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News Monitor

December

2014

This Issue:

• Mexico City chief of police resigns

• Mexico remains in bottom half of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index

• Criticisms surface against President Peña Nieto’s proposals for new reforms

• Report reveals human rights violations, modern-‐day slavery conditions for agricultural workers in Mexico

•

Justice in M

exico

Vol. 9, No. 12, December 2014

www.justiceinmexico.org

About the Project: The Justice in Mexico Project is a research initiative hosted at the University of San Diego. The Justice in Mexico Project conducts and disseminates research on four broad areas: crime and violence; transparency and accountability; justice system reform; and human rights and civil society. The project receives generous financial support from the MacArthur Foundation. To make a financial contribution to our organization, please contact us at: [email protected]. About the Report: The Justice in Mexico Project produces monthly news reports based on regular monitoring of international, national, and sub-‐national developments affecting the rule of law in Mexico. The project also provides periodic updates to its news blog and stores archives of past reports at http://www.justiceinmexico.org. This report was compiled by Cory Molzahn, Kimberly Heinle, Octavio Rodriguez, and David Shirk, with research and direct contributions from Gloria Gaona-‐Hernandez, Christopher Issel, Ruben Orosco, Harper Otawka, Sofia Ramirez, Marissa Rangel, and Alisson Shoffner. Any opinions expressed in attributions for this summary are those manifested in the media reports and op-‐ed pieces compiled herein, and not those of the University of San Diego, the Justice in Mexico Project, or its sponsors. Please report any questions, corrections, or concerns to [email protected]. About the Cover: A compilation of all Justice in Mexico news monitors in 2014. ©Copyright Justice in Mexico Project, 2014. All rights reserved.

CRIME AND VIOLENCE 1

CRIME AND VIOLENCE: YEAR IN REVIEW 1 MEXICO CITY CHIEF OF POLICE RESIGNS 4

TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY 5

TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY: YEAR IN REVIEW 5 MEXICO REMAINS IN BOTTOM HALF IN TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL'S CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX 8

JUSTICE SYSTEM REFORM 9

JUSTICE SYSTEM REFORM: YEAR IN REVIEW 9 CRITICISMS SURFACE AGAINST PRESIDENT PEÑA NIETO'S PROPOSALS FOR NEW REFORMS 11

HUMAN RIGHTS AND CIVIL SOCIETY 13

HUMAN RIGHTS AND CIVIL SOCIETY: YEAR IN REVIEW 13 REPORT REVEALS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, MODERN-‐DAY SLAVERY CONDITIONS FOR AGRICULTURAL WORKERS 16

Index

Justice in Mexico I News Monitor

1

Crime and Violence

Crime and Violence: Year in Review The end of 2014 marked the second full year of Enrique Peña Nieto’s six-‐year term as Mexico’s president, and a year in which he was able to claim some success on the public security front, but was also left with substantial challenges moving forward. Mexico began 2014 with nine of its cities ranking in the top 50 most violent cities worldwide with populations exceeding 300,000, measured by homicides per 100,000, according to a study carried out by the Mexican organization Security, Justice, and Peace (Seguridad, Justicia y Paz, SJP). Acapulco, Guerrero ranked third with 112.8 homicides per 100,000 residents, exceeded only by San Pedro Sula, Honduras (187.14) and Caracas, Venezuela (134.36). Culiacán (ranked #16), Torreón (18), Chihuahua (21), Ciudad Victoria (22), Nuevo Laredo (30), Ciudad Juárez (37), Cuernavaca (43), and Tijuana (47) were also included in the list of the world’s 50 most violent cities, according to the SJP study. Michoacán remained one of the predominant public security stories in 2014, beginning in January with the federal government’s announcement that it would “institutionalize” the state’s myriad self-‐defense groups (grupos de autodefensa) that had emerged to counter the criminal activities of the Knights Templar Organization (Caballeros Templarios, KTO), particularly extortion of local businesses and infiltration into the state’s lucrative agricultural industry. From their emergence in early 2013, the autodefensas spread with little to no resistance from state and federal security forces until January 2014 when the Federal Police (Policía Federal, PF) and Mexican armed forces were deployed to the state to restore order there. While the self-‐defense groups were reported to interact relatively peacefully with the Federal Police, armed conflicts were reported between the groups and the Mexican Army, resulting in as many as 12 deaths. On January 27, Mexican Interior Minister Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong announced that the federal government and self-‐defense groups in Michoacán had agreed on a pact by which the groups would be absorbed into the state security apparatus, to form what were termed “Rural Defense Corps” that would operate under the authority of the Mexican Army, and the Rural State Police, which is intended to replace the state’s municipal police forces, and operates under the authority of the Michoacán state police. The eight-‐point document, signed by several self-‐defense leaders, specified that the corps would be temporary, and that they would be required

to provide the federal government with a registry of all of their members, and to register all of their weapons. The following month, Peña Nieto announced a $3.4 billion (USD) development program for the state, closely resembling a similar program implemented in Ciudad Juárez at the peak of that city’s bout with organized crime violence. In the case of Michoacán, though, rebuilding the social fabric may prove even more difficult than in the case of Juárez, since despite the relatively lower levels of violence, criminal organizations have penetrated deeper into the state’s economy, as became clear the same month, when self-‐defense group spokesman Estanislao Beltrán made it known that the groups were receiving financing from the state’s mining industry, which the KTO, as well as its predecessor, La Familia Michoacana, had widely infiltrated and extorted.

Self-defense group spokesman Estanislao Beltrán.

Photo: ImpuneMex.

The transition from vigilante self-‐defense groups to state-‐sponsored rural security forces has not been an altogether smooth process, however, underscored by recent conflicts between autodefensas turned rural defense groups. Hipólito Mora, the founder of the autodefensa in the La Ruana community in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán and currently a commander for the Rural Defense Corps, was indicted January 3, 2015, along with 26 others in connection with the deaths of 11 in a December 16 firefight in which his son was killed. Mora claims that his group came under attack from the group led by Luis Antonio Torres, “El Americano,” also a rural police commander. There is a long-‐standing conflict between the two men, originating during their time with the self-‐defense groups. El Americano’s legal situation is expected to be determined January 5. Meanwhile, the Mexican government has continued to make headway in arresting and killing leaders of the KTO,

Crime and Violence


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including Enrique “Kike” Plancarte Solís and Nazario Moreno González, “El Chayo,” who were killed by Mexican armed forces in separate shootouts in March. KTO’s leader, and the face of the organization, Servando “La Tuta” Gómez Martínez, remains at large, despite wide-‐reaching search operations by federal forces and the Rural Defense Corps, though most believe that his operational capacities have been greatly diminished, and according to a recording that surfaced in October he may be working to sever ties with the organization. All told, at least six principle KTO leaders were arrested or killed in 2014, including Nazario “El Chayo” Moreno González, killed in March. El Chayo led the La Familia Michoacana criminal organization, from which the KTO split in 2010. He had long been one of Mexico’s most-‐wanted criminals, and created headaches for the federal government when he was falsely reported killed in 2010 despite the popular consensus in Michoacán that he remained alive and in control of his operations.

Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. Photo: Reuters.

The biggest victory for Enrique Peña Nieto’s government came in February with the arrest of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in February. Guzmán, who was the founder and leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, based in the state of the same name, was arrested in Mazatlán on February 22 in an operation led by the Mexican Navy. U.S. agencies also collaborated in Guzmán’s arrest. El Chapo had been Mexico’s most-‐wanted man, and his arrest left the future of the Sinaloa Cartel in question, though most experts expressed their belief that the organization—widely considered to be the most powerful and professional of Mexico’s remaining criminal organizations—was structured and disciplined enough to withstand the loss of its principle leader, as well as the face of the organization. Evidence of the group’s relative stability may lie in the absence of a flare-‐up in violence following El Chapo’s arrest, as happened following the arrests of key Gulf Cartel (Cartel del Golfo, CDG) leaders in Tamaulipas in early April. Left behind after the arrest of Guzmán is Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the organization’s other co-‐founder, who has seen a number of close associates arrested during 2014, including his own son in November.

