AP: The previous elected mayor is in jail, and the new one wants to "turn the page" on the ugliest chapter in the history of this southern Mexican city.
Fifteen months ago, when 43 rural college students disappeared at the hands of local police and cartel thugs, Iguala became the symbol of Mexico's narco-brutality. Now, federal police are in charge of security, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party controls city hall — and Mayor Esteban Albarran Mendoza wants to move forward. Read more.
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
Showing posts with label human rights - abuses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label human rights - abuses. Show all posts
Nov 4, 2015
Doctors from Cuba and Costa Rica Examine Comatose Mexican Student
Latin American Herald Tribune: Two foreign neurologists have examined Aldo Gutierrez, an education student who has been in a coma since he and several classmates were shot in Iguala, a city in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, in September 2014, the Executive Commission for Assisting Victims, or CEAV, said Tuesday.
Calixto Machado, of the Cuban Neurology and Neurosurgery Institute, and Costa Rican neurologist Mauricio Chinchilla examined the comatose student last Friday, the CEAV said. Read more.
Calixto Machado, of the Cuban Neurology and Neurosurgery Institute, and Costa Rican neurologist Mauricio Chinchilla examined the comatose student last Friday, the CEAV said. Read more.
Oct 30, 2015
Mexico Military Responds to Human Rights Scandals with Helmet Cameras
InSight Crime: Mexico's military is to introduce body cameras for soldiers as part of efforts to rebuild a human rights record tarnished by recent scandals, but experiences elsewhere suggest such measures alone will not be enough to end abuse and impunity.
Mexico's National Defense Secretary (Sedena) has announced a plan to install 2,245 video cameras on the helmets of military personnel, reported Milenio. The initiative stems from recommendations made by the National Human Rights Commission (CDNH) in response to the Tlatlaya massacre in 2014, in which 22 people were allegedly executed by military officers. Read more.
Mexico's National Defense Secretary (Sedena) has announced a plan to install 2,245 video cameras on the helmets of military personnel, reported Milenio. The initiative stems from recommendations made by the National Human Rights Commission (CDNH) in response to the Tlatlaya massacre in 2014, in which 22 people were allegedly executed by military officers. Read more.
Oct 29, 2015
Mexican police accused of shooting demonstrators point-blank in the head
World News Report: Mexican police shot unarmed protesters in the head as they were cowering on the ground, according to a hard-hitting report compiled by Human Rights Watch.
Demonstrators against the government were beaten with metal pipes, dragged to the ground and shot. A 20-year-old pregnant woman, Rosa Isela Orozco Sandoval, said she was punched, kicked and dragged across the ground. One witness told HRW that a policeman put a gun against his head, and only refrained from pulling the trigger when another policeman warned his colleague that locals were filming the confrontation.
Demonstrators against the government were beaten with metal pipes, dragged to the ground and shot. A 20-year-old pregnant woman, Rosa Isela Orozco Sandoval, said she was punched, kicked and dragged across the ground. One witness told HRW that a policeman put a gun against his head, and only refrained from pulling the trigger when another policeman warned his colleague that locals were filming the confrontation.
Dec 17, 2014
Judge orders release of two women involved in the case Tlatlaya
CNN México (Translation Americas Program):
 |
A judge ordered Monday the immediate release of two women who were arrested last June 30 in Tlatlaya, State of Mexico, during a supposed operation of the federal authorities which killed 22 people, stated a bulletin from the Council of the Federal Judiciary (CJF).
The women, held at the Federal Women's Social Rehabilitation Center in Tepic, Nayarit, were charged with collection of firearms and possession of firearm cartridges for the exclusive use of the Army, Navy and Air Force.
In Mexico's fields, children toil to harvest crops that make it to American tables
LA Times: Alejandrina Castillo swept back her long black hair and reached elbow-deep into the chile pepper plants. She palmed and plucked the fat serranos, dropping handful after tiny handful into a bucket.
The container filled rapidly. Alejandrina stopped well before the pepper pile reached the brim.
She was 12, and it was hard for her to lift a full 15-pound load. Read more.
She was 12, and it was hard for her to lift a full 15-pound load. Read more.
