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Indigenous and Latina Women & Children's Human
Rights News from the Americas |
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Latina Women & Children at Risk |
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Sexual Exploitation of Latina Women and
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This section was last updated on
November 14, 2011 |
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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. |
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Crisis
in Atenco, Mexico
Police
Officers Rape and Sexually Assault
Women During Protest Turned Police Riot
Latest News
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Solidarity with
the victims of Atenco - Europe |
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Added: Nov. 14, 2011
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Mexico
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Protest sign says "We need authorities
who will indeed protect us - not rapists."
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La CIDH admite el caso de 11 mujeres mexicanas
que acusan tortura sexual
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La Comisión Interamericana investigará una denuncia de violación de un
grupo mujeres en un operativo policial en San Salvador Atenco en 2006
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Según la documentación de organizaciones civiles, al menos 26 mujeres
fueron violadas, de las cuales, 11 acudieron ante la CIDH (Cuartoscuro
Archivo).
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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.
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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.
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“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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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”.
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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.
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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.
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La SCJN también deslindó responsabilidad al expresidente Vicente Fox y
al exgobernador del Estado de México, Enrique Peña Nieto.
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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”.
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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.
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International Commission will investigate the case of 11 Mexican women
who charge sexual torture [at the hands of police]
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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.
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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.
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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.
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"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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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The supreme court also exonerated [former] president Vicente Fox and the
former governor of Mexico state, Enrique Peña Nieto in regard to the
case.
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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".
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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.
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Tania L. Montalvo
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CNNMéxico
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Nov. 09, 2011
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See also:
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Added: Nov. 14, 2011
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Mexico
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Raped, Beaten, Never Forgotten
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When the women left their homes that May morning in 2006, they never
imagined the horrific experience that lay ahead of them.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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More than four years later, these brave survivors are still waiting for
justice.
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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.
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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...
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Amnesty International
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2011
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Added:
Sep. 04, 2009
Mexico
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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
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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.
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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
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
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
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
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
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
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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 |
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LibertadLatina
News /
Noticias
|
|
Updated: Nov. 15, 2011
|
Mandanos
un... |
Email |
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Send us
an... |
LibertadLatina
Site
Map
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Latest
News |
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Últimas Noticias |
|
Added: Nov. 15, 2011
|
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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.
|
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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
|
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National Public Radio
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Nov. 14, 2011
|
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|
Added: Nov. 14, 2011
|
|
Congressional anti trafficking leader Rosi
Orozco eulogizes Interior Department leaders in the war against modern
slavery
|
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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
|
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|
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.
|
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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.
|
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Attentively
|
|
Atentamente
|
|
Diputada Federal Rosi Orozco
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|
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.
|
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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.
|
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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.
|
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La SCJN también deslindó responsabilidad al expresidente Vicente Fox y
al exgobernador del Estado de México, Enrique Peña Nieto.
|
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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.
|
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Tania L. Montalvo
|
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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.
|
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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...
|
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Amnesty International
|
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2011
|
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See Also:
|
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LibertadLatina
|
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Special Section
|
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Atenco
|
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|
|
Mexican Police
Rape and Assault
47
Women at
Street Protest
|
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|
Added: Nov. 14, 2011
|
|
Mexico
|
|
|
|
Lydia Cacho
|
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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.
|
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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.
|
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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".
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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…
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"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.
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"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.
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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.
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La agrupación ha dividido en
tres al tipo de víctimas de Trata, detectados en Quintana Roo, durante
la campaña "Yo no estoy en Venta":
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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.
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Activists detect 17 cases of minor sex trafficking at Mexico’s Riviera
Maya resort
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Given the facts of sexual exploitation, a peaceful march is planned for
November 12th in the resort city of Cancun
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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"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.
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"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.
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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.
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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.
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Adriana Varillas
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El Universal
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Nov. 08, 2011
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Added: Nov. 06, 2011
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Latin America
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The Rise
of Femicide and Women in Drug
Trafficking
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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…
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Indirect
Effects of Drug Trafficking
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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…
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Femicide
Emerges
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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…
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Andrea Mares
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Council on Hemispheric Affairs
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October 28, 2011
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See also:
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Added: Nov. 06, 2011
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Latin America
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Sex
Trafficking Now A $16 Billion
Business In Latin America
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|
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.
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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.
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Prostitution, he said, "is vying for
second place with weapons
trafficking as the illegal business
that moves the most money after drug
trafficking."
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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.
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"Sometimes the victims ... are
recruited to traffic drugs," he
said.
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"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…"
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WUNRN
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Dec. 02, 2008
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Added: Nov. 06, 2011
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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
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Mexico / Massachusetts, USA
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Programme from
the 2011 Gleitsman
International Activist Award
ceremony
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Palabras
De Teresa Ulloa al aceptar El Premio
Gleitsman 2011 al Activismo Social
Internacional
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Sin embargo, todavia enfrentamos
muchos retos inmensos, que pueden
resumirse en:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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El Transcrito Completo
|
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See also: English translation
|
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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].
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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.
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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.
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Nonetheless, we still face many
enormous challenges, when can be
summariezed as follows:
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* 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.
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* 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.
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* 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.
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* 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.
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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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Full
Transcript
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Teresa Ulloa at Harvard University
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/ Welcome
