"Perhaps many tourists come to vacation in Acapulco or Zihuatanejo, and think that all of us are like that in Guerrero. But that isn't true. Here we are screwed," says commune member (of) Tlapaneco de Huehuetepec, La Montana, Guerrero.
The american organization, Global Exchange, organized an Educational Delegation to the state of Guerrero from the 27th of July last to the 2nd of August; called "Paradise Lost: the environmental realities and human rights in Guerrero". The delegation (composed of representatives from Japan, England, Mexico and the United States) made a tour of the state, meeting with non-governmental organizations and government officials, to investigate themes relevant to the environment and to human rights.
The Environment
As far as the situation of the environment in Guerrero, the delegation met with Dr.Ricardo Klimek of Semarnat; with Dr. Alejandro Oscós of the Colegio Nautilus in Acapulco; and with the deputy Esteben Mireles Martínez of the committee on Natural Resources and Sustainable Development from the state Congress. Dr. Oscós stated that the bay of Acapulco is in a critical state; that the water treatment plants operate at 50% of capacity, leaving many contaminants in the water. He also said that high levels of coliform bacteria, which come from human feces, are to be found there.
As to deforestation in Guerrero, in spite of the advances made by Semarnat, deforestation continues to be a big problem. Dr. Klimek informed us that not all businesses use the new system of "unique format" designed to control the amount of wood taken out and processed. We were also told that reforestation efforts are insufficient: while an average of 50,000 hectares of forest are lost annually, only 10,000 are reforested. In addition, the problem of clandestine felling and transportation persists. In many cases, it's found that the people who try to protect the environment are threatened or harassed for their efforts. It should be pointed out that in the case of The Organization of Ecological Campesinos, many of their members are in jail, or sought by the authorities for their efforts to protect the forest of the Petatlán mountain, 40% of which has disappeared in the last 8 years.
Human Rights
To investigate the theme of human rights, the delegation met with the president of Coddehum, Juan Alarcón; with Arturo Román of the Miguel Agustín Pro Juarez Center for Human Rights; and with Abel Barrera of the Center for Human Rights of La Montaña "Tlachinollan". Also a tour was made of the zone La Montaña to hear evidence from some Mixtec and Tlapanec communities.
The delegation saw that violations of human rights and impunity persist as the norm in Guerrero. Despite the recommendation 19/2002 of Coddehum concerning the limiting of movement of 24 State Police agents, (which was accepted by the PGJE), not one is in custody. "The fact that the same PJE should be in charge of carrying out the apprehension orders, creates fewer possibilities that there may be justice", says Bart Beeson of Global Exchange. It is also worrying that neither torture nor forced disappearance are typified as crimes in the common law code.
The Prodh Center showed the delegation the strong military presence in the indigenous areas of the state. In the case of Valentina Rosenda Cantu (a Tlapanec woman who was raped by members of battalion 41 of the Mexican Army on the 16th of February 2002, in the municipality of Ayutla), the Public Ministry sent the case to the Department of Military Justice on the 16th of May of the present year. As of today, there have been no results of the investigation. "The system of military justice is an abyss from which few cases emerge", says Craig Adair of Global Exchange.
In La Montaña the delegation observed that the indigenous people find themselves in a situation of serious economic deterioration, and do not have health services, nor any government-sponsored projects. The delegation met with Mixtec people from the community of Alacatlatzala living at the edge of the road , sowing their cornfields. We heard the testimony of a man who suffers from a tumor who needs medical attention urgently, and whose three year old grandson had died two days before of diaharrea.
Due to a long history of agrarian conflicts with the neighboring communities of Malinaltepec, Cuatzojitengo, and Mixtecapa, these people do not have enough land to satisfy their families' need for food, and are obliged to walk for four hours down to the highway to other people's lands. In order to get enough money which they need for rent, fertilizer, and other expenses, they have to spend many months per year away from their families, in tourist spots like Acapulco and Zihuatanejo selling ices, sweets, or whatever they can get their hands on. Time and again they repeated to the delegation, "in La Montaña there is no work". The agrarian conflicts also have caused many deaths during the period of the conflict, testimony of which is heard in the town of Alacatlaztala.
Conclusions:
1) The bay of Acapulco: The fact that high levels of coliform and heavy metals are present, and that the treatment plants only operate at 50% of capacity are very worrisome.
2) Deforestation: It is indispensable that the government and Semarnat should continue their efforts to stop illegal felling, and that they should do everything they can to see that the rules are rigidly adhered to.
3) Human Rights: We demand that the state government abide by the recommendation 19/2002 and, so much so that the PGJE do everything possible to find the police agents who are fugitives from the law. We also believe that until torture and forced disappearance are typified as crimes in the common law code, it will be difficult to do justice in cases such as these.
4) Rights of indigenous peoples: Given the deaths in Olinalá and Aguas Frias, Oaxaca, in the last months, we see that there are many agrarian conflicts which should be attended to by the Mexican government. These conflicts aggravate the situation of poverty and marginalization in which many indigenous peoples live. It also seems very important to us that the government should invest in the indigenous zones to provide work, and that they should support the area with productive projects.
5) Military Justice: The PJM should act in the cases of the violations of Valentina Rosendo Cantu and Ines Hernandez Ortega. It is worrisome that, contrary to Article 13 of the Mexican Constitution, that rapes committed by agents of the army against civilians continue to be ignored by the PJM.