Human Rights Policy and Nonprofit Organizational Development

Posts Tagged ‘Mexico’

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Another one bites the dust: Yucatan state in Mexico restricts abortion

In Policy Blog on August 15, 2009 at 9:09 am

Since the passage of the law decriminalizing abortion in Mexico City was upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court, there have been a number of backlash bills in state congresses. More than a dozen states have already seen constitutional amendments to protect life “from the moment of conception.”  Last week, Yucatan joined their repressive ranks.  The official law, passed July 15, was published on August 7th and it severely restricts reproductive rights and health.  The constitutional and penal code changes:

  • Criminalize use of IUD
  • Criminalize assisted reproduction
  • No medical services for women with ectopic pregnancy
  • No legal abortion for pregnancies that put women at risk or the result of rape

Mexican citizens can take action here by sending an email to the state’s governor and congress-persons.  I think US citizens could probably erase the text of the email and write something in English about how people all over the world care about the lives and health of women in Yucatan.

As I reported earlier, some Mexican NGOs are calling the rash of such ammendments a pact by the Catholic heirarchy.

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Policy Blog: Human rights orgs criticize the Merida Initiative

In Policy Blog on June 8, 2009 at 7:55 pm

I have written before about the Merida Initiative to fund the “war on drugs” in Mexico.  A few weeks ago, a group of several dozen civil society organizations and well-known individuals wrote a letter to the U.S. Congress voicing concerns about the initiative.

The memo raises several issues and points to human rights abuses by forces trained and deployed under the Initiative. 

The deployment of the Mexican army to carry out public security tasks that legally correspond to the civilian police has brought with it a significant increase in human rights violations in the last two years, including extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary detentions and rape.

Signatories include several organizations that I’ve worked with in the past and deeply respect, including Catholics for the Right to Decide (Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir, which also figured in this post) and the Fray Fransisco de Vitoria Human Rights Center (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fr. Fransisco de Vitoria).  Centro Fray Vitoria definitely knows what it’s talking about- one of their major issues is the militarization of civil policing for indigenous areas in southern states and the resulting rights violations, including political imprisonment and mass rape of indigenous women by military personnel. 

It has always been so clear to me that the “war on drugs” in the South of Mexico is a thinly veiled mechanism for repressing the poor, (justifiably) angry, and largely indigenous residents of southern states.  I’ll post some time in the near future on poverty indicators for the southern states and specifically on the situation for indigenous women.

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Mexican NGOs: Catholic church pact to criminalize abortion all over the country

In Policy Blog on May 26, 2009 at 7:43 pm

In an article entitled MEXICO: Avalanche of Anti-Choice Laws, IPS News Service reports that my former organization, GIRE, and the NGO Catholics for the Right to Decide have publically stated that the rash of new anti-abortion legislation in Mexican states may constitute a pact on the part of the Catholic hierarchy. 

According to CDD director María Consuelo Mejía, there is “no direct evidence, but we have repeatedly heard allegations” of such a pact.

My former director at GIRE, María Luisa Sánchez, is quoted at calling the onslought of anti-choice legislation in PAN- and PRI-controlled states “revenge” on the part of conservative actors. 

GIRE, CDD and other allies have called upon other Mexican states to bring their constitutional and criminal frameworks in line with the Supreme Court’s decsions upholding the constitutionality of the Mexico City Law, but as the article points out, “12 states moved in the opposite direction and made it even more difficult to get a legal abortion, and another seven states may soon follow suit.”  A GIRE release on the subject today said that

In the past six months, Mexico has witnessed a wave of conservative bills that aim to protect life from the moment of conception in state constitutions. In many cases, these bills totally ban abortion even under circumstances (such as rape, fetal malformation, or risk to a woman’s life) when it is currently allowed.

Bad stuff.