The Peña Nieto government has claimed progress in reducing the nationwide rate of homicides for a second straight year. At the same time, though, the Mexican government has made it more difficult to quantify what share of these homicides are due to organized crime-‐related violence by ending this distinction in its monthly report on incidences of crime. Further clouding the picture has been the continued discovery of mass graves throughout Mexico, particularly in the states of Coahuila, Guerrero, Jalisco, and Michoacán, containing hundreds of human remains. In June, 31 bodies were found in a clandestine grave in the outskirts of Tres Valles in the state of Veracruz. Most recently, the continued search for 43 missing teaching trainees in Guerrero has led to the discovery of several more graves containing dozens of human remains. Another, less measurable impact of organized crime-‐related violence has been the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Mexican citizens from their homes, as estimated by a number of human rights organizations. These same organizations criticize the federal government’s failure to address the issue, which is overshadowed by murders and forced disappearances, and occurs primarily in rural areas, away from public view. Brenda Pérez, who specializes in the area of internal displacement, said that 2009-‐2010 saw the highest levels, and after two years of decline they began to climb again in 2013-‐2014. Pérez’s organization, the Mexican Commission for Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de Derechos Humanos, CMDPDH), has identified the states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Durango, Sinaloa, San Luis Potosí, Veracruz, Michoacán, and Guerrero as the states with the highest rates of displacement. In addition to claiming a reduction in intentional homicides in 2014 (on track for a 14% decline from 2013), data from the National Public Security System (Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública, SNSP) on initial investigations by state authorities (averiguaciones previas) also show apparent declines in kidnappings and extortions. According to the SNSP, there were 1,332 kidnappings between January and November 2014, on track to reach 1,453, which would represent a nearly 22% decline from 2013. Likewise, SNSP reported 5,451 averiguaciones previas into complaints of extortion during the same period, on track to reach 5,947, a nearly 34% decline from 2013. Whether or not these declines represent reality, the totals almost certainly do not. According to its annual National Survey of Victimization and Perception about Public Security (Encuesta Nacional de Victimización y Percepción sobre Seguridad Pública, Envipe) released in October, Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Geografía, INEGI) found that 93.8% of crimes in 2013 went unprosecuted, with extortions and kidnappings among the most underreported violent crimes.


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The federal government’s efforts to combat organized crime in 2014 focused primarily on the state of Michoacán, and the northern border state of Tamaulipas. Following the deployment of Federal Police and Army and Navy forces to Michoacán in the spring, five high ranking leaders of the Knights Templar Organization were arrested, and while the group’s leader, La Tuta, remains at large, the state’s self-‐defense groups-‐turned Rural Defense Corps continue to assist state and federal forces in going after KTO leaders and operatives. In Tamaulipas, federal authorities delivered blows to the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas criminal organization by capturing and killing several high-‐ranking members in April and May. As previously mentioned, violence increased in Tamaulipas following the arrests of two high-‐ranking Gulf Cartel leaders, believed to have resulted in a power vacuum and ensuing infighting between newly divided factions within the cartel, as well as heightened inter-‐cartel fighting. More than 70 cartel-‐related deaths were reported in April alone, and the federal government responded with a new strategy for the state, announced in April and implemented in May, similar to previous operations in Ciudad Juárez and Michoacán in its federal takeover of public security operations. The operation netted three regional cartel bosses—two from the Zetas and one from the Gulf Cartel—in its first ten days.

State Police in Tamaulipas.

Photo: La Verdad de Tamaulipas.

Another area of focus for the federal government’s public security strategy has been the State of Mexico (Estado de México, Edomex), where it implemented a security operation in May. In all, 4,000 Federal Police and members of the Mexican armed forces were deployed to the state. The government claimed some success from the operation, pointing to data from the Secretary General of National Public Security (Secretariado Ejecutivo del Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública, SESNSP) that showed a 7.8% decline in crime from January to June. The Edomex security strategy, which is similar to those in Michoacán and Tamaulipas and also includes the creation of an “elite” police force scheduled for implementation in April 2015, is largely a result of the presence of organized crime groups (OCGs) in the state, with groups like the Knights Templar Organization,

Gulf Cartel, Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO), and La Familia Michoacana operating in half of Edomex’s municipalities, particularly those bordering Mexico City, Morelos, and Guerrero. It is important to note, too, that Edomex has also seen a rise in self-‐defense groups, paralleling those in Michoacán, though on a smaller scale. It is not clear if such groups have contributed any to the recent decrease in crime rates, but they nevertheless share many similarities with those of Michoacán. As has been the case since the frontal assault on drug cartels began in the end of 2006, is difficult to reach a consensus regarding the success of the government’s organized crime strategy. What is clear is that the federal government’s strategy of targeting criminal organizations’ leaders—carried over from the administration of Felipe Calderón (2006-‐2012)—has led to further fragmentation of these groups which places a great deal of pressure on the country’s institutions, as affirmed by México Evalúa director Edna Jaime in May:

“We currently have a lot of fragmentation of these organized crime groups; it seems they stopped being a national security threat and now they have become a public security threat. The problem is that we [in Mexico] do not have a way to deal with this national insecurity because we do not have the judicial institutions for security at the local level to confront the problem of insecurity in the country. [Former President Calderón’s] strategy of going after the leaders of the cartels was successful in capturing them, but it did not solve the problem of insecurity, kidnappings, killings, [and] extortions, [as] the perception of fear increased during his administration. It is still not clear to me what the security strategy is for the [Peña Nieto administration]; it seems he is continuing to take the same approach as the former administration of President Calderón.”

As 2014 drew to an end, Peña Nieto remained under great public pressure to resolve the case of 43 teacher trainees from the Ayotzinapa Normal School (Escuela Nacional de Ayotzinapa) kidnapped in the town of Iguala, Guerrero in September. The students were apparently abducted by municipal police under orders from the mayor’s wife to subdue a public demonstration, and were later handed over to a drug gang. The Mexican government maintains that the students have most likely been killed, although only one of the students’ remains have been positively identified, and parents of the students still hold out hope of finding their children alive. The search for the students quickly uncovered clandestine graves containing scores of human remains. Forensic experts in Austria were called on to try to match them with DNA samples provided by the students’ families. Dozens of arrests have been made in connection with the


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students’ disappearance, most notably of former Iguala Mayor José Luis Abarca Velázquez and his wife, María de los Ángeles, both identified by a leader of the Guerreros Unidos criminal organization as having given the order to suppress the student protest for fear that it would interfere with a planned speech by De los Ángeles. Arrested in mid-‐October, Guerreros Unidos leader, Sidronio Casarrubias, told authorities that his organization pays municipal police salaries in Iguala and in nearby Cocula, whose police have also been implicated in the students’ disappearance. Dozens of municipal police from both towns have been arrested over the course of the investigation. According to Mexico’s Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam, Abarca had paid Guerreros Unidos for its services in the municipality, including staffing the municipal police. Demonstrations have endured in Guerrero and beyond demanding that the government find the missing students, their international reach unprecedented in recent memory. Also setting the tone for the year were revelations of an apparent massacre by Mexican Army soldiers of members of a kidnapping ring in Tlatlaya in the State of Mexico in June. The case of Tlatlaya emerged in the media in September, after a survivor of the incident came forward to claim that the 22 men who died were not killed in a shootout, as the National Defense Ministry (Secretaría de Defensa Nacional, Sedena) had originally reported. An investigation by the Associated Press later revealed evidence that at least eight of them had likely been killed execution-‐style while unarmed and at close range. Three members of the Army stand accused of homicide and one of covering up facts regarding the case. The trials will be held in a federal civilian court—a step forward for human rights advocates from the military justice system that was previously the norm in cases of alleged military abuses against civilians—but in the meantime the incident in Tlatlaya and apparent ensuing cover-‐up by the Army have renewed concerns over the military’s continued role in law enforcement operations.

Sources:

“News Monitor.” Justice in Mexico. January -‐ November, 2014. “Grupo del Americano disparó primero y mató a mi hijo: Hipólito Mora.”

Excélsior. December 18, 2014. Camacho Servín, Fernando. “Cárteles desplazan en varios estados a decenas

de miles.” La Jornada. December 31, 2014.

Mexico City chief of police resigns Mexico City Police Chief Jesús Rodríguez Almeida resigned on December 5 on his two-‐year anniversary as the Chief of Mexico City’s Public Security (Seguridad Pública del Distro Federal, SPDF), having served since 2012. Although not giving a formal reason for his resignation, it is believed that his decision to step down was influenced by public criticism over ongoing police brutality towards citizens protesting the disappearance and killing of students in Guerrero.

