Obama in Mexico: Little talk of human rights

The Christian Science Monitor, 5/3/2013

It didn’t appear to get much play in the meeting between presidents, but civil society organizations in Mexico and the United States say they hope human rights will be higher on the bilateral agenda than they have in recent years.

Making respect for human rights central to the US-Mexico security strategy is a critical issue for those who have suffered at the hands of soldiers, police, investigators, and other authorities here.

Abuses mounted over the past six years, as the Mexican government deployed the military to police communities wracked by drug-related violence. The US has recognized Mexico’s shortcomings on human rights, but some say it and the Mexican government haven’t done enough to encourage change.

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US President Obama returns to Latin America

Aljazeera, 5/2/2013

United States President Barack Obama travels to Latin America today for a three-day visit with stops in Mexico where he will meet with the newly-inaugurated President of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and in San Jose, Costa Rica, where he will meet with the presidents of Central America and the Dominican Republic. While Mexican, Central American and US leaders look to broaden the discussion points beyond a narrow focus on security, noticeably absent in their public pronouncements have been questions about democracy and human rights.

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Obama’s Mexico trip: What they probably won’t say, but should

Global Post, 4/30/13

Amid the clamor framing President Barack Obama’s overnight stop in Mexico’s capital Thursday, smarter folk will be listening to the sounds of silence. Because in such whistle-stop summits national leaders usually strive to accentuate the positive.

But more than the happy chatter — about trade, economic reforms and enduring friendships — what Obama and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto don’t say, at least publicly, may be more telling about their countries’ close but often conflicted relationship. Analysts say US officials privately have been chewing nails over what might be Peña’s dismantling of their close involvement in Mexico’s six-year campaign against its crime lords.

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U.S. lawmakers urge government to press Mexico on human rights

Global Post, 4/25/13

With President Barack Obama set to visit Mexico next week, a group of 23 U.S. lawmakers asked the administration to prioritize the defense of human rights in relations with the Aztec nation. The legislators expressed their concern over “the persistence of grave human rights violations in Mexico” in a Dear Colleague letter to Secretary of State John Kerry.

Headed by Reps. James Moran (D-Va.) and Ted Poe (R-Texas), the lawmakers are urging Obama to make the defense of human rights “a central part” of Washington’s agenda with Mexico. During the 2006-2012 government of Felipe Calderon, who militarized the war on drugs, complaints to Mexico’s independent National Human Rights Commission about abuses by police and soldiers increased fivefold to 2,723, the congressmen emphasized.

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Op-ed: Surprise! Mexico backs human rights cause!

By Andres Oppenheimer, The Miami Herald, 3/24/2013

What a pleasant surprise! Mexico, whose government routinely supports human rights violators throughout the region, played a key role in thwarting an effort by a group of countries to weaken the region’s most important human rights commission. Mexico — alongside Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Canada and the United States — succeeded in defeating a proposal by Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua to strip the 34-country Organization of American States’ human rights commission of most of its funding, and to significantly reduce its powers.

The semi-independent body, known as the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, has long been a thorn on the side of governments that violate human rights and suppress freedom of the press. It’s by far the best — if not the only — thing the OAS has to show. Over the past decades, the commission and its Office of the Special Raporteur of Freedom of Expression have singled out abuses from governments across the political spectrum. They have criticized both the United States for its prison camp in Guantánamo, and Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia for their constant attacks on press freedoms.

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18 Women Who Were Sexually Exploited in Chiapas are Freed (Spanish)

Proceso, 3/22/2013

State Police forces and the National Migration Institute (INM) dismantled a prostitution network  in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, where 18 women, five Central American migrants and the rest from Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Chiapas,  were forced into prostitution.

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Nuevo Leon Will Not Release Capo’s Nicknames Nor Cartel’s Names (Spanish)

Processo, 3/21/2013

Nuevo Leon will not release detainees’ nicknames nor the names of the cartels they worked with.

The state government will suspend the old practice that publicly presented detainees to the press as trophies. Instead, they will now release newsletters and  photographs to news outlets.

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To Be an Older and Invisible Woman (Spanish)

Sin Embargo, 3/8/2013

Although one might think that discrimination against  seniors is a problem that is booming in Mexico, it is a phenomenon that has been around for many decades and has been made ​​visible in recent years thanks to access to information, to the appearance of public policies aimed at this population group,  and research about the issue.

In the case of women, most surveys that consider that gender studies   focus on those who are economically active or who are of childbearing age. Thus leaving out the elderly.

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SEGOB is Asked to Recognize Indigenous Women Working in Community Policing (Spanish)

Proceso, 3/7/2013

The president of the Indigenous and Peasant Unit Force (Unidad de la Fuerza Indígena y Campesina) (UFIC), Rocío Pérez Miranda, asked the head of the Ministry of the Interior , Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, to officially recognize indigenous women who serve as police Community their localities.

According to Miranda Perez, Chiapas, Guerrero, Morelos, State of Mexico and Michoacan are states where community policing entities have successfully provided the security that should  be commissioned by the State.

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Human Rights Defenders Denounce Killings and Forced Disappearances (Spanish)

Proceso, 3/7/2013

Human rights defenders denounced how the lack of protection obstructs with their work performance as there has been an  increase of attacks, including homicides and forced disappearances, against activists across the country.

In commemoration of  International Women’s Day, advocates called on  Enrique Peña Nieto’s government to support the Inter-American System of Human Rights.

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