2006.

According to documentation assembled by nongovernmental organizations, at least 26 women were raped at the time of the incident. Eleven of those victims have pursued the case that will be considered by the IACHR.

During its 143rd regular session, the Commission issued a report to begin investigating  petition 512-08 -  Mariana Selvas Gómez et al., Mexico, filed in April 2008 on allegations that justice was not served because officials failed to investigate the case.

"Neither the [federal] Special Prosecutor for Violent Crimes Against Women and Trafficking in Persons (FEVIMTRA) nor the Attorney General of the State of Mexico (PGJEM) conducted an adequate investigation, and none of the more than 2,500 police officers involved [in the operation] has been penalized,” declared a spokesperson for the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (PRODH Center), which provides legal representation for the complainants.

The Commission will now investigate whether the Mexican government committed human rights violations and will publish its conclusions after the complainants and the Mexican government are notified about them.

The population of San Salvador Atenco mobilized in February and May of 2006 in protest against the expropriation of land within the city that was to be used for the construction of a new international airport. The protest led to a confrontation and a response by more than 2,500 federal, state and local police officers. Two people died and 207 were arrested.

Civil society organizations such as the PRODH Center reported that during the operation, which took place between May 3rd and 4th of 2006, at least 26 women were subjected to sexual torture. Eleven of those victims joined to bring the IACHR complaint.

The women reported that officers had arrested them for participating in the disturbances, and that they were sexually, physically and verbally assaulted on the buses that transported them to jail.

One of the complainants, Italia Méndez, wrote a letter on the fifth anniversary of the operation in Atenco and stated: "The sexual torture that was perpetrated against us as women was hard to face and denounce - such violence [against] our bodies was overwhelming. Nonetheless, by staying together and by confronting the state collectively, we were able to dismantle the discourse that was [publicized] by those in power, a discourse that said that we should feel ashamed and that we could not do anything about what had happened."

In July 2010, the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) ordered the release of 12 members of the Peoples' Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), who had been sentenced to between 31 and 112 years in prison for the crime of kidnapping after participating in the protest.

A year earlier, the Court ruled that the police officers who were part of the operation committed serious violations of individual rights. So far, only one officer has been prosecuted for lewd acts. He was not jailed.

The supreme court also exonerated [former] president Vicente Fox and the former governor of Mexico state, Enrique Peña Nieto in regard to the case.

Peña Nieto said in 2008 that he would have ordered a similar operation again in the event that it become necessary to restore order and social peace. A year later, Peña Nieto acknowledged that there was a "high degree of impunity" in regard to the violations and abuses committed by the 2,500 police officers involved, but said it was "practically impossible to know who committed those acts".

Five years after having [ordered and] supported the operation, Enrique Peña Nieto holds the top position in polls leading up to the 2012 presidential race.

Tania L. Montalvo

CNNMéxico

Nov. 09, 2011

See also:

Added: Nov. 14, 2011

Mexico

Raped, Beaten, Never Forgotten

When the women left their homes that May morning in 2006, they never imagined the horrific experience that lay ahead of them.

During a police operation in response to protests by a local peasant organization in San Salvador Atenco, more than 45 women were arrested without explanation. Dozens of them were subjected to physical, psychological and sexual violence by the police officers who arrested them.

In the case of one of the women, police officers pulled her hair, beat her, and forced her into a state police vehicle with her shirt pulled over her head. She was made to lie on top of other detainees, and during the journey to the prison, police officers sexually assaulted her repeatedly.

Once at the "Santiaguito" prison near Toluca in Mexico State, the prison doctors who examined many of the women failed to document all their physical injuries or to gather evidence of the sexual abuse they had suffered.

More than four years later, these brave survivors are still waiting for justice.

None of the officials responsible for their abuse have been held accountable. Federal authorities had conducted an investigation that resulted in a list of 34 names of police officers who were suspected of being responsible for the abuses, but the federal authorities concluded that these individuals should be prosecuted at the state level.

Almost no progress has been made in over a year. Now is the time to push for real justice and remind the federal government of Mexico that it has the ultimate responsibility to protect the human rights of its citizens, and not to let this impunity continue...

Amnesty International

2011


Added: Sep. 04, 2009

Mexico

Protest signs proclaim "Freedom for Political Prisoners" at May, 2009 commemoration of Atenco

El Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra y organizaciones sociales realizaron una manifestacion conmemorando el tercer aniversario de la represión en San Salvador Atenco.

The Front of Peoples in Defense of the Land and social organizations of Mexico held a demonstration in commemoration of the third anniversary of the police repression in San Salvador Atenco.

Three years after the violence, a number of protesters remain in state prison in cases related to the Atenco protests.

Photo: Prometeo Lucero / LatinPhoto

Van por Policías Torturadores

Después de tres años, la PGR concluye que 30 funcionarios son responsables de los hechos de San Salvador AtencoLa Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) concluyó que existen elementos de prueba para acusar y detener a 30 servidores públicos del gobierno del Estado de México involucrados en los hechos violentos de San Salvador Atenco, del 3 y 4 de mayo de 2006...

Federal Prosecutors Will Charge 30 Rogue Police Officers / Torturers of 47 Women Protesters in Atenco Case

Three years after the fact, Mexico’s federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) has concluded that 30 public servants of the government of the state of Mexico were involved in the violent events in the city of San Salvador Atenco on May 3rd and 4th of 2006.

In the near future the PGR will ask a federal judge to issue arrest warrants for those who are presumed to be responsible for the acts of torture and sexual crimes that were perpetrated against a number of women who were in the state of Mexico during a security crackdown.

High-level sources in the PGR have stated that the case is being managed by the Special Prosecutor for Crimes of Violence against Women and Trafficking in Persons (FEVIMTRA). After three years of investigation, FEVIMTRA is basing its charges on eye witness testimony, the work of experts and other sources of evidence.

The PGR investigation found that federal law enforcement agents [who participated in the police action] were not involved in the violations of individual rights and against the physical integrity of victims that occurred...

Sources within the PGR said that it has been determined that acts of torture with sexist connotations… serious acts of violation of women's rights, did take place.

The case has been documented and examined by experts. Foreign victims from Chile, Germany and Spain will be allowed to join in the complaint.

One Spanish victim provided testimony to investigators that ultimately proved essential to support the charges against the 30 accused state government employees.

During the research process investigators focused on the 47 women who were injured by the security forces, mainly on May 4th, 2006. Some of them had since changed there place of residence for fear of reprisals...

The Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) had ordered, in regard to this matter, the formation of a commission to investigate the case of Atenco, to see which authorities had violated individual rights during the operations in question, and to restore public order in that area of the country.

The Court indicated that the crime of torture is classified as serious, and therefore the suspects would not be permitted to remain free on bail.

Full English Translation

Excélsior

Lemic Madrid

Sep. 02, 2009

LibertadLatina

Commentary

According to unnamed sources, the Attorney General of Republic (PGR) and the office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes of Violence Against Women and Trafficking in Persons (FEVIMTRA) within the PGR will, finally, take action and prosecute those believed to be responsible for the sexual assaults of 26 of the 47 women arrested at the May 3rd and 4th, 2006 protest march in San Salvador de Atenco. That is good news, on its face.

The above story, appearing on Sp. 2, 2009 in Mexico's  Excélsior newspaper, leaves the reader with the impression that the upcoming prosecutions of 30 state police agents in the case is the result of three years of continuous diligent investigation by the PGR and FEVIMTRA.

We note with interest that this announcement was published three days after the August 31st resignation of Guadalupe Morfin Otero as the special prosecutor in charge of FEVIMTRA.

In reality, numerous women's rights groups have criticized FEVIMTRA for having dropped the ball by not having investigated the case of mass rape by police agents in Atenco. Other cases, such as that against Puebla state police agents for the torture of anti child sex trafficking activist and journalist Lydia Cacho, were also ignored, and the intensive work on Cacho's case performed by FEVIM, the predecessor to FEVIMTRA, was made to 'disappear' once Morfin Otero took charge of the special prosecutor's office from Alicia Elena Pérez Duarte.

The following account communicates well the sense of frustration that the women victims of rape at Atenco and their advocates felt during the long period when Morfin Otero's FEVIMTRA refused to engage them and seek justice on their behalf.

Petition of 11 Women from Atenco, Victims of Torture

...On April 29

[2008], female ex-prisoners of Atenco protested outside the Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes Related to Violence Against Women [FEVIMTRA] to announce their petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) regarding the sexual torture they suffered while detained. The IACHR is considered an option of last resort, when citizens are unable to obtain justice through their own countries' legal systems.

The women and their supporters protested outside the Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes Related to Violence Against Women to make clear that they were forced to seek justice in an international body because of the Special Prosecutor's failure to act on their cases. Sufficient evidence exists to indict the police who tortured them, but the state has failed to do so.

The women report having tried "many, many times" to schedule a meeting with the Special Prosecutor. Mariana de las Selvas has been out of prison for three months. In that time, she's tried on three separate occasions to meet with the Special Prosecutor, but the office always ignored her requests. It wasn't until the women filed their petition with the IACHR and held a protest and press conference outside the Special Prosecutor's office to denounce its inaction did the Special Prosecutor insist on meeting with the ex-prisoners.

The women agreed to the meeting, and entered with a single question for the Special Prosecutor: What has the Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes Related to Violence Against Women done in the past two years to punish the police responsible for torture in Atenco? Representatives from the Special Prosecutor's office spoke for thirty minutes in response to the question, effectively saying that they had done nothing. Selvas reports that they gave "every excuse under the sun" for why they hadn't met with the ex-prisoners or prosecuted the police for torture, sexual abuse, and rape.

Kristin Bricker

May 6, 2008

We can only surmise that the administration of National Action Party (PAN) President Felipe Calderón is receiving substantial pressure internationally and within Mexico to repair this most glaring blot on the moral reputation of Mexico. Whatever the cause of this major policy shift, President Calderón's administration must be closely monitored to assure that justice is actually done for the victims of the violence at Atenco.