The most controversial protest occurred in the Zócalo in Mexico City on November 20 during which 11 people were taken into custody and placed in high detention facilities, only to be released soon after for lack of evidence. However, what really put Police Chief Rodríguez in the spotlight was his reaction towards the incident, as he continued to praise his “personnel for the work they have demonstrated, for their great bravery, gallantry, responsibility, and above all for their reestablishment of public order, whether you like it or not,” quotes Animal Político. Other polemic quotes by Rodríguez include a comment made in late November where he proclaimed that in Mexico City, “We have the best police in all of Latin America.”

Mexico City Chief of Police Jesús Rodríguez Almeida.

Photo: Animal Político.

Rodríguez’s letter of resignation was handed to Miguel Ángel Mancera, the Chief of Government in Mexico City, and was to be delivered to President Enrique Peña Nieto. Mancera stated, “In the next days, observing the legal dispositions, I will make a proposal [for a new chief of SPDF] to the President, following the corresponding procedures.” Peña Nieto must then ratify and approve the appointment. Rodríguez entered as police chief with multiple degrees and experience, including a master’s degree in Criminal Science, and a doctorate degree in law with a specialization in Criminal Legal Science. He previously had served as the director of Intelligence of Investigations in the Agency of State Security (Agencia de Seguridad Estatal, ASE) in the State of Mexico (Estado de México, Edomex), and as the director of Kidnappings and Theft in the Federal Preventive Police (Secuestros y Robo de la Policía Federal Preventiva), among a handful of other police and leadership positions.

Sources:

Malink, Elisabeth. “Mexico: Police Chief Says He Is Stepping Down.” New York Times. December 5, 2014.

“Renuncia el jefe de la policía del DF que defendió las agresiones contra manifestantes.” Animal Politico. December 5, 2014.

Ruiz-‐Palacios, Fanny. “El polémico jefe de la policía capitalina.” El Universal. December 6, 2014.

Páramo, Arturo. “Renuncia Jesús Rodríguez Almeida a la SSPDF.” Excélsior. December 6, 2014.


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Transparency and Accountability

Transparency and Accountability: Year in Review CORRUPTION The year 2014 saw a number of current and former state-‐level officials indicted for financial crimes during their tenure, particularly from Coahuila, which continues to be mired in debt many blame on corrupt practices by state officials. Héctor Javier Villarreal Hernández, former finance secretary for the state of Coahuila (2008-‐2011), appeared in U.S. federal court on February 13, facing charges of accepting bribes from Mexican drug cartels and embezzling state funds before laundering his proceeds through Texas bank accounts en route to accounts in Bermuda. U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman said that Villarreal Hernández surrendered to federal officials in El Paso the day before his court appearance in San Antonio. In October, Villarreal Hernández agreed to relinquish $2.3 million in a Bermuda bank in exchange for his release from prison pending an ongoing criminal investigation. U.S. authorities initially alleged that he had misappropriated $35 million (USD) in state assets. According to Reforma, at least $70 million in illicit assets belonging to former Mexican officials have been confiscated in Texas or are in such proceedings. A group of Mexican senators had requested the extradition of Villarreal Hernández to Mexico, but there is no indication yet that that will happen. On January 22, a U.S. attorney in Texas declared Jorge Juan Torres López, former interim governor and secretary of finance for Coahuila, a fugitive of justice. In November 2013, Julie Hampton, assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, had indicted Torres López, along with Villarreal Hernández, on “multiple charges of conspiring to launder monetary instruments, bank fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud,” according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Torres served as interim governor of Coahuila from January through December 2011 after former Governor Humberto Moreira, also widely accused of illicit enrichment, left his post to serve as president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI). According to court documents, two federal civil forfeiture complaints were filed claiming that Torres López and Villarreal Hernández made transfers through U.S. banks exceeding $2 million each to offshore accounts in Bermuda in early 2008 while misrepresenting the funds’ origin. Villarreal Hernández is also facing charges in Mexico in connection with an alleged loan scheme to funnel money from the federal government.

Former Governor of Tamaulipas Tomás Yarrington.

Photo: Milenio.

Meanwhile, the former governor of Tamaulipas, Tomás Yarrington (1999-‐2004), who is wanted in the United States for charges of racketeering and money laundering, suffered a substantial legal setback in 2014 in his efforts to clear his name. On February 27, Judge Francisco Javier Sarabia Ascensio from the district’s Amparo Court for Criminal Matters (Juez Cuarto de Distrito de Amparo en Materia Penal) denied his request for a constitutional injunction (amparo) against the issued arrest warrant. Yarrington has been able to avoid arrest since the U.S. indictment against him was unsealed in December 2013 because he had previously secured a constitutional injunction. The February ruling, however, also denied Yarrington’s request for protection from being placed on Interpol’s red notice, which alerts member nations ”to seek the location and arrest of wanted persons with a view to extradition or similar lawful action.” Yarrington faces a federal indictment unsealed last December in the Southern District of Texas, charged with conspiring to violate provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) statute, alongside his alleged co-‐conspirator, Fernando Alejandro Cano Martínez, owner of a Mexican construction firm. The two also stand charged with conspiring to launder money, and making false statements to federally insured U.S. banks. In addition, Yarrington faces charges of conspiring to violate provisions of the Controlled Substances Act, and conspiring to structure currency transactions at a domestic financial institution, as well as separate bank fraud charges. Yarrington is accused of accepting large bribes from drug trafficking organizations operating in the border state of Tamaulipas beginning in 1998 in exchange for allowing the organizations to operate

Transparency and Accountability


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there, facilitating the smuggling of large amounts of cocaine from the Port of Veracruz into the United States. The former governor is now considered to be an at large fugitive and is subject to arrest in 180 countries connected through Interpol. Fallout from the federal government’s takeover of public security functions in the state of Michoacán has included the arrests of several political figures accused of having ties with organized crime, including several mayors, as well as the son of former Governor Fausto Vallejo. Michoacán’s former secretary general and interim governor, José Jesús Reyna García, was formally arrested for alleged links to organized crime on May 7 on orders from a federal judge. Reyna, a member of the PRI, was removed from his role as secretary general in early April after Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduria General de la Republica, PGR) found possible connections with the Knights Templar Organization (Caballeros Templarios, KTO). Reyna was indicted the following month.

José Jesús Reyna García. Photo: La Jornada.

There was also a spate of arrests of Michoacán mayors, largely from the troubled Tierra Caliente region. These include Uriel Chávez of the Apatzingán municipality, Jesús Cruz Valencia (Aguililla), Dalia Santana Pineda (Huetamo), Salma Karru, (Pátzcuaro), all from the PRI; and Arqímides Oseguera (Lázaro Cárdenas) and José Luis Madrigal Figueroa (Numarán) from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática, PRD). Also under indictment for suspected ties to the KTO is Rodrigo Vallejo, who appeared in a video with KTO leader Servando Gómez, “La Tuta.” Rodrigo Vallejo is the son of former Michoacán Governor Fausto Vallejo, who resigned from his position in June as the allegations against his son surfaced, though he cited health reasons. There have also been several high-‐profile cases of corruption in the business world. News broke in early March that Mexican oil services company Oceanografía’s assets had

been seized by the Mexican government following revelations of a multi-‐million dollar fraud involving Citigroup’s Mexican subsidiary Banamex and falsified receipts from Mexico’s state-‐owned oil company Pemex. It was the largest case of bank fraud seen in Mexico since the 1990s. The revelations forced Citigroup to revise its 2013 earnings downward by $235 million (USD), and has attracted criticism against the previous two presidential administrations of Vicente Fox (2000-‐2006) and Felipe Calderón (2006-‐2012), during which time Oceanografía saw an unprecedented increase in contracts with Pemex. The news came at a delicate time, as the Mexican government pushed for at least a partial privatization of its energy industry. It was also a difficult situation for Citigroup, which relies on the Mexican market for about 13% of its revenue as reported by Credit Suisse, and whose CEO, Michael Corbat, had been at the helm of the company for just a year and a half. It was during the Fox presidency (2000-‐2006) that Oceanografía established itself as a successful enterprise, supplying Pemex with platform maintenance, transportation of crude oil and well drilling. According to Jaime González Aguadé, president of the National Banking and Stocks Commission (Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores, CNBV), 97% of Oceanografía’s earnings are from contracts with Pemex, Mexico’s state-‐owned oil company. Amado Yáñez, Oceanografía’s principle shareholder, was then indicted in October on charges of embezzling more than $55 million pesos (roughly $3.7 million USD). Also in business news, citing allegations of embezzlement and money laundering, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (PGR) in March asked Interpol to issue a Red Notice to member countries, seeking the location and arrest of Gastón Azcárraga Andrade, former owner and president of the airline Mexicana de Aviación, which had controlled as much as 30% of the domestic Mexican air travel market before filing for bankruptcy and ceasing operations in 2010, leaving thousands of current employees without a salary, and former employees with the future of their pensions in question. Azcárraga was at the helm of the airline when the bankruptcy was announced, and the following year his company, Grupo Posadas, sold its shares to Tenedora K, a Mexican investment firm that has attempted to find a viable means of resuming operations for the airline as recently as November 2013, but had repeated difficulties reaching agreements with Mexicana’s current and retired workers. Azcárraga has since left Grupo Posadas. Azcárraga acquired Mexicana in 2005, when, by most accounts, it was in good financial health. President Enrique Peña Nieto vowed early in his presidency to bring the mismanagement of Mexicana de Aviación to light. On February 19, the PGR announced that an arrest order had been issued for Azcárraga for alleged acts of money laundering. The investigation began as an inquiry into allegations of poor management of the airline by Azcárraga, who left behind a debt of over $2 billion (USD). During the investigation, though, the PGR reports that


