Mexico: “The Ernestina Ascencio Case is Not Closed!”

“The Dirty Work: The Shadow of Ernestina Ascencio.” Pictured: Soberanes of the CNDH.

At the meeting — organized by campesino and human rights groups from Veracruz and various indigenous communities — the CNDH deployed a monitoring team with video cameras, recorders and various employees, stationed at various points around the location where the forum was held.

La CNDH, “tapadera del poder”, afirma el alcalde de Soledad Atzompa (La Jornada) (”Mexican human rights commission “runs cover-up” for the authorities, says Zongolica mayor”)

Let me put this in the crassest of possible terms, terms that may make this post unsuitable for minors under the age of 17:

The issue here is whether an elderly Indian woman was telling the truth or not when she told relatives, before she died, that Mexican soldiers had gang-raped her in the ass until her guts bled.

Or whether Felipe Calderón was correct when he let drop, in a mid-March interview with La Jornada, that the woman had died of natural causes.

The Mexican national human rights commission then launched a media blitz in defense of the Calderón theory.

The Mexican military, which had originally issued an official bulletin saying (1) that “criminals disguised as soldiers” had done this deed, and (2) that it was doing DNA tests from semen samples found on the woman’s person, changed its story: Mexico: Defense Rewrites History in Ernestina Case.

So that is the issue here.

Crass words for an unbelievably crass affair.

The most surprising thing in this follow-up report on the Ernestina Ascencio case, now that the Veracruz governor and state attorney have stated that there was no rape, no unnatural cause of death, and therefore no crime committed in the case, is that now a representative of the CNDH — the human rights commission overseen by the Senate — is quoted as saying that the CNDH’s investigation “remains open.”

Come again?

These people do not even try to keep their stories straight.

On the events referred to here, see No Rape in Asencio Case: Veracruz State Attorney and Ascencio Case: Veracruz Governor Changes His Story?

And Mexico: Head Examination Prescribed for Soberanes.

Soberanes is also filing suit to have Mexico City’s legalization of first trimester abortion declared unconstitutional.

El pueblo de Soledad Atzompa “ha sufrido una gran violación” a sus derechos, luego de que la agresión a la anciana Ernestina Ascensión Rosario -quien presuntamente fue violada y asesinada por militares- ha quedado en la impunidad, aseguró el alcalde de ese municipio, Javier Pérez Pascuala.

The people of Soledad Atzompa “have suffered a grave violation [rape]” of their rights because the assault on the elderly Nahuatl woman Ernestina Ascención Rosario — who was allegedly raped and murdered by soldiers — has gone unpunished, said the town’s mayor, Javier Pérez Pascuala.

Agregó que aunque la familia de la indígena nahua “se haya dejado manipular” para no impugnar la resolución de la Procuraduría de Justicia de Veracruz, en el sentido de que la mujer no fue violada ni asesinada, la comunidad de Soledad Atzompa continuará exigiendo justicia y que se aclare el caso, pues en “cualquier momento el Ejército puede regresar a la sierra y cometer más violaciones a nuestras mujeres, lo cual no vamos a permitir”.

He added that although the family of the Nahuatl woman “may have let themselves be manipulated” into not protesting the finding by the Veracruz prosecutor that the woman was not raped or murdered, the community continues to demand justice and explanatons, for “at any moment the Army may return to the mountains and commitment more rapes against our women, which we are not going to allow.”

See also Mexico: Asencio Relatives “Disappear”.

Durante el foro Zongolica, Ernestina, reclamo de justicia, derechos humanos y autonomía indígena y municipal, se denunció que en Veracruz han ocurrido mil 495 asesinatos de mujeres desde 2000 hasta 2005, de los cuales 70 por ciento no han sido resueltos con sentencia condenatoria, por lo que permanecen impunes ante las instancias nacionales.

During the Zongolica forum, titled “Ernestina, a call for justice, human rights and indigenous autonomy,” it was reported that 1,495 women were murdered in the state from 2000 to 2005, of which 70% did not result in a conviction, and therefore have gone unpunished by Mexican courts.

Mexico’s UN representative on woman’s rights joined the chorus of authorities casting doubt on a dying declaration by the woman that “the men in green jumped me.” On the linguistic issue — she did not speak Spanish, only Nahuatl — see Ernestina Ascencio: The Sleep of Reason.

En el encuentro -organizado por agrupaciones campesinas y de derechos humanos de Veracruz y varios ayuntamientos de comunidades indígenas-, la Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos desplegó un equipo de monitoreo con cámaras de video, grabaciones y varios colaboradores, colocados en distintos puntos del lugar en el que se efectuó.

At the meeting — organized by campesino and human rights groups from Veracruz and various indigenous communities — the CNDH deployed a monitoring team with video cameras, recorders and various employees, stationed at various points around the location where the forum was held.