This is why the rallying cry after the victory at the Supreme Court became, “Aborto legal y vamos por mas,” or “Legal abortion and we’re pushing for more.”  The NGOs knew that the battle for the states was coming, and GIRE initiated a campaign to protect, defend and advance abortion rights all over the country.  A summary of the “Every Woman Deserves a Choice” campaign is available on my portfolio page.

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Critiques of the Merida Initiative

In Policy Blog on April 30, 2009 at 7:11 pm

The Merida Initiative is a well-funded initiative, subtitled “Guns, Drugs and Friends,” ostensibly designed to address growing drug-related violence in Mexico and the U.S.’ responsibility for the problem.  Here’s a fairly favorable overview of the policy from the Woodrow Wilson Center.  

The policy has been heavily criticized by human rights activists and many others on both sides of the border.  One columnist points out that the bill will bring a wave of U.S. contractors to Mexico, calling the initiative a “Bureaucratic Invasion” (English translation of his article).

“Real security cannot be achieved without human rights. Both the US and Mexican authorities have the duty and power to ensure that international human rights standards such as the right not to be subject to torture, to a fair trial and to justice are protected and promoted. The safeguards under discussion in the US Congress advance these goals,” said Amnesty International.

The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)’s take on the Merida Initiative brings up several problems with the policy:

It is not clear whether there are well-defined objectives and indicators for success… [The policy] lacks built-in accountability measures.

and:

WOLA feels that the initative’s success should be judged by whether it helps to address the structural weaknesses in the civilian security system that have allowed violence in Mexico to get so out of hand and which have served to justify the increased invovlement of the Mexican military in combatting drug trafficking and organized crime.

This gets to my primary concerns with the policy.  It is problematic to put the miliatry in a civilian law enforcement role, and runs contrary to the spirit of international humanitarian law.  It certainly doesn’t help assuage my fears that Mexico is vulnerable to being made into a police state with total executive control maintained through repression of dissent, torture, and extrajudicial execution and imprisonment.  These things already go on– but are often hidden from international (or even national) attention or censure, and such impunity is a dangerous trend.  And the virtually unchecked U.S. financial backing of the military in a civilian police role means that we are helping pay for human rights abuses and implicitly helping undermine the rule of law.

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Sexual and Reproductive Health Organization in Mexico

In Policy Blog on April 2, 2009 at 4:55 am

I just started  a consulting project with a Mexican NGO based in Yucatan that does sexual and reproductive health care based on an empowerment and human rights model.  Servicios Humanitarios en Salud Sexual y Reproductiva (SHSSR, or Humanitarian Sexual and Reproductive Health Services) was founded by visionary physician Sandra Peniche, who is dedicated to promoting women’s human rights and the eradication of preventible death among women in the Yucatan region.

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From the SHSSR blog:

En Servicios Humanitarios en Salud Sexual y Reproductiva (SHSSR) ofrecemos servicios médicos, psicológicos y legales de alta calidad y bajo costo. Puede acudir con nosotras para recibir orientación y atención para la interrupción legal del embarazo. Nuestros servicios son de alta especialidad médica y primera en su tipo en el sureste mexicano.

Their great work is highlighted in these YouTube videos, and articles by Dr. Peniche (in Spanish) are available here.

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Mexican Supreme Court official decision on abortion law released

In Policy Blog on March 11, 2009 at 9:18 pm

The Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (Mexico’s Supreme Court) has released its final decision in the form of a case file (click here for pdf), compiled by Justice Aguirre Anguiano and reviewed by the other justices.  The decriminalization of abortion in Mexico City was challenged by the Ombudsman of the National Human Rights Commission and by the National Attorney General.  One of the Attorney General’s claims had to do with the Legislature’s standing to change health code.  The Ombudsman claimed that the law violated the constitutional right to life, and the right to life under international human rights agreements.  

The constitutional right to life under the Mexican constitution was one of the most important lynchpins in the arguments of most of the justices who found in favor of the law’s constitutionality.  Several justices explicitly recognized the right to life in the Mexican constitution, but clarified that there was nothing in the constitution to prioritize it above any other constitutional goods or rights.