Desperate workers on a Mexicanmega-farm: 'They treated us like slaves'
LA Times: Ricardo Martinez and Eugenia Santiago were desperate.
At the labor camp for Bioparques de Occidente, they and other farmworkers slept sprawled head to toe on concrete floors. Their rooms crawled with scorpions and bedbugs. Meals were skimpy, hunger a constant. Camp bosses kept people in line with threats and, when that failed, with their fists.
Escape was tempting but risky. The compound was fenced with barbed wire and patrolled by bosses on all-terrain vehicles. If the couple got beyond the gates, local police could arrest them and bring them back. Then they would be stripped of their shoes. Read more.
At the labor camp for Bioparques de Occidente, they and other farmworkers slept sprawled head to toe on concrete floors. Their rooms crawled with scorpions and bedbugs. Meals were skimpy, hunger a constant. Camp bosses kept people in line with threats and, when that failed, with their fists.
Jun 6, 2014
Leaked Images Reveal Children Warehoused In Crowded U.S. Cells, Border Patrol Overwhelmed
Breitbart Texas
By Brandon Darby
June 5, 2014
Houston, Texas - Breitbart Texas obtained internal federal government photos depicting the conditions of foreign children warehoused by authorities on U.S. soil on Wednesday night. Thousands of illegal immigrants have overrun U.S. border security and their processing centers in Texas along the U.S./Mexico border. Unaccompanied minors, including young girls under the age of 12, are making the dangerous journey from Central America and Mexico, through cartel-controlled territories, and across the porous border onto U.S. soil.
The photos illuminate the conditions of the U.S. Border Patrol’s processing centers, as well as the overwhelming task Border Patrol is facing.
Breitbart Texas Border Expert and Contributing Editor Sylvia Longmire reviewed the photos.
“Given the deteriorating security and economic conditions in the Central American countries where most of these children and adult immigrants came from, it's hard to understand how DHS didn't see this coming,” Longmire said. “The trend towards increased cross-border movement towards south Texas and away from Arizona has been apparent; the trend of Central Americans starting to outnumber Mexican crossers has been apparent. Even worse is believing that DHS knew this was coming, but didn't have the resources or ability to cut through bureaucratic red tape to prepare more quickly. Read more.
By Brandon Darby
June 5, 2014
The photos illuminate the conditions of the U.S. Border Patrol’s processing centers, as well as the overwhelming task Border Patrol is facing.
Breitbart Texas Border Expert and Contributing Editor Sylvia Longmire reviewed the photos.
“Given the deteriorating security and economic conditions in the Central American countries where most of these children and adult immigrants came from, it's hard to understand how DHS didn't see this coming,” Longmire said. “The trend towards increased cross-border movement towards south Texas and away from Arizona has been apparent; the trend of Central Americans starting to outnumber Mexican crossers has been apparent. Even worse is believing that DHS knew this was coming, but didn't have the resources or ability to cut through bureaucratic red tape to prepare more quickly. Read more.
May 31, 2014
UN Human Rights Visitor Comments On Torture In Mexico
Justice in Mexico Project
May 31, 2014
Following his visit to Mexico in April, Juan E. Méndez, special rapporteur on torture for the United Nations, expressed concern that there is a “generalized situation” of torture in Mexico, that needs to be addressed. Méndez, who is from Argentina, was in Mexico from April 21 through May 2 investigating the increase in allegations of torture in Mexico as part of a review of the country’s protocols and protection mechanisms for human rights. He engaged in over 100 meetings with officials and representatives at the local, state, and federal levels, and visited prisons, migration centers, and psychiatric hospitals in the Federal District (Distrito Federal, DF), Nuevo León, Baja California, Chiapas, and Nayarit. Méndez’s assessment and evaluations will assist in developing plans to prevent, investigate, and sanction the practices of torture and cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment. Read more.
May 31, 2014
Following his visit to Mexico in April, Juan E. Méndez, special rapporteur on torture for the United Nations, expressed concern that there is a “generalized situation” of torture in Mexico, that needs to be addressed. Méndez, who is from Argentina, was in Mexico from April 21 through May 2 investigating the increase in allegations of torture in Mexico as part of a review of the country’s protocols and protection mechanisms for human rights. He engaged in over 100 meetings with officials and representatives at the local, state, and federal levels, and visited prisons, migration centers, and psychiatric hospitals in the Federal District (Distrito Federal, DF), Nuevo León, Baja California, Chiapas, and Nayarit. Méndez’s assessment and evaluations will assist in developing plans to prevent, investigate, and sanction the practices of torture and cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment. Read more.