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evidence of use of illicit funds surfaced. A new arrest warrant was issued for Azcárraga in October. Mexico’s embattled casino industry remained in the news in 2014 with allegations of corruption in the federal judiciary. The Federal Judicial Council (Consejo de la Judicatura Federal, CJF) in early May suspended two federal judge magistrates (magistrados), Eduardo Ochoa Torres and José Manuel Rodriguez Puerto, and an additional federal judge, Javier Rubén Lozano Martínez, for allegedly issuing rulings favoring one of Mexico’s leading casino operators. The CJF also accused Lozano Martínez of involvement in an influence peddling network. All three are based in northern states along the U.S-‐Mexico border, with Ochoa Torres and Lozáno Martínez in Monterrey, Nuevo León and Rodríguez Puerto in Tamaulipas. Also implicated in the CJF’s investigation is Mario Alberto Prado Rodríguez, former technical secretary for Daniel Francisco Cabeza de Vaca, who served as former President Felipe Calderón’s legal counsel. The CJF claims to have audio recordings tying the four men to Juan José Rojas Cardona, Mexico’s “Casino Czar,” who until recent government action operated 26 casinos, primarily in Mexico’s border region. On April 25 of this year, Mexico’s Interior Ministry (Secretaría de Gobernación, SEGOB) ordered the closure of seven casinos belonging to Rojas Cardona for irregularities in obtaining operating licenses in 2005. Shortly thereafter, the Rojas Cardona family decided to close its 20 other establishments in Mexico in order to protect its clientele, according to Eduardo Campos, spokesman for Entretenimiento de México, which administers Rojas Cardona’s casino chain. In May, SEGOB revoked the operating licenses of 19 of those establishments, which were opened in accordance with a permit issued to Entretenimiento de México in May 2005 to open 50 gambling establishments with license to operate until 2030. TRANSPARENCY President Enrique Peña Nieto signed into law new guidelines governing transparency and access to information in Mexico, following Congress’s approval of the law in December and its subsequent approval in the majority of Mexican states. The changes to Mexico’s transparency laws expanded the burden of transparency to all entities receiving public funds including all government agencies, trusteeships, and public funds. In the final version, only the president’s legal counsel has the authority to challenge information requests approved by the Federal Institute for Access to Information and Protection of Data (Instituto Federal de Acceso a la Información y Protección de Datos, IFAI). The law also increased the powers of the IFAI. The new reform was another step in a process of increasing public access to information that began with a 2003 law that first allowed Mexican citizens to request information that had traditionally remained under the discretion of government authorities. The constitutional reforms established the IFAI as an autonomous body, a development that transparency advocates have long called

for. It also extended to Mexico’s 31 states and the Federal District (Distrito Federal, DF), requiring them to amend their own constitutions to provide more authority to their IFAI counterparts. Several current and former state governments have come under fire in recent months for the opacity with which they have conducted their financial activities, and for accumulating massive state debt with little oversight or repercussions. Moreover, the number of IFAI commissioners has increased from five to seven, and are appointed by Senate vote with the possibility of a presidential challenge, the inverse of the past procedure for selecting commissioners. Transparency advocates hope that this change will increase the likelihood of appointing commissioners free from political influence. In May, experts and civil society organizations lauded the election of the seven new IFAI commissioners for its transparency and innovation, although some expressed regret that the Senate left out candidates with experience within the organization. Nevertheless, most agreed that the new commissioners are professionals, with extensive knowledge of the field. The candidates were approved on April 30, selected from a pool of 147 applicants, and all but one—Rosendoevgueni Monterrey Chepov—were included in the list of 25 recommended applicants submitted to the Senate by a committee of experts in the area of transparency. In October, Mexico’s Institute for Competitiveness (Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad, IMCO) found in its annual State Budget Report (Informe Presupuestal Estatal 2014) that 12 Mexican states are still failing to provide transparency in their budgetary processes. Nevertheless, IMCO General Director Juan Pardinas said that overall, Mexican states and the DF have made advancements in the area. The most problematic areas are reporting on the number of public employees and public debt. 2014 drew to a close with pressure on President Peña Nieto to answer questions about his wife’s acquisition of a luxury Mexico City home. On November 9, the online news outlet Aristegui Noticias reported that the home into which President Enrique Peña Nieto and his family plan to move after his term ends in December 2018 is registered to a corporation that was part of a consortium led by China Railway Construction Corporation that recently won a bid to build a high-‐speed railway from Mexico City to Querétaro. The company, Constructora Teya, is a subsidiary of Toluca-‐based Grupo Higa, with which Peña Nieto has maintained close ties since he served as governor of the State of Mexico (Estado de México, Edomex), and whose subsidiaries have been awarded a number of lucrative contracts under Peña Nieto-‐led governments. The high-‐speed rail contract, valued at more than $50 billion pesos (nearly $3.6 billion USD) has since been revoked, due to concerns over the short bidding process and a lack of transparency expressed by competitors and members of opposition parties. The months-‐long


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investigation by Aristegui received support from Latin American journalism platform Connectas and the International Center for Journalists. The house in question, located in the upscale Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood in Mexico City, is valued at around $7 million (USD). It is registered under the engineering firm Ingeniería Inmobiliaria del Centro, another subsidiary of Grupo Higa, although the investigative team found that it is just meters away from the residence in Lomas where Peña Nieto and his family lived prior to his assuming the presidency. Peña Nieto has never included the house in his annual assets declaration.

Sources:

“News Monitor.” Justice in Mexico. January -‐ November, 2014. “Roban en México; confiscan en Texas.” Reforma. December 28, 2014.

Mexico remains in bottom half in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index Transparency International released it annual Corruption Perceptions Index in early December, and once again Mexico finds itself in the bottom half of nations worldwide. Mexico ranks 103rd out of 175 total countries, with a score of 35 out of a possible 100. Mexico’s score has remained relatively flat since 2006, when it scored 33. Its lowest score during that period came in 2010, when it received 31. However, Mexico’s world ranking has declined from 70th in 2006 to its current ranking of 103, due to other countries with similar scores at that time making substantial progress, while Mexico has remained relatively stagnant. All of the countries sharing Mexico’s ranking of 70th in 2006—Brazil, China, Egypt, Ghana, India, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Senegal—rank above Mexico in the 2014 index.

Corruption Perceptions Index 2014. Photo: Transparency International.

Mexico ranks in the middle of the pack relative to other Latin American countries. Venezuela ranks the lowest, with a score of 19 and ranking of 161st, while Costa Rica maintains the highest score (54) and ranking (47th). Seven countries in Latin America rank above Mexico, while one—Bolivia—maintains

the same score. As Transparency International’s Mexico chapter, Transparencia Mexicana, points out, Mexico finds itself ranked below its principle competitors and trading partners in the region, 82 positions below Chile and 34 below Brazil. Along with Bolivia, Mexico ranks last among countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Co-‐operation and Development (OECD). Transparencia Mexicana urges aggressive anticorruption reforms in order to “leave the position of stagnation in which it has remained for almost a decade.” In this spirit, the organization recommends five specific points of action: • The creation of a National Anticorruption System

(Sistema Nacional Anticorrupción) bringing together the “nascent” National Transparency System (Sistema Nacional de Transparencia), and the National Investigative System (Sistema Nacional de Fiscalización, SNF);

• Internal and external control and investigative authorities as well as “an authentic Federal Tribunal of Responsibilities (Tribunal Federal de Responsabilidades) for the three government branches;”

• Establishing general legislation for “defining, regulating and sanctioning conflict of interest in the three [governmental] powers for state and municipal governments;”

• Require all political candidates to make public three declarations: a statement of assets, tax statements for the previous five years and a declaration of potential conflicts of interest;

• That the alliance for open parliament and government to which the Mexican congress signed in September result in “transverse and general practices,” and that Mexico must approve a national policy of open data.