Based on past experience, we have little reason to trust that those responsible for rapes and other serious crimes against women will actually face impartial judicial proceedings in relation to their cases.

The whole world is watching!

End impunity now!

Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

Sep. 04, 2009


Added: May 16, 2009

Mexico

Mujeres de Atenco, tortura sexual e impunidad

México DF - El Estado mexicano violó sus garantías individuales. Fueron agredidas con golpes en todo el cuerpo, despojadas de su ropa, violentadas sexualmente, mordidas, pellizcadas… les cubrieron el rostro, les introdujeron dedos y objetos anal y vaginalmente, las violaron, las humillaron, las insultaron, las amenazaron de muerte y finalmente se les negó la asistencia ginecológica para que no pudieran demostrar la tortura sexual…

Ese fue el calvario por el que pasaron 47 mujeres detenidas en Atenco hace tres años; de las cuales, solo 11 han decidido continuar con las denuncias contra los policías de los tres niveles que ejecutaron la tortura sexual buscando aniquilarlas como mujeres y como colectivo...

Women of Atenco, sexual torture and impunity

Mexico City - The Mexican government violated their individual rights. They were beaten and stripped of their clothing. They were sexually violated, bitten and pinched. Their faces were covered while police officers inserted their fingers and foreign objects into them anally and vaginally. They were raped, humiliated, insulted and subjected to death threats. At the end of it all, they were refused gynecological assistance, to make it impossible to prove that these sexual tortures took place.

That was the ordeal that 47 women arrested in Atenco three years ago faced. Of that number, only 11 victims have decided to pursue complaints against the federal, state and local policemen who carried out these tortures, which were carried out with the aim of annihilating them as women and as a collective [of activists].

The sexual tortures that took place in the city of Atenco, in Mexico state, can be tied to one man, state governor and current presidential aspirant Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Peña Nieto was the one who ordered the repression against [a group of protesting] farmers and florists, an act that violated all the laws that guarantee respect for human rights, and in violation of international treaties that the government of Mexico has hypocrit-ically signed but ignored.

Peña Nieto’s hands were not shaking at the time he ordered this violence, but what happened at Atenco was a state crime. Unfortunately, that crime won’t be punished during his lifetime.

Proud of his crime, the governor, known as "The Seagull," dares to declare that the events that occurred at Atenco "rather than being an error, were the right thing to do," because, he says, he was able to restore order. Peña Nieto adds “if that situation were to re-occur, I would do the same thing again.”

Knowing that he has a ‘blank check,’ backed by the ‘Great Court’ that continues on a course of providing him with institutional impunity, Peña Nieto has now surprised everyone by launching a national campaign to "dignify" notable women...

Of the 20 accused policemen, none has been sent to prison. Only officer Doroteo Blas Marcelo, a rapist, was convicted for "libidinous acts."

His victim, Ana Maria Rodriguez Velasco, was forced to perform oral sex. She was able to recognize her torturer because when he finished, he yanked her by the hair, looked in her face, and said: “Now swallow it, bitch!”

Judge Tomás Santana Malvaez sentenced officer Blas Marcelo to pay a fine of only 1,877 Mexican pesos (US $142 dollars). The judge pardoned Blas Marcelo from paying reparations to the victim...

Full English Translation

Sanjuana Martínez

CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

Mexico City

May 12, 2009


Added: May 17, 2009

Mexico

Atenco: Three Years Of Impunity And Injustice

Centro PRODH Press Release

* The Mexican justice system is [too] inefficient to process the authorities responsible for committing grave human rights violations in Atenco.

*Faced with the State´s apathy on this case, international solidarity on the part of organizations and activists is more important than ever.

During the incidents in Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco on May 3 and 4, 2006, the repressive operations of various police agencies (federal, state and municipal) involved a number of grave human rights violations. At least 26 of the 47 detained women denounced having been being victims of physical, verbal and sexual violence on the part of police agents…

The Attorney General's Office (PGR for its initials in Spanish), through its Special Prosecutor's Office for Violence Against Women and Human Trafficking (FEVIMTRA for its initials in Spanish), reported to have initiated an inquiry against those responsible for the crimes against some of the women in Atenco. However to this date, three years after having initiated the investigation..., FEVIMTRA has still not filed charges against any of the agents and authorities responsible for these acts of torture.

...On February 12, 2009, the National Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN for its initials in Spanish) resolved that there were, in fact, grave human rights violations in Atenco. As such, the veracity of the survivors´ accusations is clear, just as is the bad faith by which both the federal and the state of Mexico’s authorities have tried to undermine these accusations. Nonetheless, regrettably, the SCJN avoided making a public statement outlining the responsibility of high-ranking authorities, politicians and police units that were involved…

Note: The Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (Center Prodh) was founded in 1988 by the Society of Jesus in Mexico.Our purpose is to defend, promote, and improve respect for human rights in Mexico, with a focus on the most marginalized and vulnerable social groups in the country, such as women, indigenous communities, migrants, workers, and victims of social repression...

Centro PRODH

Mexico City

May 4, 2009


Added: May 16, 2009

Mexico

Comunicado de WOLA

WOLA junto con más de 20 otras organizaciones internacionales de derechos humanos se adhirió a un desplegado publicado el 11 de mayo en el periódico mexicano El Universal que hace un llamado al Presidente Calderón a poner fin a la impunidad ante violaciones de los derechos humanos, incluyendo violencia sexual, perpetradas por agentes policiales en contra de 26 mujeres en el transcurso de manifestaciones en San Salvador Atenco y Texcoco, Estado de México, en mayo del 2006.

Para más información sobre la campaña para lograr justicia para las mujeres que han sido victimas en de Atenco -auspiciada por Amnistía Internacional-México y el Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, favor de ver: alzatuvoz.org

WOLA press release

The Washington Office on Latina America (WOLA) joined over 20 international human rights organizations in adhering to [an NGO] statement published in the Mexican newspaper El Universal on May 11 calling for Mexican President Calderon to put an end to impunity for human rights abuses, including sexual assault, committed by police against 26 women during May 2006 protests in San Salvador Atenco and Texcoco in the state of Mexico.

WOLA

May 11, 2009


Added: May 16, 2009

Mexico

Impunity in San Salvador Atenco

...On May 3 2006, officials [in the cities of San Salvador Atenco and Texcoco] attempted to evict local roadside flower vendors on the authority of the municipal government, backed by the Mexico state government. The People’s Front for the Defense of the Land (FPDT) supported the flower vendors in their attempt to resist the eviction, resulting in a violent confrontation between the security forces and the social movement.

The confrontation lasted two days and resulted in many major human right violations including the death of two young people, Javier Cortés Santiago and Alexis Benhumea, sexual abuse, unwarranted raids on homes, assaults, violations of due process rights and the illegal expulsion of foreigners. Dozens of people were injured and some 211 individuals were arrested by the end of the two-day standoff. Many of those detained reported having been physically mistreated in custody, including sexual aggression and in five cases, rape.

As of the third anniversary twelve members of the movement and supporters remain in prison...

Americas MexicoBlog

May 9, 2009


Added: May 16, 2009

Mexico

Interview with John Gibler about his new book, Mexico Unconquered

...The work of documenting human rights abuses can be extremely powerful, especially in the cases of Atenco and Oaxaca in 2006. Local Mexican human rights organizations on the ground risked their own safety to quickly document the nature and the scale of the abuses against people there. Most of the big name international human rights NGOs were nowhere to be seen. Several of them tried to jump into advocacy around these cases once most of the damage had been done and once the conflicts had been beaten down through police repression...

John Gibler's book is drawn from two years of on-the-ground reporting in Mexico.

Kristin Bricker

Narco News

Feb. 08, 2009


Added: Feb. 13, 2009

Mexico

Magdalena García Durán is a defender of indigenous rights. Like many members of the Other Campaign, she went to Atenco May 4th, 2006 to show her support for the People’s Front for the Defense of the Land (FPDT), the organization under attack for courageously (and successfully) defending their lands against a major airport expropriation and for defending the right of flower vendors to work in [the city of] Texcoco.

Magdalena is one of the 214 people who were cruelly tortured, raped, and arrested without a warrant by.. police...    that day.

Indymedia

Sep. 16, 2007

Resolución de SCJN legitima Estado policíaco: FPDT

Otorga impunidad a agresores

Las y los ministros de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (SCJN) tuvieron en sus manos la oportunidad histórica de hacer justicia a un pueblo donde se violaron de manera grave los derechos humanos y las garantías individuales, durante el operativo policíaco del 3 y 4 de mayo de 2006, pero su resolución sobre el Caso Atenco no responsabiliza al gobernador del Estado de México, Enrique Peña Nieto; a Eduardo Medina Mora, Miguel Ángel Yunes, responsables de dichas acciones.

Así resume el Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra la resolución tomada hoy por la Corte, después de 4 días de sesión, donde se discutió un dictamen elaborado por el ministro.

Quien pierde, dice el Frente en un comunicado, es el pueblo de México, porque su resolución sólo otorga impunidad a los represores y viene a legitimar la instauración de un Estado policíaco, “tal como lo vemos en el uso recurrente del Ejército Mexicano y de las fuerza pública en la llamada lucha contra el crimen, así como en la confrontación con el movimiento social, utilizando estrategias de contrainsurgencia para controlar a la población y querer exterminar a las organizaciones como el Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra en Atenco”.

FPDT: Most Recent Supreme Court resolution legitimates police state tactics

The Court's decision grants impunity to the perpetrators

During its recent judicial review of the of the case of Atenco, where on May 3rd and 4th of 2006, serious violations of human rights and individual guarantees occurred [by police forces who beat and raped dozens of peaceful female protesters during a demonstra-tion and march], the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) had an opportunity to bring justice [to the victims]. Instead, the Court decided to exonerate the governor of the state of Mexico, Enrique, as well as Peña Nieto, Eduardo Medina Mora and Miguel Angel Yunes, who were the officials [of the local, state and federal police forces involved], who were responsible for the actions of their agents at the Atenco march.