Apr 29, 2014
Mexico Lags in Taking Steps to Protect Journalists, According to Several Reports
April 28, 2014
Justice in Mexico
According to a recent review by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Mexico ranks in the bottom seven countries worldwide in its efforts to investigate and punish crimes against journalists. With this ranking, Mexico remains in the same position it found itself in 2013 in CPJ’s Global Impunity Index, ranking above only Iraq, Somalia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Syria, and Afghanistan.
CPJ found that Mexico has 0.132 unsolved murders of journalists per million inhabitants. By comparison, Iraq, at the bottom of the list, had 3.067 unsolved murders per million inhabitants. Afghanistan, ranking 6th, had 0.168, while India (13th) had just 0.006. Colombia and Brazil were the only other Latin American countries included on the list, with Colombia ranking one spot below Mexico, with 0.126 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants, and Brazil at the 11th position, with 0.045. CPJ criticized that “justice continued to evade Mexican journalists who face unrelenting violence for reporting on crime and corruption.” The organization reports 16 journalists killed with impunity during the past ten years, with one killed in 2014, though other groups, including Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, CNDH) estimate the number to be much higher. CPJ did recognize Mexico’s efforts last April to create a special federal prosecutor for pursuing crimes against journalists that circumvents what it deems “more corrupt and less effective state law enforcement officials.” Nevertheless, it says, many criticize that the new office has thus far been slow to implement its new authority. The report points out the failed prosecution in the case of Proceso reporter Regina Martínez Pérez, killed in 2012, in which some, including the editorial board of Proceso, believe that the wrong person was convicted for her murder. It also mentions the dismissal of charges last September against one of the men alleged to have gunned down Zeta magazine editor J. Jesús Blancornelas in 1997. These shortcomings, says CPJ, “further fueled concerns that the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto is not up to the task of breaking Mexico’s cycle of impunity and violence.” Read more.
Justice in Mexico
According to a recent review by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Mexico ranks in the bottom seven countries worldwide in its efforts to investigate and punish crimes against journalists. With this ranking, Mexico remains in the same position it found itself in 2013 in CPJ’s Global Impunity Index, ranking above only Iraq, Somalia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Syria, and Afghanistan.
CPJ found that Mexico has 0.132 unsolved murders of journalists per million inhabitants. By comparison, Iraq, at the bottom of the list, had 3.067 unsolved murders per million inhabitants. Afghanistan, ranking 6th, had 0.168, while India (13th) had just 0.006. Colombia and Brazil were the only other Latin American countries included on the list, with Colombia ranking one spot below Mexico, with 0.126 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants, and Brazil at the 11th position, with 0.045. CPJ criticized that “justice continued to evade Mexican journalists who face unrelenting violence for reporting on crime and corruption.” The organization reports 16 journalists killed with impunity during the past ten years, with one killed in 2014, though other groups, including Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, CNDH) estimate the number to be much higher. CPJ did recognize Mexico’s efforts last April to create a special federal prosecutor for pursuing crimes against journalists that circumvents what it deems “more corrupt and less effective state law enforcement officials.” Nevertheless, it says, many criticize that the new office has thus far been slow to implement its new authority. The report points out the failed prosecution in the case of Proceso reporter Regina Martínez Pérez, killed in 2012, in which some, including the editorial board of Proceso, believe that the wrong person was convicted for her murder. It also mentions the dismissal of charges last September against one of the men alleged to have gunned down Zeta magazine editor J. Jesús Blancornelas in 1997. These shortcomings, says CPJ, “further fueled concerns that the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto is not up to the task of breaking Mexico’s cycle of impunity and violence.” Read more.
Feb 6, 2014
Senate approves civil proceedings to prosecute soldiers who took part in 'dirty war'
Original Americas Program Translation
February 6, 2014
The
Senate unanimously approved the withdrawal of the reservation made by the
Mexican government to the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of
Persons, whereupon the civil courts now may try the military officials
involved in the disappearances of persons during the dirty war.