Sources:

“Índice de corrupción 2014: México el peor de la OCDE.” El Economista. December 2, 2014.

“México, sin avances significativos en el Índice de la Percepción de la Corrupción.” Transparency International. December 3, 2014.

“2014 Corruption Perceptions Index.” Transparency International. Accessed December 20, 2014.


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Justice System Reform

Justice System Reform: Year in Review 2014 saw Mexico’s justice system continue to undergo transformation and renovation, timely steps forward given the tumultuous end to the year for the Peña Nieto administration dealing with ongoing corruption and impunity, the 43-‐student Iguala massacre, and the killing of 21 suspects in Tlatlaya by the Mexican Army. At the core of Mexico’s judicial reform stands the overhaul of the nation’s justice system—a change from the inquisitorial, closed-‐door processes to a more adversarial, transparent, and efficient system rooted in oral trials. Mexico’s 31 states and Federal District (Distrito Federal, DF) have less than 18 months to fully implement and operate the New Criminal Justice System (Nuevo Sistema de Justicia Penal, NSJP), which was passed in 2008 as part of sweeping constitutional reforms with a deadline for completion nationwide by June 2016.

President Enrique Peña Nieto. Photo: Wikipedia.

Significant steps were taken in 2014 at the federal level to advance the NSJP. The year began with Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies’ approval in February 2014, followed by President Enrique Peña Nieto’s in March, of the National Penal Procedures Code (Código Nacional de Procedimientos Penales), establishing uniformity in the application of criminal procedural law across Mexico’s 32 entities. Prior to its passage, each state had its own procedures, which Senator Roberto Gil Zuarth said was “one of the greatest inconveniences” to implementing the 2008 reforms. The unified code standardizes procedures involving investigations, arrests, charges, hearings, sentencing,

alternative dispute resolution, and reparations, while ensuring the rights of all interested parties throughout the judicial process. Proponents of the code tout its importance in reducing impunity—according to most estimates, in excess of 90% of crimes in Mexico go unpunished—as well as protecting individual rights protected by the Mexican constitution and international treaties. In a survey conducted by consulting firm Parametría in March 2014, more than 50% of the Mexican population surveyed strongly believed the code would create transparency and enhance the implementation of judicial procedures. The public’s confidence in the code and NSJP as a whole is perhaps due, however, to its strong disapproval of the outgoing justice system, and thus the public’s welcoming of a new, accusatorial, modern judiciary. Parametría’s research from a December 2013 survey, for example, shows the public’s abysmal ratings of the previous system, with 73% believing that Mexico’s laws are not equally applied. Meanwhile, 45% of those polled believed that the law favors criminals, particularly those with economic resources. 42% of the respondents thought that criminals could be declared innocent if they have enough money, and another 62% doubted that authorities would treat them properly under the law. 65% disapproved of investigative police work when researching a case, and an even 60% thought that the Supreme Court (Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación, SCJN) was not effectively upholding the Constitution. While the introduction and approval of the new unified code in 2014 was a significant step forward at the federal level for the nation’s justice reform, the Peña Nieto administration also made strides in other areas. In April 2014, construction began in Durango on the first of 44 new Federal Criminal Justice Centers set to open in Mexico by mid-‐2016. One center will be built in each of Mexico’s 32 judicial circuits, with some receiving multiple centers depending on the circuit and its demands. Then in July, Interior Minister Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong announced the beginning of a new oral trials training and continuing education program led by the Ministry of the Interior (Secretaría de Gobernación, SEGOB) and the federal Attorney General’s Office (Procurdaruía General de la República, PGR). The program seeks to ensure that all those involved in the administration and adjudication of oral trials under the NSJP have the appropriate knowledge and capabilities to do so. “Together with civil society and the institutions of higher education,” Osorio Chong explained, “judges, investigators,

Justice System Reform


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police, public prosecutors, and attorneys will be up-‐to-‐date and able to act at with the highest efficiency.” One month later in August, Osorio Chong announced the creation of a new committee that will regularly evaluate and monitor the NSJP’s implementation. The Evaluation and Monitoring Committee (Comté de Evaluación y Seguimiento de la Implementación del NSJP) will report directly to Mexico’s NSJP Coordination Council (Consejo de Coordinación), delivering a bi-‐annual summary on their findings. The Council also approved eight other justice reform measures, including the creation of a working group at the local level to assist in accelerating the NSJP implementation. Meanwhile, states continue to advance towards the June 2016 deadline, though not without challenges. Justice in Mexico has continued to closely monitor the system’s implementation at the state level, reporting on both the progress and setbacks through its monthly Around the States write up. According to a November 2014 report by Mexico’s Center of Investigation for Development (Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo A.C., CIDAC) titled “Reporte de Hallazgos 2014,” four Mexican states have the justice system fully operational (Chihuahua, Morelos, State of México, and Yucatán); another 18 partially operational (Baja California, Coahuila, Chiapas, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and Zacatecas); and the other ten remain in the planning stage, but have not yet made the system operational (Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Colima, Federal District, Hidalgo, Michoacán, Nayarit, Sonora, and Tlaxcala). More recently, Mexico’s Ministry of the Interior (Secretaría del Gobierno, SEGOB) reported at year’s end that not one Mexican state had the NSJP fully operational, and that only six states (Chihuahua, State of Mexico, Yucatán, Morelos, Nuevo León, and Durango, respectively) had the system operational in over 60% of the state. For its part, Justice in Mexico currently contributes to the justice reform through its binational legal training program, “Oral Adversarial Skill-‐Building Immersion Seminar (OASIS),” funded by a $1.1 million grant received in October 2014 from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Narcotics and Law Enforcement. The project is a collaborative effort between the University of San Diego (USD) and the Universidad Autónoma Nacional de México (UNAM). OASIS is intended to provide trainings to advance the implementation of Mexico's new criminal justice system, and foster exchanges among U.S. and Mexican law professors and students to improve binational understanding and cooperation in the legal profession. Despite the advancements, challenges remain for states to comply with the federal mandates. Lack of funding for construction, training and workshops, and implementation costs continue to restrain the system’s implementation, though the federal government did approve 80% of the year’s judicial budget in January 2014 to be set aside for

NSJP-‐related projects, $5 billion pesos of which (around $375 million USD) were appropriated to support the state level implementation. In addition, Mexico’s Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam explained to the Chamber of Deputies in September that the switch from an inquisitorial to a more accusatorial system is not just a change in the system, but also a change in mindset. “It’s about fundamentally constructing something much more difficult—a new mentality. A new form of justice that requires a new perception of public servants, those that work inside the vocation, that have the ethical principles that a public servant requires to impart justice, and that can apply [the law] and support it,” said Murillo Karam. Part of that challenge to revamp the mindset, he continued, is to recognize the enormity of the task at hand. “I think that the problem is to think of it as a national strategy. The problems in Michoacán have nothing to do with those in Chihuahua,” he explained. “If we apply one strategy for two separate problems, it’s a mistake. Therefore we have different strategies [for each] state.” In addition to the work being done on the New Criminal Justice System, several other areas affecting Mexico’s rule of law were addressed in 2014. Most recently, President Peña Nieto announced in November a new security plan that would include dissolving the country’s municipal police forces and placing them under state control. It would be “qualitative change moving from 1,800 municipal police [forces] to 32 solid, state corporations.“ Although police restructuring was an effort to address the overwhelmed justice system, the proposed reforms were largely criticized, as described above.

Luis María Aguilar Morales (left) is sworn in as the new president of the Supreme Court. Photo: Sipse, Notimex.