This is the view that was recently communicated in a press release from the People's Front for the Defense of Land [FPDT], in response to the Court's decision in the Atenco case after four days of deliberation.  [The FPDT's protest march was attacked during the events at Atenco].

In this Court decision, the people of Mexico loose, because it legitimizes impunity in the establishment of a police state... "as we see in the recurrent use of the Mexican Army in the so-called fight against crime and also to confront social movements by using counterinsurgency strategies to control the population. They want to wipe out organizations like the FPDT in Atenco."

The FPDT believes that the gross violations of human rights that occurred at Atenco were not just individual actions [by rogue policemen], but were part of official policies.

...The FPDT: "This Supreme Court has mocked the victims and Mexican history..."

CIMAC Noticias

Feb. 12, 2009


Added June 08, 2006

Mexico

Huma Rights Group: There Is No Doubt That Police Sexual Assaults Against Women In Atenco Were A Form Of Torture

No hay duda que agresiones a mujeres en Atenco son tortura.

According to Felicitas Treue, a psychotherapist working with  the non-profit group Collective Against Torture And Impunity, there is no doubt that the sexual assaults faced by 23 women at the hands of policemen during  a police operation in early May 2006 were a form of toture.

As a participant in the round table session “The women of Atenco,” organized monthly by the Friedrich Ebert  Foundation and Communic-ation & Information for Woman AC (CIMAC), the activist stated that these acts of sexual aggression were committed to show that women are objects.

Treue explained that the assaults against women are a demonstration of acts of control by men, be they police, military or a custodian.  These acts are a form of “punishment” for women who “dare” to leave their traditional role. 

Treue noted that women have always been a booty of war.  In this case, they were a "reward" for police officers responsible for enforcing the law. 

In turn, Alicia Elena Pérez Duarte, Special Prosecutor for Violent Crimes Against Women, of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR), indicated that she has begun an initial investigation into the case of Atenco.  She committed her office to apply principles of equality and non-discrimination in their investigation. 

- CimacNoticias

News for Women

Mexico City

June 7, 2006


Added June 05, 2006

Mexico

Mexico Solidarity Network's Weekly News Summary On Atenco

The International Commission for Observation of Human Rights, made up mainly of European human rights activists, spent the week interviewing Atenco residents, government officials and human rights organizations, and trying - unsuccess-fully - to visit 27 political prisoners from Atenco held in two prisons.  Prison officials also denied visitation rights to family members and conducted several court hearings in private, both clear violation of Mexican law. 

Police officials and Mexico state Governor Enrique Pena continued to deny any grave misconduct on the part of police, and sited the results of lie detector tests conducted in private as "proof."

Most of the 27 prisoners held in Santiaguito Prison entered the fourth week of a hunger strike that has left many in a weakened state.  Demands include release of all Atenco prisoners, justice for those who suffered rape, beatings and torture, and impeachment of Governor Enrique Pena.  The newly formed organization Women Without Fear - We Are All Atenco organized a rotating hunger strike and 24-hour vigilance in front of the prison.  Actress Ofelia Medina led the first group of hunger strikers.

In a biting editorial in Friday's (06/02) La Jornada, Adolfo Gilly highlighted the use of sexual violence to attack social movements as a new, and particularly worrisome, state strategy: "With the police rapes of the women of Atenco, the violence of the Mexican state surpassed a limit.  Of course, before, the state killed, committed massacres, tortured, kidnap-ped, raped and disappeared people.  But since [the 1968 student massacre at] ‘Tlatelolco,’ even with the assassi-nations and disappearances of the 70s and successive years, they had not practiced mass rape of women prisoners as they did recently in the case of San Salvador Atenco - a collective act of barbarity that no uniformed officer would commit without orders from commanders."

- Mexico Solidarity Network

June 4, 2006


Added June 01, 2006

Mexico

Catalonian Legal Scholar: Sexist Bias Exists in Mexico’s Laws

Sesgo machista en leyes mexicanas: especialista catalana

Integrante de la misión española de observación en Atenco

Encarnacion Bodelón González, a Catalonian specialist in legal philosophy with a focus on gender law, has declared that the denial of the validity of the testimony of 23 women sexually assaulted by police officers in the town of Atenco is a form of machismo (formalized sexism) that affects the application of laws in Mexico.

During her visit to the town of Atenco with the Commission this past Tuesday, Bodelón González verified the many testimonies of sexual aggressions, as well as the degree of psychological trauma faced by the victims.

According to Bodelón González , news reports about the possible exoneration of the police officers accused in the sexual assaults, based on the supposed use of lie detector tests, cannot have any probative value because of the unreliability of such tests.

In Bodelón González’s opinion, what happened in Atenco “is one more example of how our patriarchal culture has made women invisible” and reinforces the idea that women’s autonomy, dignity and veracity can be denied before the law.

Bodelón González: These sexual assaults were carried out by the same [federal] law enforcement who has [ordered other acts of repression in Mexico].  These sexual attacks are evidence of a strategy of terror not only toward the community of Atenco, but toward a particular demographic profile of free thinking, autonomous women.  This attack was meant to send a message to the women of Mexico.” 

Bodelón González noted that through her interviews with the victims (many of whom remain in prison), they have received no medical treatment or services for victims of sexual assault.  The few women who have been release have only received limited help from non-profit organizations and the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).   

The consequences of this extreme violence against the community of Atenco, the jurist said, could seen in the fact that the women and children of the community who were not attacked are very fearful, and present symptoms of post-traumatic stress and anxiety.

Bodelón González called upon national and international feminist organiz-ations to organize a support effort to end this violence against women.

-Lourdes Godínez Leal

CimacNoticias

News for Women

Mexico City

May 31, 2006

LibertadLatina Note:

Catalonia is a region, and nationality within Spain.

 


Added May 27, 2006

Mexico

Feminists Demand That National Public Security Undersecretary Miguel Angel Yunes Resign In Wake Of Atenco

Exigen feministas la renuncia de Miguel Angel

Feminist members of Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and the Equality and Integral Health for the Woman (SIPAM) have demanded the immediate resignation of National Public Security Undersecretary Miguel Angel Yunes for his failure to accept responsibility for the sexual violence committed by federal and state police officers in Atenco on May 3rd and 4th, 2006.

In a communiqué, the organization’s signatories staed that the petition will be delivered to an official responsible for the Preventive Federal Police (PFP), in whose headquarters they will carry out tomorrow a long wait in repudiation by the crime abuses of the past 3 and 4 of May passed in San Savior Atenco. 

Yunes is accused by feminists of being directly responsible for the criminal sexual violence committed by officers of the PFP, which is under Yunes’ control.  They also accuse Yunes of wrapping the actions of the PFP in the a cloak of legitimacy, putting in doubt the truthfulness of the complaints filed by the [23] victims, and effectively justifying the sex crimes committed by the officers.

In the face of the indignation of women who protest these brutal acts, the abuse of power and the criminality perpetrated by police forces in the Atenco operation, the feminist organizations demand that Yunes not only resign, but that he be put at the disposal of the investigating authorities.

The feminists also demand that the police accused of involvement in the rapes and sexual assaults be made examples of, and demand an end to state repression against popular social movements.

- Lourdes Godínez

Cimac Noticias

News for Women

Mexico City

May 25, 2006


Added May 24, 2006

Mexico

Amnesty International: Federal Attorney General Should Take Over Rape Cases From State Of Mexico

AI exige a PGR atraer los casos de violación.  

Amnesty international (AI) has declared that the rapes and sexual assaults perpetrated against detained women by police forces in Atenco constitute acts of torture.  Together with Mexico's Friar Francisco Vitoria  Human Rights Center, AI has requested that the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) take over the seven cases of rape suffered by women arrested during a police operation in San Savior Atenco this past may 3rd and 4th, 2006.

Liliana Velázquez, president of AI in Mexico, said that the investigation into the case should be done in an exhaustive and impartial manner.

- El Universal

Mexico City

May 24, 2006


Added May 24, 2006

Mexico

Amnesty: Mexico's Human Rights Efforts Inadequate And Deceptive

Ven decepcionante trabajo en derechos humanos.  

Amnesty International has indicated that the actions carried out by the Mexican federal government in the field of human rights are "insufficient and disappointing" due to the impunity that prevails in Mexico, and due to persistent practices such as arbitrary detention, torture and violence against the women.

Liliana Velázquez, president of AI in Mexico, expressed her concern because, on the one hand, the administration of President Vicente Fox has failed in its intent to judge and to punish those responsible for the crimes of the past [the Dirty War] and on the other hand, the special prosecutor of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) to investigate the murders of women in City Juárez (in Chihuahua state) has not held itself accountable [for inaction in those cases].

Liliana Velázquez: "Impunity is commonplace [in Mexico], and we ask ourselves… is this the exception or, now, the rule."

- El Universal

Mexico City

May 24, 2006


Added May 24, 2006

Mexico

Supreme court Chief Justice: Nations Judges Cannot Be Indifferent To Human Rights

"Jueces no deben ser indiferentes." 

Speaking before an audience at the National Autono-mous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico’s President of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), Mariano Adze, stated that the nation’s judges should not be indifferent to violations of human rights, because they are responsible for protecting those guarantees through their acts of sentencing.

In presenting the opening speech of the forum, Mariano Adze said that all judges, "from the level of a municipal magistrate who knows of arbitrary acts by a cacique [overlord, town boss] in remote mountain areas… to judges in courts that are forums for national issues... have an irrevocable responsibility to protect the fundamental rights of the people." 

- El Universal

Mexico City

May 24, 2006


Added May 24, 2006

Mexico

Human Rights Commission Calls PFP Federal Police Report “Partial & Fixed”

"La PFP no se puede deslindar."

(The PFP Police cannot distance themselves [from the events at Atenco, in which their officers also face investigation].)

Mexico’s Federal Preventive Police (PFP) cannot distance itself from the facts in the San Savior Atenco case.  The only institution authorized to determine if public servants incurred responsibility for violating funda-mental guarantees is the National Commission of the Human Rights (CNDH). 