The ruling approved by
all parliamentary groups recognized that "the alleged perpetrators of the
acts constituting the crime of forced disappearance of persons may be tried
only by the competent jurisdictions of ordinary law in each state, excluding
any special tribunals, in particular military.
"The acts
constituting forced disappearance shall not be considered as committed in the
performance of military duties."
"No privileges,
immunities or special exemptions will be administered in such proceedings
without consideration of the provisions included in the Convention on
Diplomatic Relations.”
The ruling emphasizes
that this decision by the Mexican government to withdraw its 2002 reservation to
the convention" is according to the verdict issued by the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights (Coidh) on the case Radilla Pacheco (who was disappeared
by military in the state of Guerrero during the so-called dirty war) against
the United States of Mexico.
It emphasizes that
"the ruling decided that the reservation made by Mexico does not meet the
first requirement in Article XIX of the Convention, consequently it should be
considered invalid. In this sense, it is clear that the application of military
jurisdiction in the case, for which the state extended the jurisdiction of
military courts to facts that are not strictly related to military discipline
or legal interests of the military realm, is contrary the provision included in
Article IX of the Treaty of reference, to which Mexico is clearly obligated.
"
The ruling states that
"considering the acts of enforced disappearance as an inhumane violation
the rule of law, as well as the human dignity and human rights of individuals
and not delimited to particular regions or political systems, it is an urgent task of the Sate to fight to
eradicate it, not as a political, military or religious cause that justifies
overlooking the situation.”
Translated by Nidia
Bautista
Nov 8, 2013
Mexico: Key Supreme Court Ruling on Torture Case
Human Rights Watch
November 7, 2013
(Washington, D.C.) – A Mexican Supreme Court ruling on November 6, 2013, affirms the Mexican constitutional principle that evidence obtained through torture or other violations of fundamental human rights is inadmissible, Human Rights Watch said today.
The court ordered the immediate release of Israel Arzate Meléndez. He was arbitrarily detained by the military in 2010, tortured to confess to taking part in a multiple homicide, and held for more than three years in preventive detention while he awaited trial. The Supreme Court has yet to publish the grounds for reaching this decision, and so its scope remains uncertain.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling is a long-overdue acknowledgment by the government that Israel Arzate’s confession was obtained in violation of his rights and should never have been allowed as evidence,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Beyond freeing Israel, the court should use the ruling to affirm a clear and unequivocal prohibition on the use of torture-tainted evidence in Mexico’s justice system.” Read more.
November 7, 2013
(Washington, D.C.) – A Mexican Supreme Court ruling on November 6, 2013, affirms the Mexican constitutional principle that evidence obtained through torture or other violations of fundamental human rights is inadmissible, Human Rights Watch said today.
The court ordered the immediate release of Israel Arzate Meléndez. He was arbitrarily detained by the military in 2010, tortured to confess to taking part in a multiple homicide, and held for more than three years in preventive detention while he awaited trial. The Supreme Court has yet to publish the grounds for reaching this decision, and so its scope remains uncertain.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling is a long-overdue acknowledgment by the government that Israel Arzate’s confession was obtained in violation of his rights and should never have been allowed as evidence,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Beyond freeing Israel, the court should use the ruling to affirm a clear and unequivocal prohibition on the use of torture-tainted evidence in Mexico’s justice system.” Read more.
Jun 25, 2013
Torture in Mexico: ‘I still think it was a nightmare’
Amnesty International
June 21, 2013
The Mexican National Human Rights Commission recently reported that during 2012 alone, it had received 1,921 complaints of human rights violations committed by the armed forces and 802 against federal police.
“Security forces across Mexico continue to target people perceived as the enemy, particularly those believed to have links to drug trafficking – without necessarily possessing any real evidence. This has resulted in arbitrary detentions, torture, enforced disappearances and unlawful killings,” said Rupert Knox, Mexico researcher at Amnesty International. Read more.
June 21, 2013
The Mexican National Human Rights Commission recently reported that during 2012 alone, it had received 1,921 complaints of human rights violations committed by the armed forces and 802 against federal police.