Much earlier in the year, the Supreme Court (Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación, SCJN) also contributed to improving Mexico’s rule of law by banning the use of arraigo at the state level. In an 8 to 2 vote in a February session, the Court ruled that the judicial reform of 2008 that incorporates arraigo into the Constitution allows for it only to be used in cases of organized crime, which falls under federal jurisdiction. Arraigo is a form of preventive detention that


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allows for imprisonment without formal charges for up to 80 days. The Supreme Court also started the new year with the selection of a new president, Luis María Aguilar Morales, who replaced Juan Silva Meza. After the closed-‐door voting among Supreme Court magistrates took place on January 2, 2015, and the results were announced, Aguilar Morales “promised to continue [the Court’s] efforts to guarantee the protection of human rights,” reports El Universal. The new title also comes with the added responsibility to serve as head of the Federal Judiciary Council (Consejo de la Judicatura Federal, CJF) for four years. Despite several significant steps forward in 2014 towards reforming Mexico’s judicial system, the Iguala massacre serves as stark reminder of the long road Mexico still has ahead. Reforming the judicial system, including the ongoing work on the new criminal justice system (NSJP), police, and arraigo, is critical for Mexico’s rule of law and democratization efforts.

Sources:

“News Monitor.” Justice in Mexico. January -‐ November, 2014. “Reporte de Hallazgos 2014: Sobre los avances de la implementación y

operación de la reforma penal en México.” Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo A.C. November 2014.

Michel, Elena. “Ministro de carrera presidente de la SCJN.” El Universal. January 3, 2015.

Muédano, Marcos. “Segob: juicios orales registran atraso en país.” El Universal. January 4, 2015.

Criticisms surface against President Peña Nieto’s proposals for new reforms President Enrique Peña Nieto announced on Thursday, November 27 his proposal for a new security plan that would include dissolving municipal police forces and placing them under state police, among other reforms that stimulate economic development. Although rallying support from the President’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI) and other prominent government officials, overwhelming criticisms of the proposal arose. President Peña Nieto himself admitted that the route the government chose to transform the security and justice system would be “challenging” to complete, reports CNN México, and it appears many other Mexican voices agree. Of the criticisms received, many of President Peña Nieto’s suggested that the measures have already been debated or are currently being debated in Congress. However, strong juxtaposing opinions have prohibited some reforms from being passed as legislation, and eight of these 14 measures do require Congress’ endorsement. The measures have also generated negative reactions from civil organizations that look at the proposals with skepticism. Organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, for example, labeled the proposal as superficial “cosmetic

changes” that will ultimately be insufficient in avoiding human rights abuses such as those that transpired in the events of Ayotzinapa in September.

Federal Police in the Federal District. Photo: La Gazzetta.

Public figures such as Father Alejandro Solalinde, who is a defender of human rights and immigrants and who declared that he had information that the 43-‐normalista students disappeared in Ayotzinapa had been assassinated, also criticized the proposal on his Twitter account. “The captain is still fixated on navigating a ship that the people are tired of rowing. #GlobalActionForMexico,” reports CNN México. Carlos Navarrete, the national leader of the opposition party, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido del la Revolución Democrática, PRD), stated that the reforms lacked necessary components, and that his party would help in the discussion of them. “The measures announced today through EPN are a mandatory first response to the situation that the country is in. They aren’t complete, but they are on the right track,” said Navarrete, quoted in CNN México. “They still need to be completed, particularized, extended, and defined on how and when. There are subjects that aren’t present and others that fall short. We will soon evaluate the 10 points in detail and make suggested proposals. We will participate in Congress.” More critical of the proposals, the Senate leader of the National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional, PAN) has signaled that the proposals do not resolve the grave problems of justice that Mexico suffers. “It should not have remained a meditative and electoral message. There is no change in the Cabinet, it has not called upon any civil servant to take responsibility,” said Jorge Luis Preciado, quoted in El País. As to the economic reforms, the enterprise sector received Peña Nieto’s proposals with some reservations. The President of Mexico’s Employer Association (Consejo Coordinador Empresarial), Gerardo Gutiérrez Candiani, while agreeing that the states in which President Peña Nieto focused on—namely Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Michoacán—are important, believes that rest of the Mexican states also in need of an economic boost to better their security to guarantee that investments are safe, writes El País.


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Federal Police patrol in Uruapan, Michoacán. Photo: EFE.

Furthermore, political analysts remain skeptical as to how dissolving municipal police and creating a unified state police will eliminate inefficiency and the “entangled relationship in between corrupt authorities and Mexican cartels,” questions BBC Mundo, which also notes that the actual procedure of unification is also rather convoluted. In the same article, analyst Alejandro Hope added “It is not clear if they are talking about eliminating 1.800 municipal police or passing them over to state police. It is not the same.” Further criticisms arise over the constitutional change that would allow the federal government and the executive branch the power to dissolve local governments accused of infiltration by drug trafficking. Also, some argue that this centralization of power that the federal and executive branches would be given could ultimately be more harmful than helpful, writes BBC Mundo. The Peña Nieto administration hopes that this plan will mark the start of a new chapter befalling the crisis of the 43 missing students in Iguala. “After Iguala, Mexico must change,” President Peña Nieto admitted. Supporters of the reforms state that the proposals will help administrations to overcome problems with police inefficiency and justice overall. However, those in opposition of the reforms believe that the proposals do not reach the center of the problem of corruption and impunity in Mexico.

Sources:

“Las reacciones a las reformas de seguridad anunciadas por Peña Nieto.” CNN México. November 27, 2014.

“8 de las 14 nuevas medidas de Peña en seguridad, sujetas al Congreso.” CNN México. November 28, 2014.

“Peña admite que implementar su plan de seguridad será tardado y difícil.” CNN México. November 28, 2014.

Corona, Sonia. “El plan de Peña Nieto contra la impunidad desata críticas.” El País. November 29, 2014.

“President Peña Nieto proposes unified state police commands, among other reforms.” Justice in Mexico. November 30, 2014.

Grant, Will, “México: Puede reforma de Peña Nieto superar la crisis de Iguala?” BBC Mundo. December 1, 2014.


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Human Rights and Civil Society

Human Rights and Civil Society: Year in Review A watershed year for Mexico with regards to human rights and civil society, 2014 was filled with important political reforms, yet overshadowed by significant and damning events. Mexico has long been criticized for failing to protect human rights, and several key events and ongoing issues throughout the year continue to exemplify why. By far the most pressing issue that arose in 2014 was the government’s involvement in the kidnapping and presumed killing of 43 normalista students in September in Iguala, Guerrero, and the its highly criticized handling of the event in the following months. The fallout from the disappearances has situated Mexico in the international spotlight, and exemplified the peoples’ drive to mobilize and energize civil society. Supporters continue to publicly voice their disapproval and outrage over the incident, and Mexico remains amidst massive protests and public demonstrations, with many of the events having turned violent with protestors defacing government property. The protests have also led to larger national demonstrations and international showings of solidarity—a sentiment that was reignited after 11 demonstrators in Mexico, including one Chilean, were detained at a protest on November 20 by Federal Police (Policía Federal, PF) in Mexico City, facing charges of rioting, criminal conspiracy, and attempt to murder. These detentions were highly criticized by human rights and legal activists alike, which expressed their concern that the detainees’ human and legal rights were being abused. For her part, Amnesty International’s Americas Director Erika Guevara Rosas argued that, “The evidence against the 11 protestors is so thin that it is incredibly hard to understand why they are still in detention, let alone in high-‐security facilities and treated as ‘high value criminals.’ Such acts raise the question of whether there is a deliberate attempt to discourage legitimate protests.” The detainees were eventually released. While it is encouraging to see Mexico’s civil society unite around the issue and the people’s fight continue into the new year, that the disappearances happened in the first place coupled with the government’s involvement in the act is “tragic,” writes the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). “The enforced disappearance of the students has … refocused attention on the failure of the Peña Nieto administration to effectively combat the organized crime, corruption, and violence that have plagued Mexico in recent

years, and serves as a painful reminder of the Mexican government’s failure to make real progress on human rights issues in the country,” WOLA explains.

Protestors light fire to the Presidential Palace in Mexico

City in protest of the 43 missing students in Iguala, Guerrero. Photo: Latin Dispatch.