CNDH Second Inspector General Susana Thalía Pedroza added that the report provided by the PFP in regard to the case is "partial and fixed."  Therefore, the CNDH must assume its responsibility. 

During an interview with El Universal, Pedroza assured that the CNDH possesses photographs, videos and other evidence of the ‘fingerprints’ that remain on [the bodies of] these women as consequence of the abuses and sexual violations that they suffered. 

Pedroza said that in none of the six complaints of rape presented by the victims to the CNDH involve sexual intercourse, but, she added, the Penal Code of the State of Mexico also includes in its definition of rape... vaginal, anal or oral penetration by any part of the body or by an object, against the will of the person. 

- Liliana Alcántara

El Universal

Mexico City

May 24, 2006


Added May 23, 2006

Mexico

Human Rights Commission: Seven Women Were Raped At Atenco

CNDH ombudsman José Luis Soberanes

CNDH: Women who alleged rape are telling the truth

CNDH: The victims have not under-gone gynecological exams because of the state of trauma that they are in.

Upon presenting their preliminary report in regard to the violent acts at Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco on May 3rd and 4th, 2006, the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH) asserted that "nobody can say that the 19 Mexican women and the four foreigners lied in their accusations rape and sex abuse... we have we have accredited their reports with detailed minutes, videos, medical opinions and photographs.  As a result, we have presented our findings to the public prosecutor’s office for the state of Mexico. 

CNDH national ombudsman José Luis Soberanes reported that as a result of the raid by municipal, state, preventive, and federal police officers, 211 complaints have been received; some individuals refer at more than one violation of their human rights.

- La Jornada

Mexico City

May 23, 2006


Added May 23, 2006

Mexico

Repression, Rape and Torture by Police In Mexico State

Algunos testimonios de violaciones a los derechos humanos de las mujeres detenidas en San Salvador Atenco.

Testimonies of human rights violations by women detained by police in Atenco.

- Americas.org

May 23, 2006


Added May 23, 2006

Mexico

Mexico's National Human Rights Commission Confirms 23 Rapes and Sexual Assaults at Atenco

Confirma CNDH agresiones sexuales hacia detenidas de Atenco

After confirming the 23 cases of sexual aggression against the women protesters of the San Savior Atenco protest, the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH) has announced concerns about irregularities in the elaboration of the medical certificates for the detained women. 

Presenting their first report in regard to the [May 3rd and 4th] violence in Atenco, Susana de la Llave, second inspector general of the CNDH said that itself “all the elements exist to presume that 23 women suffered sexual attacks” during the events in Atenco. 

Detailed minutes, medical opinions, photos and videos have been documented by the CNDH. 

Susana de la Llave… “The 23 women coincide in time, form and place, but the description that do of the sex abuse is different.”   “With this documentation, nobody can allege that these women lied.”

Among the irregularities in the elaboration of the medical certificates, de la Llave said that the documents lack of chronological order in the description of the external wounds, and they contain partial description of wounds. 

- Lourdes Godínez Leal

CimacNoticias

News for Women

Mexico City

May 22, 2006


Added May 23, 2006

Mexico

CNDH: 23 Women Were Abused

Top officials from the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) said on Monday that 23 cases of sexual abuse and rape have been documented following the violent clash between protesters and police in San Salvador Atenco earlier this month.

- El Universal /

Miami Herald

Mexico City

May 23, 2006


Added May 22, 2006

Mexico

Repression And Torture In Texcoco (Atenco)

(Article includes a model letter of protest, and addresses of authorities in Mexico.)

In bloody confrontations on May 3, 4 and 5, a group of flower sellers in a local market in Texcoco Mexico, a community group that supports them and many residents and bystanders were brutally attacked and repressed by the police when they refused to move from the market. As a result, one 14-year-old child was killed, one young university student is in critical condition, dozens of people are injured, hundreds are arrested and an unspecified number of people have disappeared.

All the detainees have denounced torture and abuses. Arrested women between 20 and 50 years old were brutally raped and tortured. Two weeks later, detainees have not had medical attention. Foreign students and observers were abused and illegally deported. Private property were stolen and intentionally destroyed by the police.

The local and federal governments have maintained a media campaign of misinformation in order to vilify the opponents, justify the repression and deny the torture, sexual abuses and rapes.

Families, friends, human rights activists and supporters of the jailed victims have held a series of demonstrations in several parts of the country and have denounced anonymous threats and intimidation from the government.

- Americas.org

May 22, 2006


Added May 22, 2006

Mexico

Nada Justifica La Tortura, Sostiene Alto Comisionado Del ONU

El representante del Alto Comision-ado para los Derechos Humanos de la ONU en México solicitó que se investiguen las denuncias a derechos humanos ocurridas en San Salvador Atenco los primeros días de mayo y se refirió en particular a las violaciones sexuales cometidas contra mujeres.

Nothing Justifies Torture: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mexico Office

The  representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) in Mexico, Amerigo Incalcaterra, has requested that their office investigate accusations of human rights abuses that occurred in San Savior Atenco during the first days of May, 2006, and referred particularly to the sexual assaults committed against women. 

“The state cannot invoke exceptional circumstances, such as internal political instability or any another public emergency, to justify the breaking of these [fundamental human rights] norms,” stated a communiqué of the UNHCHR office in Mexico. 

- CimacNoticias

News for Women

Mexico City

May 22, 2006


Added May 21, 2006

Mexico

Plena Legitimidad De Acciones Para Liberar A Presos De Atenco: Marcos

El movimiento por la liberación de los presos de San Salvador Atenco y por justicia para las mujeres agredidas y violadas sexualmente "tiene una fuerza internacional que no tuvo la huelga de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) y que no tuvo el Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN)", aseguró el subcomandante Marcos en su participación en la asamblea sectorial de estudiantes.

Zapatasta Movement Leader Marcos: It is Completely Legitimate To Demand The Release Of All Prisoners From The Atenco Protest

"The current international movement to free the women and men jailed after the protest, and the demands that the women raped and sexually assaulted there, has a power that was not found in [the recent] hunger strike at the Autonomous University of Mexico, nor in the original Zapatista movement." - Subcommander Marcos of the Zapatista ELZN, speaking before an assembly of students.

- La Jornada

Mexico City

May 21, 2006


Added May 20, 2006

Mexico

Las Protestas Por Atenco Se Extienden A 22 Países

Hubo ayer movilizaciones y actos públicos en ciudades de Estados Unidos, Canadá, América del Sur y Europa. Todos en protesta contra el gobierno mexicano por la represión en San Salvador Atenco, y en demanda de la liberación de presos políticos.

Since May 4, 2006, 85 Protest Marches In 22 Nations Have Taken Place In Solidarity With The Women Victims Of Police Sexual Assault In  Atenco, Mexico.

On Friday, May 19, 2006, protests occurred in the U.S., Canada, South America and Europe against the acts of repression, and demanding that those political prisoners jailed after the Atenco protest event be freed.

- La Jornada

Mexico City

May 20, 2006


Added May 20, 2006

Mexico

Fox administration to intensify abuse inquiry

After a bruising two days in which three major international organizations criticized Mexico´s human rights performance, the Fox administration said Friday it will step up its investigation of police brutality and abuses following the May 4 arrests of 189 people in San Salvador Atenco, the State of Mexico town just outside Mexico City that had erupted in rioting on May 3.

After Human Rights Watch chided Fox Wednesday for not pressing inquiries into past regimes´ "dirty war" policy against dissidents in the 1960s and 1970s, Amnesty International and the Mexico office of the United Nation´s High Commis-sioner for Human Rights both urged Mexico to carry out "immediate, impartial and exhaustive criminal investigations" into the charges of physical, mental and sexual abuse, including rape, of those arrested.

- Kelly Arthur Garrett
El Universal
May 20, 2006


Added May 20, 2006

Mexico

Víctimas De Agresión Sexual Interponen Demanda Ante PGR

México, DF - Un grupo de víctimas de agresión sexual en el operativo de Salvador Atenco, representadas por el Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Pro Juárez interpuso su denuncia formal ante la Fiscalía Especial para la atención de delitos violentos cometidos contra la Mujer.

Mexico City - A group of women victims of sexual assault [by police officers in Atenco], represented by the Miguel Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, has presented a formal complaint to the federal Special Prosecutor for Violent Crimes Against Women, Alicia Perez Duarte.

- CimacNoticias

News for Women

Mexico City

May 19, 2006


Added May 19, 2006

Mexico

Investigan Ya Abusos De 52 Policías Mexiquenses

Toluca, Mex., 17 de mayo. El procurador del estado de México, Abel Villicaña, confirmó hoy que se inició una averiguación previa contra 41 elementos y tres oficiales de Agencia de Seguridad Estatal (ASE) que estuvieron a cargo del traslado de detenidos de San Salvador Atenco al penal de Santiaguito en Almoloya el pasado 4 de mayo, por su responsa-bilidad en las presuntas violaciones y ataques sexuales de las cuales fueron víctimas 23 de las mujeres detenidas en ese operativo.

52 State Police Now Under Investigation In Relation To Rapes And Sexual Assaults Against 23 Women In Atenco

At least 3 command officials participated in the rapes.

Toluca - The Attorney General for the State of Mexico, Abel Villicaña, confirmed today the start of a preliminary investigation of 41 state police agents and three State Security Agency (ASE) officials that were in charge of the transfer of persons under arrest from San Salvador Atenco to Santiaguito prison in Almoloya last May 4, for their responsibility in the alleged rapes and sexual attacks of 23 female protesters.

In addition, eight ASE agents have been directly charged in the rapes and sexual assaults. 

- La Jornada

Mexico City
May 17, 2006


Added May 18, 2006

Mexico

Eight Police Officers Held Over For Trial On Abuse Charges

Almost two weeks after violent clashes in the rural village of San Salvador Atenco that shook the nation, State of Mexico prosecutors held over for trial eight police officers for alleged abuses.
State Govern-ment Secretary Humberto Benítez Treviño on Wednesday declared that any police that violated human rights will be punished.

