MEXICO: Indigenous Leaders
repudiate "double talk" of Mexican President Peña Nieto at UN High
Level Plenary Meeting in NY
Rosa Rojas / La Jornada
The discourse of the Mexican
government before the so-called World Conference on Indigenous Peoples (WCIP) organized
by the United Nations in New York "is a fork-tongue discourse"
because President Enrique Peña Nieto went on to say that the rights of
indigenous peoples are respected in Mexico when "what happens in reality
is that they are violated daily by concessions to extractive industries and
wind energy projects and now the 'reforms' in the energy grid being implemented
without free, prior and informed consent while simultaneously the Indigenous
Peoples are as criminalized, repressed and imprisoned" when they defend
their lands and territory.
In agreement on the above were
Martha Nestor and Guadalupe Martinez Sanchez, of the Alliance of Indigenous
Women of Central America and Mexico (AMICAM); Felicitas Martínez, the Regional
Coordinator of the Community Police of the Costa Chica and Mountains of
Guerrero (CRAC-PC); Bettina Cruz, Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus
of Tehuantepec in Defense of Land and Territory (APIITDTT) and Marusia López
Cruz, Regional Director of JASS (Associates for Justice) Mesoamerica, expressed
at a press conference after the so-called WCIP.
All of the above - except
Cruz - attended the conference in New York and although in their expositions
valued some advances registered in the declaration emitted from the WCIP, they
stressed the need for dismantle the
"dynamic of simulation" that produces subscription to
documents such as the Final Outcome Document while at the international level
"the systematic violation of the rights of Indigenous Peoples has
intensified."
They criticized there was not
enough representation of Indigenous Peoples in the international event but
instead there was "attendance by high level functionaries of the
governments." Also, that in the final Declaration of the WCIP, the aspects
regarding militarization as an issue to be addressed in the declaration, were
eliminated due to the opposition of some governments (such as Russia) - whereas
militarization is a reality that occurs in many indigenous territories across
the world, including Mexico.
Lopez emphasized the "forked-tongue"
discourse of Pena Nieto in terms of respect for human rights when "at the
national level the Mexican government continues to allow or is directly
involved in" violations such as the 57 cases of disappearances and the
seven assassinations of students of the Normal schools in Guerrero.
Martinez reported that her
own fellow indigenous companions emphasized that the central focus of the
declaration of the WCIP must point to the defense of the lands and territories
of the Indigenous Peoples and that the condemnation against violence towards Indigenous
Women and the defense of the right to sexual and reproductive health "was
not as important."
Néstor Sánchez and Martínez
said that the Indigenous women had to organize their own way to the UN meeting,
financing their travel and lodging in New York and that the CDI (National
Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples) never answered their
requests for support.
Felicitas, for her part,
emphasized that in Mexico there is ongoing harassment and persecution of
indigenous leaders as evidenced by the imprisonment of several of her companions
from the Community Police and Arturo Campos, coordinator of the CRAC, the Yaqui
leader Mario Luna, the opposition to La Parota José Antonio Own Suástegui and
Bettina Cruz.
This last reported imprisonment
is now subject to a judicial process, with bail, while being accused of the crimes
of "illegal deprivation of freedom" and "consumption of the
national wealth" - crimes for which the sentience is between 5 and 10
years of prison. The case awaits the
judgment of Sixth District Judge Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, to issue the sentence
that will define the legal situation.
Just this Monday was delivered
to the said Judge of the Sixth District an Amicus
Curiae brief (Friend of the Court) signed by more than two hundred of Human
Rights NGO's wherein the court is requested to review some legal considerations
that argue to "the absence of necessary elements to estimate culpability
for the crime and the penal responsibility of the defendant." as well as
considerations for the frame of the "liberty of freedom of
expression" as well as lack of determinants of criminal liability of the
accused "and the context in which the acts should be framed in terms of the
Right to Freedom of Expression". The brief calls for the absolution of the
accusations against the human rights defender Cruz Velázquez.
Translation: TONATIERRA
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