Adding to the already tense and unsettling situation in Mexico was the news that broke around the same time that the students disappeared that the Mexican Army had executed 22 suspects in June. According to a witness who survived the Army’s alleged gunfire and broke news on the case in September, and as corroborated by another witness who recently spoke out in late December, members of the military had shot and killed 22 suspects being held in Tlatlaya, State of Mexico (Estado de México, Edomex) on June 30 in a warehouse. At least eight of the suspects had likely been killed execution-‐style while unarmed and at close range, and the scene and incriminating evidence were tampered with, information confirmed by Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, CNDH), the Associated Press, and Esquire magazine, the latter of which broke the story. As described by former CNDH President Raúl Plascencia Villanueva, the military elements entered the warehouse where the incident occurred and in an “arbitrary, disproportional, unnecessary action detached from the system of human rights,” shot dead at least 12 individuals who had either surrendered or were wounded. Despite the unsettling situation, particularly vis-‐à-‐vis human rights, excessive use of force, and unlawful killings, an important step forward that arose from the Tlatlaya massacre has been the determination that the soldiers

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charged in the case will be brought before a federal civilian court, which, months prior to the case, would have been heard in front of the closed-‐door military courts. In November, the Federal Judiciary Council (Consejo de la Judicatura Federal, CJF) announced that seven soldiers will face charges of acts unfit for public service (ejercicio indebido del servicio público); three of whom will face charges of abuse of authority, aggravated murder, and altering the crime scene; and one of whom will face an additional charge of covering up evidence. This will be the highest-‐profile civil trial of members of the Mexican military accused of committing abuses against civilians since the Mexican government began its military-‐led campaign in 2006, and came as a result of the unanimous approval by Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies of historic reforms to the Military Code of Justice (Código de Justicia Militar) on April 30, less than one week after the Mexican Senate approved the reforms. These reforms, which were then approved by President Peña Nieto in May, require all cases involving human rights abuses committed by members of the military against civilians to be tried in civilian courts, cases that were previously heard by Mexico’s Military Prosecutor (Ministerio Público Militar). The approval was a very welcomed step forward, noted human rights advocates, pointing to the high level of impunity for soldiers previously involved in violating civilians’ human rights. According to the Washington Office of Latin America (WOLA), roughly 5,000 cases were brought before the Military Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduría General de Justicia Militar) alleging human rights violations committed by members of the military against civilians between 2007 and 2012, of which only four resulted in convictions.

Mexico's armed forces. Photo: Wikipedia.

The historic reforms to the Military Code of Justice came just two months after the Mexican Senate also eliminated the use of military jurisdiction in cases of forced disappearances of civilians by Mexican armed forces. The Mexican Senate voted in early February to remove a reservation made by the Mexican government upon ratifying the Inter-‐American Convention on the Forced Disappearance of Persons, which came four years after the Inter-‐American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) rejected Mexico’s adherence to its military

justice system for cases of alleged human rights abuses by members of its armed forces. In a year overshadowed by incidences of high-‐profile and disconcerting human rights violations, it is important to acknowledge Mexico’s significant steps forward with regards to reforming the Military Code of Justice, as the government seeks to reign in the high levels of impunity surrounding Mexico’s armed forces. In other human rights issues, however, Mexico largely seemed to stay the same or take steps back. Violence against journalists, for one, proved to be a sticking point for Mexico, with at least eight journalists killed between January and October of 2014, according to Reporters Without Borders. Most recently, two journalists in Sinaloa were murdered in October, along with a contributor to social media outlet Valor por Tamaulipas. Such events add to Mexico’s already notorious standing as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists to work. In April 2014, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ranked Mexico in the bottom seven countries worldwide in its effort to punish and investigate crimes against journalist, while organization Artículo 19 reported that of the 330 acts of aggression against journalists reported in 2013, government officials committed 60%. Mexico was also in the spotlight for its “generalized situation” of torture, as identified and condemned by United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Méndez. Méndez visited the county for almost two weeks in April and May to investigate the increase in allegations of torture as part of a review of the country’s protocols and protection mechanisms for human rights. Despite the 30% decrease in cases of torture and otherwise cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment reported to Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) during Peña Nieto’s first year in office, Méndez called on the government to do more to curtail the use of torture and hold those responsible accountable. Writes WOLA, “Méndez voiced concern about the lack of investigations into those responsible for torture and ‘the near-‐total absence, at both the federal and state levels, of convictions.’” Méndez blames the “generalized and normalized” use of torture largely on the militarization of public security functions in Mexico, though he made clear that police forces are also responsible for employing torture, which generally occurs during the first 12-‐24 hours of detention to extract information or a confession before handing subjects over to the corresponding public prosecutor’s office. A report released in September 2014 by Amnesty International, “Out of Control: Torture and Other Ill-‐Treatment in Mexico,” supported Méndez’s concerns that torture is perpetrated by Mexican law enforcement personnel, both military and police. Meanwhile, when it came to the issue of disappearances, the Peña Nieto administration struggled to deliver a


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cohesive message. In August, Mexico’s Interior Ministry (Secretaría de Gobernación, SEGOB) released conflicting data on the number of disappeared persons (desaparecidos) in Mexico, reporting that there were 22,322 missing persons, of which 12,532 occurred under the Calderón administration (2006-‐2012) and more than 9,500 under the Peña Nieto administration (2012-‐present). This was an increase in the number reported by Interior Minister Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong in June when SEGOB confirmed that there were 16,000 missing, data which he clarified after releasing confusing reports in May saying there 8,000 disappearances. After President Felipe Calderón left office in 2012, the database of missing persons was just over 26,000, though Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR) increased that number to 29,707. With SEGOB’s clarification, the combined lists of current disappearances under the Calderón and Peña Nieto administrations stands at over 22,610, as reported WOLA citing the Mexican government’s National Registry of Missing and Disappeared Persons. With such high numbers, critics have long argued that the government needs to do more, including strengthening efforts to find disappeared persons, and holding those responsible accountable. In particular, the inconsistency in the government’s reported data exemplifies the need for a more efficient database and tracking mechanisms. For its part, the PGR did launch a new training program in 2014 for personnel of the Disappeared Persons Task Force (Unidad Especializada de Búsqueda de Personas Desaparecidas, UEBPD). The two-‐week training program gives public servants that form part of the task force a better understanding of human rights and special skills to search for disappeared persons. However, the federal government continues to undermine its steps forward. “Rather than strengthening this unit by providing it with the personnel and resources needed,” writes WOLA, “the Mexican government’s 2015 budget will actually cut funds for the UEBPD by 63 percent.” Several other ongoing human rights-‐related cases continued to unfold in Mexico, as well. For one, 2014 marked the fifth anniversary of the ABC Daycare fire in Hermosillo, Sonora that left 49 children dead and more than 70 injured. Julio Márquez, a parent of one of the deceased children, stated during a protest on June 5 in commemoration of the children, “Peña Nieto made a promise during his electoral campaign that he would clear up [this] case, and he never did. There has definitely not been justice. At five years we are not the same; [we are] worse than before.” Meanwhile, September marked the one-‐year anniversary of the high profile kidnapping and killing of 12 youth from the Mexico City nightclub Heaven. Authorities have arrested 22 suspects since the initial incident occurred in 2013, though critics continue to demand answers and justice for the 12 slain youth. The indigenous population in Mexico also ran into several disputes with the Peña Nieto administration, claiming the government failed to protect their rights on a

variety of issues. In February, critiques surfaced over claims that the government was overstepping indigenous land rights and failing to provide much-‐needed hurricane relief to indigenous populations. In the first few months of 2014, news also emerged of medical negligence by health care workers in Oaxaca treating several pregnant indigenous women. There were multiple cases brought forth to Mexico’s National Commission of Human Rights in Mexico (CNDH) involving complaints that medical practitioners did not properly treat several expectant indigenous women that sought attention, one of which led to a CNDH recommendation against the responsible authority, the Ministry of Health (Secretaría de Salud).

Luis Raúl González Pérez. Photo: Milenio.