- El Universal /

Miami Herald
May 18, 2006


Added May 18, 2006

Mexico

Women´s Groups Submit Rape Complaints

Activists take accusations of sexual abuse by police to the United Nations and say they do not trust local authorities

Women´s groups filed complaints of multiple rapes by police officers with the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, saying they had no faith that local authorities would satisfactorily investigate the accusations.

Activists from the National Women´s Forum, which represents 20 women´s groups, handed the U.N.´s office in Mexico a document Tuesday detailing allegations by seven women who say they were raped and another 16 who say they were sexually abused by state and federal police following a violent protest near Mexico City earlier this month.

The allegations are some of the strongest to have been leveled against police officers - who are frequently accused of corruption and violence - during the government of President Vicente Fox.

Fox´s office has promised that any guilty officers will be punished, and the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) has taken state-ments from the 23 women.

But Police Chief Wilfrido Robledo of the State of Mexico, where the conflict took place, has denied the allegations, saying they are part of a strategy by detainees´ lawyers to make police look bad.

- El Universal /

Miami Herald
May 18, 2006


Added May 18, 2006

Mexico

Buscan Justicia Para Las Mujeres
Agredidas en Atenco

(Activists seek justice for women sexually assaulted by police during May 3rd riot in the town of San Salvador Atenco.)

La fiscal especial para Delitos Violentos contra las Mujeres, Alicia Elena Pérez Duarte, se comprometió ante  representantes de organizaciones feministas “ir a fondo” en la averiguación sobre las violaciones contra mujeres que se cometieron durante el operativo realizado los primeros días de mayo en el pueblo de San Salvador Atenco.

(Special federal  prosecutor for crimes against women Alicia Pérez Duarte has promised to investigate allegations that police raped 7 and sexually assaulted 16 additional women during a protest-turned-riot on May 3, 2006 in the town of San Salvador Atenco, near Mexico City.)

CimacNoticias

News for Women

Mexico City

May 16, 2006


Added May 18, 2006

Mexico

Inicia PGR Averiguación Por Agresiones Sexuales En Atenco

El tiempo corre y la falta de atención médica a las mujeres que perman-ecen detenidas por el conflicto de San Salvador Atenco, provoca una ola de indignación ante los testimonios que apenas empiezan a investigar desde la Fiscalía Especial contra Delitos Violentos a Mujeres.

(Time is running out as ta group of women raped and then jailed by out of control police during a riot in the town of San Salvador Atenco (Atenco) have not received medical treatment. 

Both the sexual assaults by police and this lack of basic attention is creating a wave of indignation across Mexico.

The federal Attorney General's Office [the PRG] has announced an investigation into allegations of rape filed against police officers in San Salvador Atenco.  Activists have called for United Nations intervention.)

CimacNoticias

News for Women

Mexico City

May 16, 2006

See Also:

CIMAC Noticias Cobertura Especial de la crisis en Atenco

CIMAC Noticias Special Coverage of the Crisis in Atenco


Added May 18, 2006

Mexico

Testimony By A German Woman Who Was Beaten, Detained And Then Deported During The Atenco Conflict

Excerpt:

"I was dragged by my hair and arms into the truck, where lots of other people were already piled, one on top of another. There was blood everywhere. People were wailing.

I could only throw myself forward, onto my stomach, with my arms covering my head. They insulted us and they spit on us. They climbed up on the side of the truck, and when it started moving, they stood on top of me and the others, in their boots. They insulted us, and beat our backs, feat, and heads with their night sticks. I felt hands touching my rear-end and my back, and they were trying to take off my clothes. When I tried to pull my clothes back on, they yelled “gringa,” and someone hit me in the face. My nose was bleeding. I couldn’t think straight. I endured it all without moving.

The truck stopped. They dragged us by the hair to another truck, where there was another group of people crouching in puddles of blood on the floor of the truck. We had to climb in on top of them. Beatings, kicks, insults. Our heads were forced down to the floor, so we couldn’t see their faces. The police started to make a list of names."

- IndyMedia

May 16, 2006

See Also:

IndyMedia Cobertura Especial de la crisis en Atenco

IndyMedia Special Coverage of the Crisis in Atenco


Added May 18, 2006

Mexico

Voters Fear Nation on Edge of Chaos

Police rape women protesters in town of San Salvador Atenco

MEXICO CITY -- Police enraged by the kidnap-ping of six officers club unarmed detainees. A bloody battle between steel-workers and police leaves two miners dead. Drug lords post the heads of decapitated police on a fence to show who's in charge.

Less than two months before Mexicans elect their next president, many fear the country is teetering on the edge of chaos -- a perception that could hurt the ruling National Action Party's chances of keeping the presidency and benefit Mexico's once-powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party, whose candidate has been trailing badly.

Some blame President Vicente Fox for a weak government. Others say rivals are instigating the violence to create that impression, hoping to hurt National Action candidate Felipe Calderon, who has a slight lead in recent polls.

A poll published Friday in Excelsior newspaper found 50 percent of respondents feared the government was on the brink of losing control. The polling company Parametria conducted face-to-face interviews at 1,000 homes across Mexico. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

The conflicts are "a warning sign," said Yamel Nares, Parametria's research director.

Security is the top concern for Mexicans, and Fox has struggled to reform Mexico's notoriously corrupt police. Meanwhile, drug-related bloodshed has accelerated, with some cities seeing killings almost daily.

In April, suspected drug lords posted the heads of two police officers on a wall outside a government building where four drug traffickers died in a Jan. 27 shootout with officers in the Pacific resort of Acapulco.

A sign nearby read: "So that you learn to respect."

Last week, Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos said Mexico was in a "state of rage," and warned that tensions were similar to those that preceded the Zapatistas' brief armed uprising in January 1994 in the southern state of Chiapas.

He said his group is committed to peace, but many fear his increased public profile -- after years of hiding out in the jungle -- could foreshadow greater polarization among Mexican voters.

The masked leader said a May 3 clash that left a teenager dead and scores injured in San Salvador Atenco, 15 miles northeast of Mexico City, is an example of the growing tensions.

Marcos has been leading nearly daily demonstrations in the town following the incident, which began when a radical group of townspeople kidnapped and beat six policemen in a dispute over unlicensed flower vendors. Police responded with rage the next day. Television crews captured officers repeatedly beating unarmed protesters, and several detained women alleged officers raped them.

- JULIE WATSON

Associated Press

May 17, 2006


Added May 18, 2006

Mexico

Women Abused By Cops During Riots In San Salvador Atenco

Last Thursday's (May 3rd) Zapatista related riots have shown to be a disgusting show of abuse by police in a town outside of Mexico City, especially for women.

The National Human Rights Committee, a government agency, said police raped seven and sexually abused 16. The assaults are said to have occurred when the women and many others were held during the unrest, sparked by a round-up of unlicensed street vendors.
Three of the women who were allegedly assaulted include three foreigners.

One of them, Valentina Palma, a Chilean studying cinematography in Mexico, told La Jornada newspaper that she was robbed and beaten by officers.

"They insulted me, groped me, anything they wanted," she was quoted as saying. "When they jailed me that was when I saw the girls with their pants and underwear torn, sobbing."

This is disgusting. The fallout of this should be interesting. The Zapatistas haven't been in the news for a while, but they have no doubt been doing their work. Further-more, women are integral to the Zapatista movement, so it will be interesting to see their response.

- Feministing.com
May 11, 2006

 
 

 

   

LibertadLatina

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Updated: Nov. 15, 2011


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The crisis in Paraguay - including coverage of the important work of anti trafficking prosecutor Teresa Martínez and the unjust retaliatory impeachment that she is now facing



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Added: Nov. 15, 2011

Greater Washington, DC USA

Gangs Enter New Territory With Sex Trafficking

Though most are known to deal with drugs and weapons, a new FBI threat assessment says street gangs have been moving into some different territory lately: human trafficking. The FBI says gang members increasingly are pushing women and children into prostitution.

The MS-13 gang got its start among immigrants from El Salvador in the 1980s. Since then, the gang has built operations in 42 states, mostly out West and in the Northeastern United States, where members typically deal in drugs and weapons.

But in Fairfax County, Virginia, one of the wealthiest places in the country, authorities have brought five cases in the past year that focus on gang members who have pushed women, sometimes very young women, into prostitution.

"We all know that human trafficking is an issue around the world," says Neil MacBride, the top federal prosecutor in the area. "We hear about child brothels in Thailand and brick kilns in India, but it's something that's in our own backyard, and in the last year we've seen street gangs starting to move into sex trafficking."

In Virginia, at least, the consequences can be severe. Over the past few weeks, one member of MS-13 nicknamed "Sniper" got sent to prison for the rest of his life. Another will spend 24 years behind bars for compelling two teenage girls to sell themselves for money.

Usually, investigators say, gang members charge between $30 and $50 a visit, and the girls are forced into prostitution 10 to 15 times a day.

It's easy money for MS-13 — thousands of dollars in a weekend, with virtually no costs. Except for alcohol and drugs to try to keep the girls off-kilter.

Often, the activity takes place at construction sites, in the parking lots of convenience stores and gas stations.

"Yeah, this last case we worked, the victim was 12 years old," says John Torres, who leads the Homeland Security Investigations unit at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Washington.

He says the girl, a runaway, approached MS-13 gang members at a Halloween party. She was looking for a place to stay. Within hours, she was forced to work as a prostitute.

"You have a gang that's taking advantage of people that are in a desperate situation, usually runaways or someone that's looking for help from the gang," Torres says.

Joshua Skule, who oversees the violent crime branch of the criminal division at the FBI's field office in Washington, lists some reasons for street gangs' move into sex trafficking.

"It is not like moving, or as risky as moving narcotics. It is not as risky as extorting business owners," he says. "And these victims really have no way out."