“Security forces across Mexico continue to target people perceived as the enemy, particularly those believed to have links to drug trafficking – without necessarily possessing any real evidence. This has resulted in arbitrary detentions, torture, enforced disappearances and unlawful killings,” said Rupert Knox, Mexico researcher at Amnesty International. Read more.
Jun 24, 2013
McDonald's and Burger King Violate Labor and Human Rights
La Jornada
By Patricia Muñoz Rios
Americas Progam Original Translation
They were the first to apply hourly wages, a UAM study reveals. They use adolescents in temporary recruitment schemes.
México, DF. Payments of 15-16 pesos per hours worked, which mean fortnightly wages of 600 pesos on average; hiring as general employees, so that in a single day preparing food and washing bathrooms or floors causes constant accidents, especially falls and fractures; an obligation to sign blank resignations, are the working conditions of young people who work at McDonald's and Burger King.
Interviews conducted to these employees in an investigation by the Metropolitan Autonomous University and the Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ProDESC), revealed that the working conditions of the young people employed in these fast food restaurants, which have protective unions that ensure non-labor organization, are rarely checked by inspectors of the Ministry of Labor.
By Patricia Muñoz Rios
Americas Progam Original Translation
They were the first to apply hourly wages, a UAM study reveals. They use adolescents in temporary recruitment schemes.
Interviews conducted to these employees in an investigation by the Metropolitan Autonomous University and the Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ProDESC), revealed that the working conditions of the young people employed in these fast food restaurants, which have protective unions that ensure non-labor organization, are rarely checked by inspectors of the Ministry of Labor.
Apr 29, 2013
Mexican journalists, rights groups march against attacks in which scores have been slain
The Huffington Post
By Associated Press
April 28, 2013
XALAPA, Mexico — Officials in Veracruz state say they know who killed Regina Martinez. The muckraking reporter, found beaten and suffocated in her house, was just the victim of a robbery, according to prosecutors and a local court.
But many of her colleagues don’t believe it. The man convicted of the crime was tortured into a confession, they allege. And the magazine she works for says state officials discussed sending police across the country in an attempt to hunt down and seize another reporter who raised questions about the death, which is one of a growing list of killings that have put Mexico among the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist.
Some 400 people gathered Sunday in the center of Veracruz’s state capital, Xalapa, for a march to demand justice in the Martinez case and an end to attacks on the press. Many held up posters suggesting the government had a hand in the case, some describing it as “a state killing.” Dozens also protested in Mexico City.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a February report that 12 Mexican journalists went missing in 2006-2012 and 14 were killed because of their work. Mexico’s federal Human Rights Commission lists 81 journalists killed since 2000. Read more.
By Associated Press
April 28, 2013
XALAPA, Mexico — Officials in Veracruz state say they know who killed Regina Martinez. The muckraking reporter, found beaten and suffocated in her house, was just the victim of a robbery, according to prosecutors and a local court.
But many of her colleagues don’t believe it. The man convicted of the crime was tortured into a confession, they allege. And the magazine she works for says state officials discussed sending police across the country in an attempt to hunt down and seize another reporter who raised questions about the death, which is one of a growing list of killings that have put Mexico among the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist.
Some 400 people gathered Sunday in the center of Veracruz’s state capital, Xalapa, for a march to demand justice in the Martinez case and an end to attacks on the press. Many held up posters suggesting the government had a hand in the case, some describing it as “a state killing.” Dozens also protested in Mexico City.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a February report that 12 Mexican journalists went missing in 2006-2012 and 14 were killed because of their work. Mexico’s federal Human Rights Commission lists 81 journalists killed since 2000. Read more.
Apr 4, 2013
Illegal Immigration: Cruelty, Xenophobia and U.S. Business (La Jornada, Mexico)
"The criminalization of undocumented migration in the United States and the violations of human rights that accompany it, is a strategy that results in enormous political, economic and corporate profit, the very existence of which contradicts the founding principles of that country."