Inclusive, Héctor Lecuona, visitador de la CNDH, interrumpió una entrevista que Pérez Pascuala sostenía con reporteros para exhortarlo a acudir a la comisión a entrevistarse con el ombudsman nacional, José Luis Soberanes, y aportar elementos para la investigación del caso, que a decir del visitador “aún no está cerrado”. “Las puertas de la CNDH están abiertas para que acuda el día que usted lo solicite”, le ofreció al edil.

Héctor Lecuona, a CNDH “visitor” (inspector), even interrupted an interview Pérez was giving to reporters to urge him to visit the CNDH and speak with the national ombudsman, Soberanes, and provide evidence for the investigation of the case, which according to the inspector “is not yet closed.” “The doors of the CNDH are open to you any day you want to visit,” he offered to the mayor.

El funcionario hizo la invitación al leer un documento entregado por los visitadores, el cual en el punto número siete señala que solicitarían audiencia tanto con Felipe Calderón como con Soberanes.

The official invited the mayor to read a document handed over by the CNDH inspectors, in which Point No. 7 suggests they request a meeting both with Calderón and with Soberanes.

No obstante, como el texto fue redactado el 27 de marzo pasado -dato que en un principio se omitió-, el alcalde de Soledad Atzompa respondió que ya no tiene caso acudir a una instancia “tapadera del poder”, que ya emitió un dictamen “preocupante” al determinar que Ascensión Rosario falleció de causas naturales. “Nosotros vimos que es una burla que hace la CNDH si ya declaró públicamente cuál hacía [sic] sido la causa de la muerte de la compañera Ernestina, según su visión. Somos indígenas, pero entendemos y tenemos la lógica de analizar cualquier engaño que nos quiera hacer alguna institución; entonces, por eso, valorando la petición con todas mis autoridades no quisimos contestarlo porque es absurdo. La comisión nacional no está para defender los derechos humanos, sino al Presidente de la República, por cuestiones de intereses”.

However, as the text was published on March 21 — a piece of information that was omitted at first — the mayor responded that he has no desire to appear before a body “that runs a cover-up for power,” which has already issued a “worrying” finding in determining that Ernestina died of naturla causes. “We saw that what the CNDH is doing is a joke, publicly stating what the cause of death was of our Ernestina, in its view. We are Indians, but we do understand and we have the logic to analyze any form of deceit that any institution tries to foist on us. For that reason, then, evaluating this petition, in my capacity as mayor, we do not wish to respond because it is absurd. The national commission is not there to defend human rights, but to defend the President of Mexico, as a matter of political interest.”

Reforma al sistema de justicia

Justice system reform

En tanto, Edgar Cortez, secretario ejecutivo de la Red Todos los Derechos para Todos, propuso que para que las violaciones a derechos humanos en las que incurre el Ejército no queden en la impunidad “es urgente” una reforma al sistema de justicia penal para que los presuntos delitos cometidos por militares sean investigados por las autoridades civiles. Y agregó que en el caso de Zongolica la sociedad debe acudir a las instancias internacionales y crear un mecanismo de investigación propia como se hace en Ciudad Juárez, donde especialistas forenses argentinas analizan las causas de las muertes en ese municipio chihuahuense.

Meanwhie, Edgar Cortez, executive secretary of the Rights for All network, proposed that a reform of the criminal justice is essential to prevent rights violation by Army members from going unpunished by having civilian authorities investigation military personnel. He added that in the Zongolica case, society must appeal to international bodies and create its own investigative process, as is being done in Ciudad Júarez, where Argentine forensic specialists are analyzing the cause of deaths in that Chihuahua city.

Para Adrián Ramírez, presidente de la Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, no existe razón para que el Ejército esté presente en comunidades indígenas realizando tantas labores como la alfabetización, atención médica y ayuda en desastres naturales, por lo que ironizó: “¡mejor deberíamos canonizarlos!” No puede ser, añadió, que el Ejército tenga tantas funciones, mientras que los profesores y las instituciones de salud, a quienes corresponden esas acciones, no cuentan con los recursos y salarios adecuados para tales fines”.

For Adrián Ramírez, president of the Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights, there is no reason for an Army presence in indigenous community to perform such tasks as literacy promotion, medical care and disaster relief, joking, “May be should put them up for sainthood!” The Army, he added, cannot play that many roles, evan as professors and health institutions, who are suited to provide these services “do not have the resources and adequate salaries for those purposes.”

I still have that bar bet: It will at some point become impossible to overlook the degree to which the democratic legitimacy of Felipe Calderón — a Dick Morris client — comes from the barrel of a gun. Mark my words.

José Aznar of Spain — in a speech announcing a major political project for Latin American with the PAN party of Mexico — called Latin American indigenous peoples “enemies of civilization” on a par with al-Qaeda.

See Aznar on the Phantom Menace.

Al-Qaeda, which did not attack Madrid on March 11, 2004, by the way.

Basque separatists did that.

Aznar’s grandfather was a Basque separatist, did you know that?