Skule says they're like modern indentured servants. The 12-year-old girl involved in one of the recent sex trafficking cases is safe now, authorities say. But she'll be dealing with the physical and emotional scars for many years.

"When someone leaves, there's a lot of shame and guilt associated with the time they were there," says Victoria Hougham, a social worker who helps victims and survivors of sex trafficking.

"They may have physical injuries which can impact, especially for young women, their sexual and reproductive health."

Hougham works with Polaris Project, a nonprofit that runs a 24-hour hot line that helps connect victims of human trafficking with police or social services. She says survivors of that kind of abuse do best when they reconnect with their families and get support from law enforcement.

Prosecutors in Virginia say they expect to bring more sex trafficking cases against gang members over the next several months.

Carrie Johnson

All Things Considered

National Public Radio

Nov. 14, 2011


Added: Nov. 14, 2011

Congressional anti trafficking leader Rosi Orozco eulogizes Interior Department leaders in the war against modern slavery

Mexico

Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior José Francisco Blake Mora and other officials recently died in a tragic helicopter accident.

Congressional deputy Rosi Orozco, president of the Special Commission to Combat Human Trafficking in the Chamber of Deputies

Comunicado

Con profunda tristeza me uno al dolor que embarga a las familias de cada uno de los pasajeros que viajaban junto con el Srio. de Gobernación José Francisco Blake Mora, en el trágico accidente sucedido el día de ayer; Felipe de Jesús Zamora Castro, subsecretario de Asuntos Jurídicos y Derechos Humanos [y otros]…, quienes sirviendo a su Nación, perdieron su vida.

Siempre estaremos agredecidos por el apoyo del Srio. José Francisco Blake quien en funciones subió el tema del delito de Trata de Personas al Consejo de Seguridad Nacional equiparando así este delito con el de secuestro. En todo momento fue un hombre dispuesto y determinado a luchar por tener un mejor país, una mejor Nación, un mejor México para nacionales y extranjeros.

Felipe de Jesús Zamora, gran aliado en la lucha contra la Trata de Personas, comprometido con la campaña de la ONU en contra de este crimen, portando todos los días en la solapa de su traje el símbolo del Corazón Azul, su pérdida para mí es irreparable.

Press Release

It is with deep sadness that I join with the pain felt by the families of each of the passengers who were traveling with Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior José Francisco Blake Mora during the tragic [helicopter] accident that happened yesterday..., including Felipe de Jesús Zamora Castro, Secretary of Legal Affairs and Human Rights at the Interior Department.

We will always be thankful for the support of Secretary Blake Mora, who raised the issue of human trafficking before the National Security Council, where he equated trafficking with crime of kidnapping [which is penalized much more severely under Mexican law]. The Secretary was at all times a man willing and determined to fight for a better country, a better nation, a better Mexico for nationals and foreigners.

[Another victim of the crash, Undersecretary of the Interior for Judicial Affairs and Human Rights] Felipe de Jesus Zamora was a great ally in the fight against trafficking in persons. He was committed to [Mexico’s collaboration with] the United Nations Blue Heart campaign against trafficking, wearing therir blue heart pin on his lapel each and every day. His loss is irreparable.

I join the pain of all Mexicans, who have lost brave servants of our nation. They defended the values which make Mexico great through their day-to-day hard work and determination. I sympathize with their beloved families, peers and colleagues.

 Attentively

Atentamente

Diputada Federal Rosi Orozco

Nov. 11, 2011


Added: Nov. 14, 2011

Mexico

Protest sign says "We need authorities who will indeed protect us - not rapists."

La CIDH admite el caso de 11 mujeres mexicanas que acusan tortura sexual

La Comisión Interamericana investigará una denuncia de violación de un grupo mujeres en un operativo policial en San Salvador Atenco en 2006

Según la documentación de organizaciones civiles, al menos 26 mujeres fueron violadas, de las cuales, 11 acudieron ante la CIDH (Cuartoscuro Archivo).

La Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) admitió investigar el caso de 11 mujeres mexicanas que aseguran que fueron víctimas de tortura sexual durante una represión policial en 2006 en San Salvador Atenco, en el Estado de México.

Durante el 143° periodo ordinario de sesiones, la CIDH emitió un informe para comenzar a investigar la petición 512-08 Mariana Selvas Gómez y otros vs. México, interpuesta en abril de 2008 bajo el cargo de dilación de justicia por la nula investigación en el caso.

“Ni la Fiscalía Especial de Delitos Violentos Contra las Mujeres y Trata de Personas (Fevimtra) ni la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado de México (PGJEM) han realizado una adecuada investigación y ningún policía, de los más de 2,500 agentes que intervinieron, ha sido sancionado”, acusa el Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez (Centro Prodh), que lleva el caso legal de las denunciantes.

La Comisión investigará ahora si el Estado mexicano cometió violaciones de derechos humanos y dará a conocer sus conclusiones en cuanto la parte acusadora y el gobierno mexicano sean notificados sobre las mismas.

La población de San Salvador de Atenco se movilizó en febrero y mayo de 2006 contra la expropiación de tierras en San Salvador Atenco para la construcción de un nuevo aeropuerto internacional en el centro del país. La protesta derivó en un enfrentamiento en el que participaron 2,500 policías de los tres órdenes de gobierno. Dos personas murieron y 207 fueron detenidas.

Organizaciones civiles como el Centro Prodh denuncian que durante el operativo del 3 y 4 de mayo de 2006, al menos 26 mujeres fueron víctimas de tortura sexual; de las cuáles, 11 presentaron una querella ante la CIDH.

Estas mujeres denunciaron que los agentes las detuvieron por participar en los disturbios y que en los vehículos donde eran trasladadas a un penal sufrieron violencia sexual, física y verbal.

Una de las denunciantes, Italia Méndez, escribió una carta en el quinto aniversario del operativo en Atenco: "La tortura sexual ejercida contra nosotras las mujeres en los operativos fue un hecho difícil de afrontar y denunciar, dimensionar tal violencia contra nuestros cuerpos nos resultaba desbordante, sin embargo, el mantenernos juntas y enfrentar al Estado de forma colectiva nos permitió afrontar y desmontar el discurso del poder en el cual nosotras debíamos sentir vergüenza y no podíamos hacer nada con lo ocurrido”.

En julio de 2010, la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (SCJN) ordenó la liberación de 12 integrantes del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra (FPDT), que estaban sentenciados a penas de entre 31 y 112 años de cárcel por el delito de secuestro equiparado tras haber participado en la protesta.

Un año antes, la Corte dictaminó que los policías que fueron parte del operativo cometieron graves violaciones a las garantías individuales. Hasta ahora, sólo uno ha sido consignado por actos libidinosos, pero no fue encarcelado.

La SCJN también deslindó responsabilidad al expresidente Vicente Fox y al exgobernador del Estado de México, Enrique Peña Nieto.

El exmandatario estatal dijo en 2008 que volvería a ordenar un operativo similar en caso de que fuera necesario restablecer el orden y la paz social. Sin embargo, un año después, reconoció que en el caso existe un “alto grado de impunidad” en cuanto a violaciones y abusos cometidos por los 2,500 policías que participaron, pero dijo que era “prácticamente imposible saber quién las cometió”.

Cinco años después de haber avalado el operativo, Enrique Peña Nieto es el político mexicano mejor posicionado en las encuestas para los comicios presidenciales de 2012.

International Commission will investigate the case of 11 Mexican women who charge sexual torture [at the hands of police]

The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR)  has decided to investigate rape complaints filed by a group of women in regard to a police operation that occurred in the city of San Salvador de Atenco in 2006.

According to documentation assembled by nongovernmental organizations, at least 26 women were raped at the time of the incident. Eleven of those victims have pursued the case that will be considered by the IACHR.

During its 143rd regular session, the Commission issued a report to begin investigating  petition 512-08 -  Mariana Selvas Gómez et al., Mexico, filed in April 2008 on allegations that justice was not served because officials failed to investigate the case.

"Neither the [federal] Special Prosecutor for Violent Crimes Against Women and Trafficking in Persons (FEVIMTRA) nor the Attorney General of the State of Mexico (PGJEM) conducted an adequate investigation, and none of the more than 2,500 police officers involved [in the operation] has been penalized,” declared a spokesperson for the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (PRODH Center), which provides legal representation for the complainants.

The Commission will now investigate whether the Mexican government committed human rights violations and will publish its conclusions after the complainants and the Mexican government are notified about them.

The population of San Salvador Atenco had mobilized in February, and then in May of 2006 in protest against the expropriation of land within the city that was to be used for the construction of a new international airport. The protest led to a confrontation and a response by more than 2,500 federal, state and local police officers. Two people died and 207 were arrested.

Civil society organizations such as the PRODH Center reported that during the operation, which took place between May 3rd and 4th of 2006, at least 26 women were subjected to sexual torture. Eleven of those victims joined to bring the IACHR complaint.

The women reported that officers had arrested them for participating in the disturbances, and that they were sexually, physically and verbally assaulted on the buses that transported them to jail.

One of the complainants, Italia Méndez, wrote a letter on the fifth anniversary of the operation in Atenco and stated: "The sexual torture that was perpetrated against us as women was hard to face and denounce - such violence [against] our bodies was overwhelming. Nonetheless, by staying together and by confronting the state collectively, we were able to dismantle the discourse that was [publicized] by those in power, a discourse that said that we should feel ashamed and that we could not do anything about what had happened."

In July 2010, the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) ordered the release of 12 members of the Peoples' Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), who had been sentenced to between 31 and 112 years in prison for the crime of kidnapping after participating in the protest.

A year earlier, the Court ruled that the police officers who were part of the operation committed serious violations of individual rights. So far, only one officer has been prosecuted for lewd acts. He was not jailed.

The supreme court also exonerated [former] president Vicente Fox and the former governor of Mexico state, Enrique Peña Nieto in regard to the case.