Editorial
La Jornada
Translated By Halszka Czarnocka
WorldsMeet.us
April 4, 2013
According to official reports divulged by The New York Times, some 300 undocumented migrants a day are subject to solitary confinement in U.S. prisons on orders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE for short). This happens in spite of the fact that such people have not been jailed for criminal offences, but for civil ones, which under the laws of our neighboring country, don't even merit punishment. Their detentions are a means of ensuring that they appear at administrative hearings. Out of this figure, half, or some 150, are kept in solitary confinement for 75 days or more, which according to psychiatric experts cited by the newspaper, multiplies the risk of severe mental damage for the detainees.
Beyond the intrinsic cruelty of laws currently in force in our neighboring country under which migrants are persecuted - laws that criminalize foreigners for coming to the U.S. in search of work or a better life than what their countries of origin offer - inhumane practices like this one have various contextual elements that must be examined. Read more.
Editorial
La Jornada
Translated By Halszka Czarnocka
WorldsMeet.us
April 4, 2013
According to official reports divulged by The New York Times, some 300 undocumented migrants a day are subject to solitary confinement in U.S. prisons on orders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE for short). This happens in spite of the fact that such people have not been jailed for criminal offences, but for civil ones, which under the laws of our neighboring country, don't even merit punishment. Their detentions are a means of ensuring that they appear at administrative hearings. Out of this figure, half, or some 150, are kept in solitary confinement for 75 days or more, which according to psychiatric experts cited by the newspaper, multiplies the risk of severe mental damage for the detainees.
Beyond the intrinsic cruelty of laws currently in force in our neighboring country under which migrants are persecuted - laws that criminalize foreigners for coming to the U.S. in search of work or a better life than what their countries of origin offer - inhumane practices like this one have various contextual elements that must be examined. Read more.
Mar 15, 2013
An Ugly Truth in the War on Drugs
The NY Times
By Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Ruth Dreifuss
Published: March 10, 2013
This week, representatives from many nations will gather at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna to determine the appropriate course of the international response to illicit drugs. Delegates will debate multiple resolutions while ignoring a truth that goes to the core of current drug policy: human rights abuses in the war on drugs are widespread and systematic.
Consider these numbers: Hundreds of thousands of people locked in detention centers and subject to violent punishments. Millions imprisoned. Hundreds hanged, shot or beheaded. Tens of thousands killed by government forces and non-state actors. Thousands beaten and abused to extract information, and abused in government or private “treatment” centers. Millions denied life-saving medicines. These are alarming figures, but campaigns to address them have been slow and drug control has received little attention from the mainstream human rights movement.
This is a perfect storm for people who use drugs, especially those experiencing dependency, and those involved in the drug trade, whether growers, couriers or sellers. When people are dehumanized we know from experience that abuses against them are more likely. We know also that those abuses are less likely to be addressed because fewer people care. Read more.
By Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Ruth Dreifuss
Published: March 10, 2013
This week, representatives from many nations will gather at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna to determine the appropriate course of the international response to illicit drugs. Delegates will debate multiple resolutions while ignoring a truth that goes to the core of current drug policy: human rights abuses in the war on drugs are widespread and systematic.
Consider these numbers: Hundreds of thousands of people locked in detention centers and subject to violent punishments. Millions imprisoned. Hundreds hanged, shot or beheaded. Tens of thousands killed by government forces and non-state actors. Thousands beaten and abused to extract information, and abused in government or private “treatment” centers. Millions denied life-saving medicines. These are alarming figures, but campaigns to address them have been slow and drug control has received little attention from the mainstream human rights movement.
This is a perfect storm for people who use drugs, especially those experiencing dependency, and those involved in the drug trade, whether growers, couriers or sellers. When people are dehumanized we know from experience that abuses against them are more likely. We know also that those abuses are less likely to be addressed because fewer people care. Read more.
Feb 21, 2013
Immigration Reform and Workers’ Rights
The NY Times
February 20, 2013
Members of Congress and President Obama have been working in earnest to deliver on their promise to overhaul immigration this year. Mr. Obama would clearly prefer a bipartisan bill, and last week the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on possible changes in immigration law. News reports last weekend suggested that the White House would fashion its own bill should negotiations between Republican and Democratic supporters of reform collapse.
