* OAXACA UPDATE: CHURCH GRANTS SHELTER TO OAXACAN LEADERS
* HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION SAYS TORTURE JUMPED BY 300%
* EDITOR FOUND DEAD IN HOTEL ROOM
* BLASTS I: MEXICO CITY EXPLOSIONS HIT PRI HEADQUARTERS, BANK
* BLASTS II: 2 GRENADES EXPLODE IN RESORT
* MEXICO CITY APPROVES GAY CIVIL UNIONS
Committee of Indigenous Solidarity (CIS). CIS is a Washington, D.C.
based activist group committed to the ongoing struggles of Indigenous
peoples in the Americas. CIS is actively supporting the struggles
of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico while simultaneously combating
related structures of oppression within our own communities.
To view newsletter archives, visit:
http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/mexico-week/
"Para Todos, Todo; Para Nosotros Nada"
OAXACA UPDATE: CHURCH GRANTS SHELTER TO OAXACAN LEADERS
Leaders of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) were
granted protection, requested from the Catholic hierarchy due to the
real threats against them.
Wilfredo Mayaren, legal representative of the Oaxaca archdiocese,
said the decision to grant shelter to the APPO leaders is because
they are facing "State terrorism and schizophrenic persecution." He
said there are people who believe that they will solve the problem by
arresting or eliminating people, and the Church, faced with that
situation, must accomplish one of its main missions, which is to help
and protect those whose lives are really in danger. Mayren suggested
a dialogue with the movement leaders some time today to ask them to
make sensible efforts to find a negotiated solution to the conflict.
He reiterated that the Church did see true danger, thus the
archbishop agreed to help them.
Flavio Sosa, Florentino Lopez, and Zemen Bravo demanded protection on
Wednesday, due to threats saying they could be "physically
eliminated" or arrested by the Ministerial Police or armed groups at
the service of the local governor.
Source: Radio Havana Cuba: 11/10
====
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION SAYS TORTURE JUMPED BY 300%
The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), embroiled in a conflict
with the Attorney General's Office (PGR), will present a report
before the U.N. human rights officials saying that torture in Mexico
has increased 300 percent during the current administration.
Additionally, the report by the autonomous government-funded body
points to the PGR as the judicial entity that most uses torture in
Mexico.
Following a U.N. report in May of 2003 lambasting the widespread use
of torture to extract confessions from suspects, PGR officials
defended their office's practices, insisting torture was a punishable
offense, and that the CNDH itself had the power to make sure that any
police agent attempting to torture would not go unpunished. But the
CNDH, calling torture "the most extreme humiliation a person can
receive," says that torture has been practiced three times as much
during the Fox administration as during the previous administration
of Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000). In a broader view, the CNDH reports
that it had received 2,166 complaints of torture between 1990 and
2004, most of them coming during arrests or while the suspect was
being held by authorities before trial.
Source: El Universal: 11/07
====
EDITOR FOUND DEAD IN HOTEL ROOM
A newspaper editor was found dead in a hotel room in this Pacific
resort city, a day after running stories about organized crime and
corruption in the city government.
Misael Tamayo Hernandez, editor of El Despertar de la Costa, was
found nearly naked, with his hands tied behind his back, in a room at
the Venus Motel, Zihuatanejo police officials said. He was lying on a
bed, covered only with a sheet, and investigators found three
puncture marks on his body, one in his right hand and two others in a
forearm. The cause of death was a heart attack, forensic
investigators said.
Tamayo Hernandez, who was well-respected in the local journalism
community, published a story on Thursday alleging that city officials
gave illegal discounts on water services to individuals and
businesses. The same edition also contained stories on organized
crime. Workers at the motel said they saw the editor arrive in a gray
Volkswagen Jetta about 1:25 a.m. local time Friday, and that the car
left at 2:30 a.m. Tamayo Hernandez's body was found at about 7:30
a.m., District Attorney Raciel Gonzalez said. Numerous journalists
have been attacked or killed in recent years in Mexico, presumably as
revenge for unfavorable reports on criminals, including drug
traffickers and corrupt government officials.
Source: Associated Press: 11/11
====
BLASTS I: MEXICO CITY EXPLOSIONS HIT PRI HEADQUARTERS, BANK
Three simultaneous explosions occurred early Monday (11/06) in Mexico
City, destroying a building entrance at a leading political party's
headquarters, and reportedly damaging the Federal Electoral Tribunal
and a Scotiabank branch. Authorities also deactivated a homemade
explosive device at a second Scotiabank branch near the tribunal,
Mexican news media reported. Authorities told Mexican news media
there were no injuries, and the explosions did not provoke any fires.
Mexico City Public Safety Secretary Joel Ortega told the daily
newspaper El Universal that emergency officials received two
telephone calls shortly after midnight warning that bombs were about
to be detonated. The first explosion happened about 12:30 a.m., he
said. At the headquarters of the former ruling Institutional
Revolutionary Party, or PRI, the entrance to an auditorium located in
one of the complex's buildings had been destroyed, according to an
Associated Press photographer at the scene. The door had been blown
out and chunks of concrete, shattered glass and the concrete bust of
former Mexican President Plutarco Elias Calles - the PRI's founder
for whom the auditorium is named - lay scattered on the ground. There
appeared to be little damage immediately inside the building. Police
investigators used flashlights to sift through the rubble. They
declined to talk to the news media.
