"Where are the 57 students missing after confronting police in Guerrero, Mexico?" - Rosa María Payá over twitter on September 30, 2014
 |
| Tonight in Miami at the launch of Cafe Tacvba's tour the missing students are remembered |
|
|
|
|
Rosa María Payá asked the question back on September 30, 2014 and the news is grim 28 bodies have been found in unmarked graves but have not been identified and Amnesty International has an urgent action underway for 43 missing students. On the opening night in Miami of the iconic Mexican rock band Cafe Tacvba tour celebrating 25 years since its founding the audience displayed a banner throughout the concert that ended up on stage that read "We are all Ayotzinapa - 43 WITH LIFE - Florida is with you AYOTZINAPA."
 |
| Students at the Attorney General Office in D.F. over 43 students missing in Mexico |
Below is the latest Urgent Action from Amnesty that outlines what has happened and calls people of good will to action. The students
have been missing since September 26, 2014.
Document - Mexico: Further information: Disappeared students still missing in Mexico
URGENT ACTION
disappeared students still missing in mexico
The 43 disappeared students are still missing after being fired at by
police and later attacked by unknown individuals in Iguala, Guerrero
state. Twenty-eight bodies have been found in unmarked mass graves near
Iguala, but their identities remain unclear and the search for those
abducted continues.
The 43 students remain disappeared since 26
September in the city of Iguala, Guerrero state, southern Mexico. Around
25 of them had been arrested by municipal police, while those remaining
were abducted by unidentified armed men operating with the acquiescence
of local authorities, a few hours later. All missing students are
victims of enforced disappearances. On 5 October Guerrero state
officials found six unmarked mass graves near Iguala, apparently as a
result of information provided by some of the 22 municipal police
presently under arrest. At least 28 bodies have been exhumed, but
forensic tests will have to be carried out in order to identify the
remains. It is not yet clear if the bodies are those of the abducted
students. On the basis of a petition from representatives of relatives
of victims, independent international forensic experts are assisting
with the identification process.
The Federal Attorney General’s Office
(Procuraduría General de la República, PGR) has taken up the
investigation into the unmarked graves and the identification of the
dead bodies. However, the investigation into the enforced disappearances
and murder of six others on 26 September, including establishing the
whereabouts of the 43 students, remains with the Guerrero state Attorney
General’s Office despite allegations of possible links with criminal
groups and its repeated failure to carry out effective investigations
into grave human rights violations. The seriousness of these enforced
disappearances and killings couple with the involvement of organized
criminal groups are grounds for the PGR to claim jurisdiction in the
cases, but so far it has stopped short of doing so.
Please write immediately in Spanish, English or your own language:
Urging the Federal Attorney General (PGR) to assume full
responsibility for the investigation into the enforced disappearance of
43 students in order to establish their whereabouts promptly, ensure
their physical and mental safety and bring those responsible to justice;
Urging the PGR to carry out a full, prompt and impartial
investigation into the killing of six people on 26 September and the
wounding of many others at the hands of Iguala municipal police and
unidentified armed men;
Calling on the authorities to keep the relatives of all victims
adequately informed and give them support and protection in accordance
with their wishes, including supporting the work of international
forensic experts;
Calling for a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding
the attack and abduction of students on 26 September, including the
repeated failure of state and federal authorities to investigate
frequent reports of collusion between local public officials and
criminal gangs.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 18 NOVEMBER 2014 TO:
Minister of Interior
Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong
Secretario de Gobernación
Bucareli 99, col. Juárez, C.P. 6600, México D.F., México
Fax: +52 55 5093 3414 (keep trying)
Email: secretario@segob.gob.mx
Twitter: @osoriochong
Salutation: Dear Minister / Estimado Ministro
Attorney General
Jesús Murillo Karam
Procuraduría General de la República
Reforma 211-213, Col. Cuauhtémoc, C.P. 06500, Mexico City, Mexico
Fax: +52 55 5346 0908
Email: ofproc@pgr.gob.mx or click here
Twitter: @PGR_mx
Salutation: Dear Attorney General / Estimado Señor Procurador
And copies to:
Local human rights organization
Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña “Tlachinollan”
Email: accion.urgente@tlachinollan.org
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:
Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation
Please check with your section
office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the first update
of UA 246/14. Further information:
www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR41/038/2014/en
URGENT ACTION
disappeared students still missing in mexico
Additional Information
Some 500 students attend the
Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teacher Training College (Escuela Normal Rural
Raúl Isidro Burgos) in the town of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, some
300km south of Mexico City. They receive training to become primary
school teachers in rural communities. Some of the local inhabitants are
of Indigenous origin. In general, these communities – and the students
themselves – are poor and suffer from high levels of discrimination,
marginalization and lack of access to basic services.
The students at the rural
training college are also politically active and they have staged many
demonstrations in relation to rural teachers, education policy and other
political issues. Acts of violence have been reported in some of these
demonstrations, and public authorities have frequently blamed the
student teachers. The training colleges have frequently been starved of
resources in recent years as rural education has not been a priority.
In December 2011 Ayotzinapa
students who were protesting on the main highway outside Chilpancingo,
the state capital, were attacked by state and federal police resulting
in three deaths, two of them students. At least 24 people suffered
torture and other ill-treatment. Those police and superiors responsible
for the abuses against students have never been held to account,
encouraging a climate of impunity. Amnesty International has highlighted
this case many times, most recently in its report Out of control: Torture and other ill-treatment in Mexico (http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR41/020/2014/en).
Arbitrary detention, torture
and other forms of ill-treatment are widespread and persistent across
Mexico. Most cases take place in the context of criminal investigations
in which those arrested are tortured in order to extract “confessions”
or “information”. Those implicated in torture, including police, army
and navy, are very rarely brought to justice, with just seven
convictions recorded to date at the federal level. Torture victims
frequently face insurmountable challenges to prove their cases,
including official forensic examinations which are rarely applied in
time and in line with international human rights standards.
Abduction and disappearances
remain routine in Mexico with public officials often acting in collusion
with criminal gangs. The 43 students who have been forcibly disappeared
since 26 September are part of the more than 22,000 cases of people who
are missing or disappeared in Mexico and whose whereabouts remain
unknown, according to government figures released in August 2014. The
government has repeatedly failed to explain how they have calculated
this figure, as well as any further information about those cases. It is
unknown how many of those people have been victims of enforced
disappearances in which public officials are directly or indirectly
involved.
In 2013 the Federal Attorney General’s Office set up a
specialized unit to investigate cases of abductions and disappearances
and establish the whereabouts of victims. To date, they have not
released any detailed information regarding its effectiveness. For
further information see Confronting a nightmare: Disappearances in Mexico (http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR41/025/2013/en).
Further information on UA: 246/14 Index: AMR 41/039/2014 Issue Date: 7 October 2014
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR41/039/2014/en/1b6e7cf9-e962-43fc-8d47-05748682d65a/amr410392014en.html
Posts