Yet two of the most recent human rights and civil society stories to break in the closing months of 2014 exemplify the dynamic and turbulent year Mexico had in these fields. On the one hand, the Senate selected a new president for the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH), Luis Raúl González Pérez, who took the oath of office immediately after the congressional vote in November, replacing outgoing CNDH President Raúl Plascencia. A fresh face, González Pérez assumes his position at a time when Mexico is facing crises on several fronts, most notably the Iguala and Tlatlya massacres, events that Senator Roberto Gil from the National Action Party (Partido de Acción Nacional, PAN) and president of the Senate’s justice commission acknowledged would need to be the new president’s top priorities. Yet juxtaposed to this changing of the guard for the CNDH was the killing of Father Gregorio López one month later in Guerrero. López’s death, presumably by drug traffickers or organized crime group members, marks the third priest to be killed in 2014 in Guerrero alone, notes NPR’s Carrie Kahn. Father López had been an outspoken critic of the Knights Templar Organization (Caballeros Templarios, KTO), and had been involved earlier in the year with self-‐defense groups (grupos de autodefensa) in Michoacán, having even been identified by some autodefensa members as a group’s leader. Whatever the case, López’s murder in the waning days of 2014 exemplifies the year Mexico had vis-‐à-‐vis


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human rights, especially when considering that the Iguala protests and civil unrest continue to take center stage in the public’s discourse. From the massacres in Iguala and Tlatlaya to the progress made on reforming the Military Code of Justice, and from persistent high levels of violence against journalists to the public’s ongoing display of solidarity through protests and demonstrations against the government, 2014 proved to be a dynamic albeit very concerning and troublesome year for human rights and civil society in Mexico.

Sources:

“News Monitor.” Justice in Mexico. January -‐ November, 2014. Boggs, Clay and Maureen Meyer. “Human Rights Crisis in Mexico Demands Stronger Response from Mexican Government.” Washington Office on Latin

America. December 9, 2014. Neuman, Scott. “Body of Catholic Priest Found in Southern Mexico.” NPR.

December 26, 2014. Stevenson, Mark. “Witness confirms cover-‐up of Mexico army slayings.”

Associated Press and U-‐T San Diego. December 30, 2014.

Report reveals human rights violations, modern-‐day slavery conditions for agricultural workers The Los Angeles Times recently released an extensive report revealing the poor conditions for thousands of agricultural workers in Mexico, addressing widespread issues of modern day slavery and child labor law violations. The four-‐part article by Richard Marosi began after several workers escaped from a Bioparques del Occidentefarm back in June 2013, alerting authorities to the harsh living conditions, and in some cases instances of enslavement or forced labor experienced by the workers. The report details findings based on an 18-‐month investigation of such mega-‐farms throughout nine Mexican states—farms that are the cornerstone of Mexico’s growing agribusiness whose exports to the United States reached $7.6 billion in the last decade. Corporations like Bioparques and Rene Produce are among those investigated, and also those that sell to the popular U.S. retailers like Wal-‐Mart, Target, Whole Foods, Albertsons, and Safeway. Many of the workers that work on these mega-‐farms are temporary, migrant workers, and mostly come from rural and indigenous communities, often recruited in their hometowns by contractors that work for the companies. The mega-‐farms, continues the report, tend to be set up similar to work camps with guards and barbwire fencing around the perimeters. Workers earn on average $8 to $12 a day and, although illegal, many camps withhold wages to prevent workers from leaving during the peak of the season when they need workers most. Because of inflated prices at company stores, workers then go into debt purchasing basic goods and food. The workers are often malnourished, with limited to no access to healthcare and live in structures that

resemble slave quarters: concrete buildings infested with bed bugs, rodents, or scorpions, and beds made of cardboard or plastic crates.

Migrant farm workers in Guerrero working in Sinaloa at a

mega-farm cannot afford to buy proper shoes on their $1.00-$1.50/hour earnings. Photo: Don Bartletti, Los

Angeles Times.

In the more extreme cases, workers are prohibited from leaving the camps, and face beatings and death threats if they attempt. Such is the case at the Bioparques camp in the San Gabriel region, south of Guadalajara in Jalisco where the several workers had escaped in June 2013. At least one man who unsuccessfully attempted to escape the farm was reportedly tied to a tree and beaten by camp bosses. In total, 275 people were trapped on that farm including 39 children, most of whom were found to be malnourished. Bioparques de Occidente is one of Mexico’s largest tomato exporters and has mega-‐farms in both Jalisco and Sinaloa. It sells under the “Kaliroy” brand to U.S. retailers including Wal-‐Mart, Albertsons, and Safeway. Many of the workers at the Bioparques camp in Jalisco are of Huastec origin, coming from the states of Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, and Veracruz in the La Huasteca region of Mexico. Upon recruitment, workers were promised wages of $100 pesos (about $8 USD) a day. They were told that their meals would be free, as well as housing and childcare. At first workers were indeed paid $100 pesos a day based on their completed eight hours of work, but then, reports the Los Angeles Times, the management changed to a quota system where they had to fill 60 buckets of tomatoes in order to earn $100 pesos. Often tomatoes were scarcer, making it difficult to meet the quota, which was especially the case for elderly employees, who often then had to rely on loans from co-‐workers in order to buy goods at the company store. Each day workers were given a stack of tortillas, and served watery soup for lunch and dinner, and occasionally beans and rice. Marosi reports that many workers went in debt at the company store from purchasing basic necessities. There


17

was an instance of one mother asking her boss for more tortillas for her children, and he told her she would be slapped for asking again. Some workers became ill because of the harsh conditions on the farms, including the exposure to pesticides and were refused medical attention. Workers reported being threatened with physical force to maintain the level of work required by their bosses.

There are nearly 100,000 child workers in Mexico, like 9-year-old Pedro Vasquez, seen here picking peppers in Guanajuato. Photo: Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angeles Times report also found that there was no school, day care, or playground for the dozens of children that lived on the farm. Mothers had to create makeshift cribs out of netting to protect their babies from scorpions. The very young children, and toddlers often remained in the fields or in the greenhouses alongside their parents. Despite the fact that the legal working age in Mexico is 15, many farms in Mexico hire children as long as six years old to pick produce. According to the most recent estimate released by the Mexican government, reports the Los Angeles Times, nearly 100,000 Mexican children under the age of 14 pick crops for pay. The information on Bioparques came to light on June 11, 2013, after three workers successfully escaped and notified authorities in Guadalajara about the abuses and forced labor. The State Attorney General of Jalisco (Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado de Jalisco, PGJE) descended on the farm, arresting five people during the raid who were charged with human trafficking. Of those charged, two were Bioparques employees (who were later exonerated by a judge) and the other three were employees of the labor contractor. Bioparques also received $700,000 in penalties for violating health and labor laws, though Bioparques spokeswoman Minerva Gutierrez claims those fines have been dropped when the company met certain health and safety requirements. The State Attorney General has yet to comment on the status of case of the Bioparques camp, and the World Bank has not withdrawn financial support of the corporation. However, some of Bioparques’ retailers have responded, such as Wal-‐Mart, which stated that it would no

longer purchase from that farm. Nevertheless, as Marosi writes, those responsible for the agribusiness human rights violations and deplorable conditions continue to evade justice. “When the mistreatment of the workers at the camp was finally exposed, Mexican authorities made arrests, imposed fines and promised to make an example of the company. A year and a half later, however, the case of Bioparques speaks more to the impunity of Mexican agribusiness than to accountability.” According to the Walk Free Foundation’s “Global Slavery Index 2014,” there are currently an estimated 266,900 people in modern slavery in Mexico, with the most vulnerable populations being indigenous, migrants, and children. In fact, over half of the 1.2 million people living in slave-‐like conditions in all of the Americas are found in Mexico, Haiti, and Brazil alone, the organization reports. In comparison, the United States has 60,000 people in modern slavery, while Canada has 4,600. However, in 2014, Mexico did issue its first sentence of child labor exploitation, and approved its National Program for the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Crimes on Trafficking in Persons and the Protection and Assistance to Victims of these offenses 2014-‐2018, which aims to address issues of modern day slavery in Mexico.

Sources:

Zamaroni, Ulises. “Rescatan a 275 Personas; eran forzadas a trabajar.” El Universal. June 12, 2013.

Villafranca Donet, Lisette. “1,2 millones de personas son víctimas de la esclavitud moderna en Latinoamérica.” Noticias Quebec. October 12, 2014. Marosi, Richard. “Hardship on Mexico’s farms, a bounty for U.S. tables.” Los

Angeles Times. December 7, 2014. Marosi, Richard. “Desperate workers on a Mexican mega-‐farm: ‘They

treated us like slaves.” Los Angeles Times. December 10, 2014. Marosi, Richard. “Company stores trap Mexican workers in a cycle of debt.”

Los Angeles Times. December 12, 2014. Marosi, Richard. “In Mexico’s fields, children toil to harvest crops that make

it to American tables.” Los Angeles Times. December 14, 2014. “The Global Slavery Index: Mexico.” Walk Free Foundation. Last accessed

January 1, 2015.

www.justiceinmexico.org

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