One of about a dozen private security guards on overnight duty at PRI
headquarters, Valeano Toledo, 27, told the AP he was at a different
building of the headquarters when "I heard one explosion, and then a
stronger one that shook the buildings, and the windows and glass
doors." He and other guards ran to the site of the explosion, "where
we saw a lot of smoke," he said. The explosion at the electoral
tribunal building damaged the first floor and broke second-floor
windows, a police detective told El Universal. The official, who was
not identified, said the explosive device that damaged the tribunal
was an "electronic instrument much more sophisticated" than those
planted by unknown groups in the city on previous occasions.
Two explosions happened at a branch of Canadian-owned Scotiabank in
southern Mexico City, followed by "a strong smell of gunpowder," a
witness told the daily newspaper Reforma. The blast caused major
damage at the bank and broke windows in nearby houses, Mexican news
media reported. Ortega said a police bomb squad deactivated an
explosive device at a second branch of Scotiabank located near the
tribunal. The device bore a label reading "bomb-danger." Scotiabank
operates in 50 countries worldwide. Its Mexican division, Scotiabank
Inverlat, is the country's seventh largest commercial bank with 370
branches, according to the bank's website.
A PRI representative told radio station Formato 21 the explosions
were probably carried out by groups trying to destabilize the
government before President-elect Felipe Calderon's swearing-in on
Dec. 1. Calderon is a member of the ruling National Action Party of
President Vicente Fox.
Many armed organizations have taken credit for the actions, and
threatened to extend them to 40 national and transnational companies
and political institutions that financed the fraudulent elections.
The Revolutionary Movement Lucio Cabañas, Revolutionary Democratic
Tendency, Rebel Organization First of May among others noted there
were really eight explosive devices.
Their demands involve the withdrawal of Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz
and the federal forces that have occupied the locality for more than
a week. They also demand the immediate presentation of missing and
political prisoners in San Salvador de Atenco and Oaxaca and
punishment of those responsible for torture, rape and sexual abuse in
the different social movements in the country.
They noted that while these demands go unfulfilled and Ruiz continues
being supported by the National Action Party and the federal
government, the "militants and combatants" will go on with their
political-military actions.
Sources: Associated Press: 11/06; Prensa Latina: 11/07
====
BLASTS II: 2 GRENADES EXPLODE IN RESORT
Two grenades exploded at a residential building in a Mexican resort
city, hours before President Vicente Fox and President-elect Felipe
Calderon arrived in the area to participate in a business forum,
police said. No one was injured in the incident in the town of Ixtapa
in the state of Guerrero, about 190 miles southwest of Mexico City.
The state's assistant prosecutor, Jesus Aleman, told W Radio that he
had received reports that police officers lived in the building. One
grenade exploded outside the condominium guardhouse and the other in
a passageway, damaging doors and windows, he said. The explosions
came several hours after homemade bombs in Mexico City damaged the
top electoral court, a bank and the former ruling party's
headquarters. The bombings rattled nerves in a country wracked by
protests since the polarizing July 2 presidential elections.
There was no evidence the Mexico City and Ixtapa incidents were
related. Guerrero and the neighboring state of Michoacan have
suffered in recent months from a wave of violence characterized by
decapitations, shootings and grenade explosions that authorities
attribute to warring drug trafficking gangs.
Source: Associated Press: 11/07
====
MEXICO CITY APPROVES GAY CIVIL UNIONS
Mexico City's assembly passed legislation to legally recognize gay
civil unions in the capital, the first such vote by a legislative
body in the history of the conservative, predominantly Roman Catholic
country. Mexico City Mayor Alejandro Encinas has spoken in favor of
the bill and was expected to sign it into law, while at least one
conservative non-governmental group said it was considering seeking a
court injunction against the measure. The bill, which would not
approve gay marriage, allows same-sex couples to register their union
with civil authorities, granting them inheritance rights and other
benefits typically given to spouses. Heterosexual couples who are not
legally married can also be registered under the bill. "This law ...
does not require anyone else to change their thinking, nor does it
hurt the concept of the nuclear family," said legislator Juan Bustos
of the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which has
pushed for the law in the capital for years.
The bill has been severely criticized by the Catholic Church and
conservative civil groups in the country, which is 90 percent Roman
Catholic. The Mexican Council of Bishops has said the law is the
first step toward legalizing gay marriage and adoption by gays, while
the conservative National Parents Union has characterized it as
"aberrant." While homosexuality is still taboo in many rural parts of
Latin America, the region's urban areas are becoming more tolerant.
If the law is enacted, Mexico City will join the ranks of the
Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, and the southern Brazilian state of
Rio Grande do Sul, which already have approved civil unions. At the
national level, lawmakers in Costa Rica and Colombia have debated,
but not passed, similar measures.
The Mexico City assembly passed the measure by a vote of 43-17, with
all the opposition coming from the conservative National Action Party
of President Vicente Fox and President-elect Felipe Calderon. The
party is known for its opposition to abortion and support for
traditional families. PAN lawmaker Paula Adriana Soto said the law
simply "conceals a marriage between people of the same sex," which is
prohibited by Mexico City civil law.
Source: Associated Press: 11/09
====
The above articles were originally published and copyrighted by the
listed sources. These articles are offered for educational purposes
which CIS maintains is 'fair use' of copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
end: Mexico Week In Review: 11.06-11.12
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