Condoleeza Rice Ignores Human Rights Situation in Mexico in Report to Congress

On February 6. U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, expressed concern about human rights violations in both Venezuela and Cuba in a general report on international relations to the Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs. Rice went as far to say that Venezuelan government was destroying their country ¨politically and economically¨ and the US was the only country that really diffused information about the brutal human rights situation in Cuba. These were the only two Latin American countries that she mentioned as having human rights issues. On the same day, Amnesty International (AI) issued a report:  Mexico, Law without Justice, Human Rights Violations and Impunity in the Public Security & Criminal Justice System. In the report AI denounced that for years they have documented cases of human rights violations and impunity and that in almost the entire country there are cases of arbitrary detentions, fabricated evidence, and torture. “It doesn’t matter that the detained show up in front of a judge with signs of being beaten up or mistreated,” AI representatives said when presenting the report. What has happened in Oaxaca, they said, is one of the worst examples of this. Yet the only message Secretary Rice had for Mexico was that Mexico must do more to stop undocumented immigration to the U.S.

Popular clamor on the streets of Mexico might have some suggestions for Secretary Rice on how migration could be slowed down to the US, however this would involve seriously reforming or dismantling the U.S. promoted North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and neo-liberal economic model. With many prices on the rise, including  staples of the Mexican food basket such as corn and milk, protestors have gathered (including over one million on January 31st in Mexico City) to demand, among other things, a higher minimum wage (which at present is about $4.80 a day) to make up for the increase in basic food costs.  Oaxaca, which rivals Chiapas for the title of most impoverished state in Mexico, knows the effects of a devastated countryside, displaced farmers, and increased food prices.   Nationwide protests included the 9th mega-march of the APPO, in Oaxaca City, where thousands of people took to the streets on February 3, leaving a wake of political graffiti on the freshly painted walls of the historic center.  A popular graffiti message stated that fresh paint cannot cover up spilt blood, hinting that the conflict is far from over and that the violence of last fall has not been forgotten.

Right now it is difficult to say what will happen in Oaxaca. On one hand there is “normalcy”, even the visible police presence is much less than it was one or two months ago, although during the above mentioned march an operation of approximately 2,000 police sealed the access points to Oaxaca’s center square with metal gates and barbed wire. 50-60 people still remain imprisoned, and there are many people still unaccounted for, though according to Sara Mendez of the Oaxacan Network on Human Rights “it is hard to determine an exact number because many people are still in hiding.” According to Mendez the important dynamic to watch in the next months is the electoral process which is “historically violent in Oaxaca, and probably will be even more so this year.” Elections will take place in Oaxaca in both August and October for the state congress and 152 town governments. The APPO has been actively debating if they will officially join the electoral process as a strategy to oust Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. “If they were able to get a majority of seats in the state congress, most likely the governor’s days would be numbered,” said Miguel Angel Vasquez of EDUCA (Services for an Alternative Education). The APPO announced this week that they would not officially take part in the elections, however people involved in the movement might participate as individual candidates. As many predict, violence will once again be on the rise in Oaxaca throughout the upcoming months, and we can only hope that the US takes human rights as seriously in their trade-partner Mexico as they do in Venezuela and Cuba.