Human Rights Violations: Nobel Women´s Initiative hears testimony of indigenous women of Guerrero

La Jornada: "Militarization, organized crime, rape by soldiers and police and impunity, neglectful bureaucracy and abuse of authority, plunder, murder and extreme labor exploitation, and--as background--the custom that assumes that women, or "the old women"-to put it on their terms, are useless. Dozens of women's stories from Mepha (Tlapanecas), Na Savi (Mixteco), Sul Jaá (Amuzgo) and Nahua (Nahuatl) tumbled out in this morning's meeting of indigenous women of Guerrero with the international delegation of the Nobel Women's Initiative, organized by the Tlachinollan organization, based in the Tlapa Mountain region.

In the dialogue, which seeks to enhance the visibility of these struggles in North America, narratives of historical cases were shared.

One such is the decades-long pilgrimage of Tita Radilla to determine the whereabouts of her father, Rosendo Radilla, who disappeared in the seventies, one among more than 500 victims of the dirty war. Since their first complaint to the Attorney General's Office (PGR), then the fraudulent transfer to the military courts (where, despite the case for responsibility built against a general, he went free), contiuing with a failed Special Prosecutor for Social and Political Movements (FEMOSPP), not a single case was clarified until presented to the Interamerican Human Rights Commission. And although there is a conviction against the Mexican state from that court, there has not been compliance with any of the actions required by the government, as there is no political will to enforce it, Tita concludes

... The widows of the two leaders of the Mixteco People's Organization in Ayutla, also testified, Margarita Martin de las Nieves, wife of Manuel Ponce, and Guadalupe Castro, wife of  Raul Lopez, murdered in 2009. They spoke not only of the repressive situation behind the killings, but also of their condition as widows, so lonely, so abandoned, in a social environment that does not give them any right to govern their own lives, harassed and discriminated against by their in-laws.

Also, from Ayutla de los Libres came the story of Obdulia Eugenio Manuel. She tells how in 1994, along with the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas and a measles epidemic that filled the church in their community, Guadalupe Canyon, with piled corpses, the military arrived. Years later, in 2002, that same military violently raped the indigenous women, Valentina Rosendo and Ines Fernandez, which led to another landmark ruling of the Interamerican Court against the Mexican government. ... Being a defender of human rights in that community, such as Obdulia is, is seen as a threat to local authorities, and therefore makes one the target of systematic threats of death.

"I go and tell the Attorney General the names of those that threaten me and all they do is send me to testify again and again. And send me insulting means of security, which are nothing more than video cameras that monitor the office that we have--she is president of the organization  Mepha Women--and they don't work. The last time I spoke to them, I told them to take their fucking stuff, " she says without embarrassment.

Then there are the shared experiences of personal resilience, such as the women who come from  Metlatónoc  and Cochoapa, considered the two of the poorest municipalities in the country. There young girls, in order to go to middle school have had to overcome the ancestral resistance of their  parents and siblings, and who, to express  their identity, embroider huipiles (traditional blouses). They recognize, as does Martina Sierra, head of the civil association Savi Yoko, that "we love our roots, but we also see that our ancestors had discriminatory practices against women and we rebel against it."" Spanish original