Yet, in all the talk of providing a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented workers while tightening border security, one important issue has, so far, received only passing mention: stronger protections for immigrant workers against exploitation and abuse. Such protections, essential to any reform plan, would help rid the system of bottom-feeding employers who hire and underpay and otherwise exploit cheap immigrant labor, dragging down wages and workplace standards for everyone. Read more.
February 20, 2013
Members of Congress and President Obama have been working in earnest to deliver on their promise to overhaul immigration this year. Mr. Obama would clearly prefer a bipartisan bill, and last week the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on possible changes in immigration law. News reports last weekend suggested that the White House would fashion its own bill should negotiations between Republican and Democratic supporters of reform collapse.
Yet, in all the talk of providing a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented workers while tightening border security, one important issue has, so far, received only passing mention: stronger protections for immigrant workers against exploitation and abuse. Such protections, essential to any reform plan, would help rid the system of bottom-feeding employers who hire and underpay and otherwise exploit cheap immigrant labor, dragging down wages and workplace standards for everyone. Read more.
Nov 4, 2012
'Social Cleansing' in Mexican Cities: Homeless People and Panhandlers Targeted by Police
AlterNet By Emilio Godoy, November 2, 2012
Activists say the removal of homeless and poor people to places outside city limits violates their human rights.
Non-governmental organisations in Mexico are presenting a complaint Friday Nov. 2 before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about government mistreatment and “social cleansing” of thousands of people living on the street in several of the country’s cities.
Among the cases cited by the plaintiffs are Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, on the U.S. border, where they allege that homeless people and panhandlers are being removed outside the city limits by the police.
The same practice, with variations, is occurring in the western city of Guadalajara, which has an urban planning programme designed to remove the homeless from the centre of the city, and in Mexico City itself, where they are being taken from the historic centre of the city and forced to live under bridges, viaducts or elevated highways, increasing their vulnerability. Read more.
Activists say the removal of homeless and poor people to places outside city limits violates their human rights.
Non-governmental organisations in Mexico are presenting a complaint Friday Nov. 2 before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about government mistreatment and “social cleansing” of thousands of people living on the street in several of the country’s cities.
Among the cases cited by the plaintiffs are Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, on the U.S. border, where they allege that homeless people and panhandlers are being removed outside the city limits by the police.
The same practice, with variations, is occurring in the western city of Guadalajara, which has an urban planning programme designed to remove the homeless from the centre of the city, and in Mexico City itself, where they are being taken from the historic centre of the city and forced to live under bridges, viaducts or elevated highways, increasing their vulnerability. Read more.
Oct 22, 2012
Torture by Federal police and the Army increases during Calderon's term
El Diario, October 7, 2012
Translated for Borderland Beat
Distrito Federal. Torture and cruel treatment of civilians by federal forces increased during the administration of President Felipe Calderon. From 2006 until May 31, 2012, the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH) received 89 complaints against Army, Navy and Federal Police members involving torture.
At the beginning of (Calderon's) six year term, there were three complaints; in 2007, (there were) 7; in 2008, 15; in 2009, 19; in 2010, 11, and in 2011, 28. There were six complaints up to May, 2012.
Meanwhile, the files for cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment went from 85 to 1,497, according to the organization's statistics, obtained via "transparency" (Ley Federal de Transparencia; similar to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.)
According to the report, Chihuahua is the state with the most complaints, followed by San Luis Potosi, Michoacan, Jalisco, Nuevo Leon, Baja California and Coahuila. Read more.
Translated for Borderland Beat
Distrito Federal. Torture and cruel treatment of civilians by federal forces increased during the administration of President Felipe Calderon. From 2006 until May 31, 2012, the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH) received 89 complaints against Army, Navy and Federal Police members involving torture.
At the beginning of (Calderon's) six year term, there were three complaints; in 2007, (there were) 7; in 2008, 15; in 2009, 19; in 2010, 11, and in 2011, 28. There were six complaints up to May, 2012.
Meanwhile, the files for cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment went from 85 to 1,497, according to the organization's statistics, obtained via "transparency" (Ley Federal de Transparencia; similar to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.)
According to the report, Chihuahua is the state with the most complaints, followed by San Luis Potosi, Michoacan, Jalisco, Nuevo Leon, Baja California and Coahuila. Read more.
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