Peña Nieto said in 2008 that he would have ordered a similar operation again in the event that it become necessary to restore order and social peace. A year later, Peña Nieto acknowledged that there was a "high degree of impunity" in regard to the violations and abuses committed by the 2,500 police officers involved, but said it was "practically impossible to know who committed those acts".

Five years after having [ordered and] supported the operation, Enrique Peña Nieto holds the top position in polls leading up to the 2012 presidential race.

Tania L. Montalvo

CNNMéxico

Nov. 09, 2011

See also:

Added: Nov. 14, 2011

Mexico

Raped, Beaten, Never Forgotten

When the women left their homes that May morning in 2006, they never imagined the horrific experience that lay ahead of them.

During a police operation in response to protests by a local peasant organization in San Salvador Atenco, more than 45 women were arrested without explanation. Dozens of them were subjected to physical, psychological and sexual violence by the police officers who arrested them.

In the case of one of the women, police officers pulled her hair, beat her, and forced her into a state police vehicle with her shirt pulled over her head. She was made to lie on top of other detainees, and during the journey to the prison, police officers sexually assaulted her repeatedly.

Once at the "Santiaguito" prison near Toluca in Mexico State, the prison doctors who examined many of the women failed to document all their physical injuries or to gather evidence of the sexual abuse they had suffered.

More than four years later, these brave survivors are still waiting for justice.

None of the officials responsible for their abuse have been held accountable. Federal authorities had conducted an investigation that resulted in a list of 34 names of police officers who were suspected of being responsible for the abuses, but the federal authorities concluded that these individuals should be prosecuted at the state level.

Almost no progress has been made in over a year. Now is the time to push for real justice and remind the federal government of Mexico that it has the ultimate responsibility to protect the human rights of its citizens, and not to let this impunity continue...

Amnesty International

2011

See Also:

LibertadLatina

Special Section

Atenco

Foto: Belinda Hernández

Mexican Police

   Rape and Assault

   47 Women at

   Street Protest


Added: Nov. 14, 2011

Mexico

Lydia Cacho

Detectan 17 casos de trata en la Riviera Maya

Ante los hechos de explotación sexual se realizará una marcha pacífica el próximo 12 de noviembre en la zona turística de Cancún

El Centro Integral de Atención a la Mujer Maltratada (CIAM-Cancún) documenta los casos de al menos 17 menores de edad, víctimas de una red de tratantes de personas en la Riviera Maya, quienes vivían originalmente en situación de calle y fueron captadas por tratantes que las "engancharon" en el turismo sexual, comerciándolas sexualmente para el consumo de turistas canadienses, italianos y norteamericanos, principalmente.

La organización, que brinda asesoría psicológica, emocional, jurídica y alberga a mujeres víctimas de violencia, conocieron de los casos como parte de la campaña "Yo no estoy en venta" que iniciaron en mayo pasado para prevenir y combatir el delito de la Trata de Personas en sus diversas modalidades, enfocada a adolescentes y jóvenes a quienes se dota de herramientas para detectar el fenómeno, reconocer los signos de alerta y, en su caso, denunciarlos a personas de su confianza.

Como parte de dicha campaña se realizará una marcha pacífica el próximo 12 de noviembre en la zona turística de Cancún para lanzar como mensaje al turismo y a la industria de que Cancún es paraíso, pero no para el turismo sexual y que la niñez en Quintana Roo, no está en venta, anunció este martes la presidenta del CIAM-Cancún, Lydia Cacho Ribeiro.

 La activista reveló datos preliminares sobre los casos detectados y el estudio que han conformado para dibujar el perfil de los tratantes de personas que operan en Cancún y en Playa del Carmen -municipios de Benito Juárez y Solidaridad- en donde estas mafias que explotan comercialmente a menores de edad son protegidas por cárteles de la droga, específicamente por Los Zetas y los "Pelones".

Del grupo de 17 víctimas halladas por CIAM, Cacho Ribeiro dijo que sus edades oscilan entre los 13 y 16 años, que provienen de diferentes entidades de la República Mexicana y que su común denominador estriba en que la violencia doméstica que sufrieron en el hogar las hizo huir y encontrar refugio en las calles…

"Esta modalidad de víctimas de Trata, que se encuentran en situación de calle está cobrando importancia en Cancún y Riviera Maya. Hemos sabido por testimonios de las propias víctimas que mantienen relaciones sexuales con policías, comerciantes, taxistas y chavos de calle a cambio de comida, protección, favores o drogas y no exclusivamente por dinero.

"Luego son captadas por sujetos a los que ubican como ‘valedores' que primero las protegen, con quienes entablan un vínculo emocional muy fuerte, y quienes terminan explotándolas sexualmente o entregándolas a tratantes profesionales", expresó.

Estos ‘valedores' operan particularmente en la famosa Quintana Avenida, localizada en Playa del Carmen y en playas aledañas a la zona. Y en Cancún, en el Parque de las Palapas y en la zona de bares de la avenida López Portillo.

 La agrupación ha dividido en tres al tipo de víctimas de Trata, detectados en Quintana Roo, durante la campaña "Yo no estoy en Venta":

Infantes y adolescentes que viven con sus familias y son explotadas en niveles socieconómicos altos, por amigos de la escuela y propietarios de bares; quienes se reportan como desaparecidos o que huyeron de sus casas y terminan dentro de una red local o internacional de Trata; y quienes son traídas al estado por tratantes que manejan las rutas de tráfico de migrantes indocumentados, principalmente de países como Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica y Paraguay.

Activists detect 17 cases of minor sex trafficking at Mexico’s Riviera Maya resort

Given the facts of sexual exploitation, a peaceful march is planned for November 12th in the resort city of Cancun

The Comprehensive Care Centre for Abused Women (CIAM-Cancún) has announced that it has documented the cases of at least 17 underage victims of sex trafficking networks in the Riviera Maya resort area. The victims were homeless children who had been entrapped by a network of traffickers who prostituted them for the consumption of sex tourists who are principally from Canada, Italy and the United States.

CIAM, which provides emotional, psychological, legal and housing assistance for women victims of violence, raised awareness of the 17 victims as part of its "I am not for sale" campaign. The effort began last May to prevent and combat the crime of human trafficking in its diverse forms. The campaign is aimed at teenagers and young adults who will be educated to detect the phenomenon, to recognize the warning signs and, where appropriate, report them to people they trust.

CIAM is organizing a peaceful march for November 12th in the resort city of Cancun to launch its message to the tourism industry that Cancun is a paradise, but not for sex tourism, and to declare that the children of the state of Quintana Roo are not for sale, announced CIAM-Cancún’s president, [journalist and activist] Lydia Cacho Ribeiro.

Cacho Ribeiro discussed preliminary data in regard to the cases detected as well as deails about a study that CIAM has developed to determine the profile of the human traffickers that are operating in Cancun and Playa del Carmen - where the gangs who engage in the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) are protected by the drug cartels, and specifically Los Zetas and the "Pelones."

According to Cacho Ribeiro, the ages of the 17 victims found by CIAM are between 13 and 16. They come from across Mexico. Their common denominator is that they all suffered domestic violence at home that drove them onto the streets.

"This type of victims of trafficking, who may be found to be living on the streets, is becoming increasingly important in Cancun and Riviera Maya. We have testimony from the victims who have declared that the have sex with policemen, shopkeepers, taxi drivers and street kids in exchange for food, protection, favors or drugs. It is not always an exchange of money that is involved.

"Later, they are captured by subjects who pose as benefactors, who protect them, and with whom they have a strong emotional bond, These subjects end up exploiting the victim sexually, or they hand  the girl over to professional traffickers,” said Cacho Ribeiro.

These 'protectors' are especially active in the famous Avenida Quintana in Playa del Carmen, and along the beaches surrounding the area. In Cancun, they operate in the Parque de las Palapas and in the bars along the Avenida Lopez Portillo.

CIAM has categorized three types of victims of who have been detected in Quintana Roo state during the I am not for Sale campaign: 1) children and adolescents who are living with their families, who are exploited by school friends and bar owners; 2) youth who are reported as missing or who fled their homes and end up in a local or international [sex] trafficking network; and 3) victims who are brought into the state by traffickers who operate human smuggling routes that transport undocumented migrants who are principally from the nations of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Paraguay.

Adriana Varillas

El Universal

Nov. 08, 2011


Added: Nov. 06, 2011

Latin America

The Rise of Femicide and Women in Drug Trafficking

While men have predominantly run drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), women have participated in them since the 1920s. Their role may have appeared miniscule compared to that of their male counterparts, but they have played key roles such as drug mules and bosses…

Indirect Effects of Drug Trafficking

Government crackdowns on drug cartels not only affect women directly, impacting those who may be working as bosses or mules, but also indirectly through a resulting increase [in] prostitution and sex trafficking. These industries present an alternative when governments place heightened scrutiny on DTOs. According to the International Organization for Migration, sex trafficking alone can produce USD 16 billion a year in revenue in Latin America. With such high profits, they are obvious choices to mobilize in the midst of increased government control…

Femicide Emerges

The rise [in] the number of women in prisons and the surge in their crime rates are symptoms of a prominent issue in Latin America, known as femicide. Femicide refers to the mass killings of women, and reflects the excessive masculinity that is associated with the drug industry… [Drug crime is just one of many causes of femicide in the region.]  Drug trafficking seems to heighten the attitude that women are… disposable... Although femicide remains an issue for all of Latin America, it has a greater presence in parts of Central America. For example, the [number] of murdered women has tripled in four years, from 2005-2009, in many Mexican states from 3.7 to 11.1 per 100,000…  María Virginia Díaz Méndez, of the Center of Women’s Studies in Honduras, states that, “Honduras comes in second to Guatemala for the highest femicide rate”. Despite growing [rates of] femicide throughout the region, it appears as though there are little to no consequences for committing such crimes…

Andrea Mares

Council on Hemispheric Affairs

October 28, 2011

See also:

Added: Nov. 06, 2011

Latin America

Sex Trafficking Now A $16 Billion Business In Latin America

The trafficking of women and girls for purposes of sexual exploitation has become a $16-billion-a-year business in Latin America, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration.

