Guerrero: First stage of human rights investigation

Mexico's national human rights commission (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, CNDH) published its first and preliminary report on the killing of two students and an employee in Guerrero past December 12.

The report first and foremost strongly criticizes the police for having brought and used heavy weapons to the student protest in the first place, and suggests that its final report is likely to show state police as responsible for firing the lethal shots.

Yet Raúl Plascencia Villanueva, head of the commission, notably also criticized the students and said their actions as well would be investigated - they have repeatedly stolen vehicles, blocked the Autopista del Sol demanding "contributions" from drivers, and most notoriously, threw Molotov cocktails on a PEMEX gas station which resulted in the death of an employee.

Most recently, students from Ayotzinapa took over 19 buses, threw out the passengers, and drove to Mexico City where they protested outside the Chamber of Deputies. Earlier they broke into four radio stations in Guerrero to broadcast their protests and demand information on the investigations. They then again blocked the Autopista.

These acts may increasingly be counter productive, as there are indications the Guerrero population is getting weary of their ways of protesting: At several occasions the past days, there have been marches in Guerrero protesting their actions, and backing the Guerrero governor.

As one of the students declared during the taking of the radio stations:

It is true that some sectors of society have asked us to change the methods of struggle. We agree, but what we will do this when there is no longer corruption in the political parties, be it the PRI, PAN and PRD.

Human rights reform now passed in both houses

The Mexican Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday approved, in a remarkable 310-0 vote, a series of human rights reforms passed by the Senate (106-0) on March 8.

The reform elevates human rights to constitutional rank, and prohibits any discrimination based on ethnic origin, gender, age, disability, social condition, health, religion, and  sexual orientation (a gorup of PAN Senators tried to remove this part, but were rejected), and the reform has been hailed by the UN's Mexico office.

It also gives more power to Mexico's Human Rights Commission (CNDH), including the right to investigate cases of grave human rights violations, which until now has rested with the Supreme Court.

Also, no longer can a foreigner/immigrant be expelled from Mexico without the right to a proper hearing.

As this is a Constitutional reform, it must now be passed by half+1 of Mexico's states, which very unlikely will be a problem.

In sum: A great step forward.

Who do you trust, Mexico's immigration institute or human rights commission?

Mexico's institute of migration (INM), which faced an increasing barrage of accusations of corruption and incompetence, and outright complicity with human smugglers, under the disastrous rein of its former leader Cecilia Romero, rejected claims by Mexico's national human rights commission (CNDH) that 214 "collective disappearances" - that is, 214 cases of mass disappearances - took place in 2010, with an average of 50 migrants forcibly taken away. This is an absolutely stunning figure.

Salvador Beltran del Rio, the new INM chief, dismissed this figures as "outside of reality," though he didn't offere any figures of his own.

How do you trust - the INM or the CNDH? Keep in mind that that this is the same INM in which the federal government recently announced a "purge" of sorts.

PRD Senator Rubén Velázquez López, a longtime defender of migrants and critic of the institute, simply calls the INM "rotten."

Michoacán and the PRD

Following the dramatic attacks by La Familia Michoacana on particular Dec. 8-10, and with the backdrop of the desafuero or removal of legislative immunity of the PRD deputy Julio Godoy Toscano, half-brother of Michoacán Governor Leonel Godoy, the PRD held an emergency conference of sorts in Morelia where the party closed ranks behind the governor. In what was named the Declaración de Michoacán, much of the top PRD leadership from all camps in the party in seven points reiterated its support for the fight against organized crime,  regardless of the party colors and, pointedly, family ties of those involved. At the same time, the party strongly backed Leonel Godoy, and again called for the federal government to "rethink the strategy" in its war on the drug gangs.

Notably, Michoacán was recently deemed by Mexico´s national human rights commission (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, CNDH) to be the most insecure entity in the country, given the level of complaints filed with the CNDH: 265 (vs. 240 in Chihuahua), of which 130 against the defense ministry, 107 against the Federal police, and 21 against the attorney general´s office, mainly on issues such as illegal searches and cruel treatment of citizens.

I do not wish for a moment to downplay the possible human rights violations taking place in Michoacán, but there seems to me to be a bit of a dubious methodology in place here: The more complaints = more human rights violations.For onem the high number of complaints may merely reflect a more active civil society or, less benignly, a more organized campaign by La Familia to push citizens to lodge such complaints. After all, the group has organized plenty of "demonstrations" against the presence of the military and the federal police. Also, as La Jornada reports, many of the complaints were also lodged against entities such as IMSS and ISSTE. Yet most obvious of all: A claim that Michoacán is worse than Chihuahuha in terms of human rights violations should strike even the most casual observer of Mexico as utterly absurd. It is perhaps quite understandable that the PRD, through its Secretary General Hortensia Aragón, would recently warn against an "ambush" by the federal government against Michoacàn, a state where President Felipe Calderón, lest we forget, hopes to see his sister Luisa María elected governor in 2011.