International commitments were also mentioned in several of the justices’ findings.  This in itself is significant, as it adds legitimacy to international law within the national constitutional framework (as the Supreme Court is considered a constitutional court).

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Mexico: Drug violence grows

In Policy Blog on February 23, 2009 at 12:11 am

More shocking reports of cartel-related violence have come out of Mexico.  Most recently, five were wounded in sleepy beach town Zihuatenejo by a reported narco grenade.  The same day, two people were killed in AK-47 shooting sprees in restaurants in central Mexico, one on a highway near Mexico City.

Even more troubling are reports that the Chief of Police in Juarez resigned because of threats, made via hand-scrawled cardboard signs taped up all over the city, that a police officer would be killed every 48 hours until he did.  (See AP and New York Times reports)

That week five police officers were killed, and the Mayor of the city promised that officials would not back down.  Ciudad Juarez has been home to a third of the 6,000 drug-related murders in the last year, in spite of the increased presence of federal troops.

 
A forensic police officer works at the crime scene where a body was found in Ciudad Juarez, northern Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009. Violence still continues in Ciudad Juarez, where police found several bodies apparently killed in separate incidents. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, from here)

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Drug violence in Mexico affecting women

In Policy Blog on February 10, 2009 at 11:19 pm

As 2009 progresses, drug violence escalates in the north of Mexico.  This recent story tells of how more and more women are being killed, and how beauty queens are courted and lavished with luxuries as “narco wives.”  

 

Mugshot of a former beauty queen and narco-girlfriend

Mugshot of a former beauty queen and current narco-girlfriend, arrested with her boyfriend who was smuggling guns.

 

A friend of mine from Ciudad Juarez told me that when she lived there it was an unspoken rule that you didn’t go into clubs or restaurants with a bunch of SUVs out front, and if narcos came in and started throwing money around you left immediately.  One of her stories of having to tactfully accept a drink from an obvious narco reminds me of the girls this story talks about.  

What’s especially striking to me is how little agency the female characters in these stories seem to have.  They are mentioned as property, as dressing, as a canvas upon which rivals can carve their disrespect.

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Policy Blog: Mexico on the verge of collapse!

In Policy Blog on January 16, 2009 at 1:53 am

I posted here about drug violence in Mexico– It’s still going strong, now accompanied by some good old-fashioned vigilanteism.  In San Diego, the violence has even prompted military commanders to limit the ability of their charges to carouse in Mexico.

The violence may also be threatening Mexican stability, according to the U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats.  A recent report says Mexico is vulnerable to ”a rapid and sudden collapse,” rivaled only by the instability of Pakistan [Reported in the El Paso Times].  I myself think there are graver threats to Mexican stability, like deep poverty and the demise of electoral democracy.  If there is indeed a threat of Mexican collapse, what are viable options for the U.S.?  We are already pumping in billions of dollars in security assistance, but as usual that money is unfettered and likely to create more problems than it solves.  I am not ready to believe that drugs are really the issue here.

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Policy Blog: Drug cartel violence starting 2009 with a bang

In Policy Blog on January 6, 2009 at 3:04 pm

According to CNN, 2009 is already on track for drug cartel violence, with three mutilated bodies found thus far.   I was in Mexico for most of 2008, which was reported as one of the bloodiest years ever, and heard a lot of stories.  There was one case where overnight the names of a dozen or so officers were added in paint to a monument of fallen law enforcement officers, and within a week half of them were murdered.  I think that most of this is not because the cartels are trying to kill off law and order, but rather that many police officials, especially in drug-heavy border states like Sonora and Chihuahua, are aligned with one or another cartel.  

The US has pumped money into Mexican security forces as part of the Merida Initiative, but hasn’t done much to ensure it is well-used.  This looks like a case for…. well, if only there were a super hero that fought corruption and brought the shining light of transparency and accountability.

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