That amount "is almost half of what is calculated is generated worldwide" by sex trafficking, said IOM's director for the Southern Cone, Eugenio Ambrosi, in an interview published Wednesday in the Buenos Aires daily Pagina/12.

Prostitution, he said, "is vying for second place with weapons trafficking as the illegal business that moves the most money after drug trafficking."

Ambrosi lamented the fact that trafficking in women has "the advantage ... (that) the logistical and investment (costs) are much lower" than in other illicit businesses, and he added that "there's a connection" between drug trafficking and people trafficking.

"Sometimes the victims ... are recruited to traffic drugs," he said.

"There's a very well organized network, with the capacity to recruit and use women everywhere to satisfy the requirements of the market," said Ambrosi, adding that "something has to be done to go after the customers…"

WUNRN

Dec. 02, 2008


Added: Nov. 06, 2011

Remarks by Mexican anti-trafficking leader Teresa Ulloa during her acceptance of the 2011 Gleitsman International Activist Award at the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School

Mexico / Massachusetts, USA

Programme from the 2011 Gleitsman International Activist Award ceremony

Palabras De Teresa Ulloa al aceptar El Premio Gleitsman 2011 al Activismo Social Internacional

Buenas noches, quiero agradecer a los miembros del Jurado y al Centro para el Liderazgo Público de la Escuela Kennedy de la Universidad de Harvard por otorgarme el Premio Gleitsman 2011 al Activismo Social Internacional. También quiero agradecer a cada una de las que me nominaron, Corey, Norma, Dorchen y Jan, todas ellas compañeras en nuestra lucha y en la CATW-Internacional, por confiar en mí y por todo el trabajo que esta nominación les representó.

Soy madre de una joven de 21 años, que ha sido mi motivación y mayor impulse para que haya dedicado mi trabajo a contribuir a poner fin a todas las formas de violencia contra las mujeres, incluyendo la sobre-sexualización y la explotación sexual comercial de mujeres y niñas. Yo sueño con que mi trabajo contribuya para desarraigar la normalización y la aceptación cultural de la violencia contra las mujeres para crear un mejor mundo para todas ellas en todo el mundo.

He dedicado mi vida a luchar por los derechos humanos, especialmente a luchar contra la violencia hacia las mujeres y las niñas, y, desde hace veinte años, a combatir la trata de mujeres, niñas y niños para la explotación sexual. Durante 40 años, he trabajado para empoderar y defender a las mujeres para que logren el acceso a sus derechos y he representado a innumerables víctimas de violencia sexual.

A menudo, he trabajado con un alto riesgo personal y el de mi familia, para erradicar la trata a lo largo de América Latina y el Caribe, especialmente en México, donde los cárteles de las drogas ahora son los actores principales de este delito.

En mi trabajo, he incluído un enfoque holístico para crear las condiciones legales, políticas y sociales que permitan erradicar la trata de personas. Uso mi conocimiento y experiencia para diseñar y poner en práctica campañas y modelos de capacitación innovadores para la prevención, la protección y asistencia de las víctimas, y para la persecución de los tratantes y explotadores, para capacitar a los agentes institucionales encargados de hacer respetar las leyes y para educar a los jóvenes, entre otros.

Inspirada por nuestras Compañeras de CATW-AP, diseñé un modelo dirigido a hombres jóvenes para reducir la demanda de sexo de paga. Este modelo es el primero en su tipo para educar a hombres jóvenes y niños sobre la construcción de la masculinidad tradicional y las consecuencias de la demanda en el sexo de paga, que además promueve una concepción alternativa de la sexualidad masculina basada en la igualdad de derechos humanos. Este modelo se ha aplicado en México, Argentina, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Perú, Panamá, Chile, Colombia y la República Dominicana.

Hoy, contamos con una red de cerca de 400 organizaciones en 25 países en la Región de Latinoamérica y el Caribe, donde el avance del crimen organizado y la trata de personas es alarmante y la corrupción de las instituciones gubernamentales y los responsables de hacer respetar la Ley es una constante. Cientos de mujeres, niñas y niños se reportan como desaparecidos y vivimos continuamente con miedo. A través de nuestro trabajo hemos rescatado más de 899 mujeres, niñas y niños de la trata interna e internacional con propósitos de explotación sexual, a través del Sistema Alerta Roja que fundamos y operamos hace cinco años.

Sin embargo, todavia enfrentamos muchos retos inmensos, que pueden resumirse en:

La guerra y toda la violencia que ella involucra contra las mujeres y las niñas, en las actividades militares y paramilitares: violación, violencia sexual, desplazamiento, muerte, hambre, el abuso de poder al humillar a las madres, esposas, hijas y hermanas de los derrotados, los abusos sexuales y la prostitución que promueven e imponen los grupos armados, tanto los regulares como los irregulares. Queremos la paz sobre los intereses económicos y políticos. Queremos el imperio de la ley y de los derechos humanos.

La discriminación de género, esa discriminación que mata a miles de niñas aún antes de que hayan nacido, o aún cuando ya nacieron son condenadas a la falta de oportunidades, a la violencia de género, a la explotación, a la mala nutrición, a la marginación, a la desigualdad, y a prácticas tradicionales perjudiciales para sus cuerpos y a su dignidad humana, como el pago de las novias.

La pobreza y la extrema pobreza. La feminización de la pobreza se ha convertido en testigo de la injusticia para un poco más de la mitad de la población mundial. Urgimos su abolición.

La violencia de género, esa violencia que se ejerce contra las mujeres y las niñas en los ámbitos públicos y privados, en todas partes. Las muejres y las niñas son violadas cada día en sus hogares, donde deberían tener garantizados sus derechos a la vida, la su integridad personal y a su seguridad. Las mujeres y las niñas son asesinadas cada día en medio de la más absoluta impunidad. La seguridad colectiva nunca será posible si no se puede garantizar la seguridad y la integridad de las mujeres y las niñas.

Tenemos el derecho de ser una prioridad en la agenda internacional de cooperación, en los esfuerzos para el desarrollo, y en la lucha contra la pobreza, en los desastres naturals, en la educación, en la salud, en la protección de nuestros derechos humanos, pero también en los temas de seguridad nacional, en la guerra y en la paz, en los esfuerzos contra el terrorismo, y en la lucha contra el crimen organizado...

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Teresa Ulloa speaks at the 2011 Gleitsman Award for International Social Activism

Good evening. I want to thank the members of the jury and the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School at Harvard University for having awarded me the 2011 Gleitsman Award for International Social Activism. I also want to thank those who nominated me, [Coalition Against Trafficking (CATW) in Women Executive Director] Norma [Ramos], Corey, Dorchen and Jan, as well as all of the sisters who are all partners in our struggle at the International CATW, for trusting me and for all the work that this nomination represents for them.

I am the mother of a 21-year-old young woman, who has been the greatest motivation causing me to dedicate my work to helping to put an end to all forms of violence against women, including the over-sexualization and commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls. I dream that my work contributes to uprooting the standardization and cultural acceptance of violence against women, resulting in a better world for all women across the world.

I have dedicated my life to fighting for human rights, especially to combat violence against women and girls, and, for twenty y ears, to combating the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation. For 40 years I have worked to empower and advocate for women to allow them access to their rights. I have represented innumerable victims of sexual violence.

Often, I have worked at high personal risk to myself and my family to eradicate trafficking throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, and especially in Mexico, where drug cartels are now the main actors in this crime.

I have included a holistic approach in my work to create the legal, political and social conditions that will allow for the eradication of human trafficking. Use my knowledge and experience to design and implement campaigns and innovative training models for prevention, protection and assistance for victims, for the prosecution of traffickers and exploiters, to train the institutional actors responsible for enforcing the laws and to educate young people, among other [activities].

Inspired by our sisters at the CATW, I designed a model aimed at young men to reduce the demand for paid sex. This model is the first of its kind to educate young men and boys [that addresses] the construction of traditional masculinity and the impact of demand on paid sex. [The approach] promotes an alternative conception of male sexuality based on and equality of [gender related] human rights. This model has been applied in Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru, Panama, Chile, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.

Today, we have a network of nearly 400 organizations working in 25 countries in the Latin America and the Caribbean, where the growth of organized crime and human trafficking is alarming and where the corruption of government institutions and those responsible for enforcing Law is a constant factor. Hundreds of women and children are reported as missing and we live in state of continuously fear. Through the Red Alert system that started  five years ago, we have rescued more than 899 women and children victims of domestic and international trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation.

Nonetheless, we still face many enormous challenges, when can be summariezed as follows:

* Wars and all of the violence that they create against women and girls, in activities of military and paramilitary groups: rape, sexual violence, displacement, death, hunger, abuse of power used to humiliate the mothers, wives, daughters and sisters of the defeated, and the sexual abuse and prostitution that is imposed by both regular and irregular armed groups. We want peace to prevail over economic and political interests. We want the rule of law and human rights.

* Gender discrimination, which kills thousands of girls even before they are born, or that which, after they are born condemns them to a lack of opportunities, gender violence, exploitation, poor nutrition, marginalization, inequality, and traditional practices that are harmful to their bodies and to their human dignity, such as payments for brides.

* Poverty and extreme poverty. The feminization of poverty has borne witness to the injustices faced by a little over half the world’s population. We urge its abolition.

* Gender-based violence - violence perpetrated against women and girls in public and private spaces, everywhere. Women and girls are raped ev ery day in their own homes, where they should be guaranteed their rights to life, personal integrity and security. Women and girls are murdered every day in an environment of the most absolute impunity. Collective security will never be possible if we can not guarantee the security and integrity of women and girls.

We have the right to be a priority on the international agenda for cooperation, in development efforts, and in the fight against poverty, in [relief efforts in regard to] natural disasters, in education, in healthcare, in the protection of our human rights, as well as in regard to national security issues, in war and peace, in the efforts against terrorism and in combating organized crime...

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Teresa Ulloa at Harvard University