2016

January 1st: The unjustly imprisoned commander of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities – Community Police (CRAC-PC) of Olinala, Nestora Salgado, begins second hunger strike to demand her release.

January 7th: The Superior Court of Justice of Guerrero rejects the appeal for fading evidence filed by Nestora Salgado’s defense and ratifies the order of formal imprisonment against her for the crime of aggravated kidnapping with which she is charged.

January 19th: Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and human rights experts support the work of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE) in the case of the 43 disappeared student teachers from Ayotzinapa.

January 19th: The Mesoamerican Initiative for Women Defenders of Human Rights demands an end to the smear campaign against Angela Buitrago and Claudia Paz, members of the IGIE.

January 26th: Sixteen months after the disappearance of the students of the Ayotzinapa Normal Rural School, their relatives march in Mexico City. A strong security deployment prevents them from entering the Zocalo.

February 3rd: The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention rules that Salgado’s detention was “illegal and arbitrary” and stemmed from her struggle for the rights of the indigenous population. It asks the Mexican government for the release of Nestora along with adequate compensation.

February 12th: Julio Cesar Mondragon Fontes, a student teacher from Ayotzinapa, whose body was found with the skin removed on September 27, 2014 in Iguala, is buried for the second time after taking samples that would permit a new necropsy.

February 13th: Norma Angelica Bruno Roman, a member of the citizen group that looks for missing relatives in clandestine graves is executed by two gunmen in Iguala.

February 22nd: Protests across the state against the education reform bill.

March 3rd: Relatives, organizations and sympathizers of Ayotzinapa begin a caravan to Iguala in search of information about the forcibly disappeared youths.

March 7th: While three judges ordered the immediate release of Nestora Salgado, she is notified of three new arrest warrants as an intellectual author for the crimes of kidnapping, illegal deprivation of liberty and murder.

March 7th: Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) orders the Mexican government to guarantee the life and personal integrity of Nestora Salgado.

March 17th: After two years and seven months of imprisonment, Nestora Salgado is released. After her release, Nestora calls to start a campaign for the release of the 500 Mexican people deprived of their freedom for political reasons.

March 30th: The coordinator of the Community Development Workshop (Tadeco), Javier Monroy, denounces receiving telephone threats.

March 30th: More than 3,000 indigenous people from the Montaña Alta area of Guerrero march to demand reparation for damages caused by the passage of hurricanes Ingrid and Manuel in September of 2013.

March 30: Nestora Salgado calls on the government of Guerrero to release the nine members of the CRAC – PC who are still in prison. She calls for widespread actions, within the framework of the national campaign “Put a Face and Name on Political Prisoners in Mexico”.

April 1st: Mario Vergara, member of the search committee “The Other Disappeared”, denounces an increase in threats by organized crime against his person and family.

April 1st: The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and a panel of experts on fire dynamics cause controversy in sharing preliminary conclusions about the possibility that the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students might have been burned at the Cocula dump.

April 3rd: After a two-year strike, the community Radio Ñomndaa, La Palabra del Agua (The Water’s Word), Xochistlahuaca, Costa Chica, Guerrero, resumed broadcasts.

April 14th: A video is leaked showing the participation of elements of the public forces in Ajuchitlán del Progreso committing acts of torture against a woman detained for allegedly belonging to an organized crime group.

April 16th: Teachers begin a day of mobilizations as part of “A New Struggle Against Educational Reform and for the Defense of Public Schools and Work Stability.”

April 23rd – 24th: The Third National Meeting of Relatives, Friends and Social Organizations for the Freedom of Political Prisoners is held in Olinala.

April 24th: The IGIE concludes its work of over one year with the presentation of its second report.

April 25th: The journalist Francisco Pacheco Beltran is assassinated in Taxco de Alarcon. He was a correspondent for the newspaper El Sol de Acapulco, editor of the newspaper El Foro de Taxco and correspondent for the radio station Capital Máxima 97.1 F.M.

April 30th: Seven community members of Cecop from Los Llamos community are assaulted by people allegedly related to business owners against whom members of the community maintain a legal dispute over the exploitation of the Papagayo River.

May 8th: More than 80 social organizations denounce “ineffectiveness in the investigation and persistence of impunity” a year after the forced disappearance of at least 16 people in Chilapa.

May 12th: Members of the “Always Alive” Committee from Chilapa find two hidden graves with the remains of four people.

May 13th: After almost three years in prison, six authorities of the CRAC-PC from the House of Justice of the Paraiso de Ayutla de los Libres are released.

May 18th: San Miguel del Progreso community, Malinaltepec municipality, manages to prevent the entrance of two mining companies that had concessions in their territories.

May 31st: The communities that make up the Council of Affected Communities of La Montaña, Guerrero, begin a “Day Against Inequality and Discrimination”.

June 6th: A year after the assassination of Antonio Vivar, dozens of social and human rights organizations denounce the lack of investigation into the events that occurred during last year’s election day.

July 13th: Twelve international civil organizations send an open letter to the Presidency of the Republic to request the establishment of the investigation mechanism on the forced disappearance of students in Ayotzinapa.

August 20th: 22nd anniversary of the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center.

September 10th: The implementation of the Follow-up Mechanism for the Ayotzinapa case is approved.

September 26th: The IGIE officially submits its second report on the Ayotzinapa case to the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament.

September 26th: Second anniversary of the attack on the students in Iguala from Raul Isidros Burgos Normal Rural School, Ayotzinapa,

October 4th: Five passengers are shot dead during an attack on public transport, including two students from the Normal Rural School, Ayotzinapa.

October 12th: Some 2,000 people march in Chilpancingo in the context of El Dia de La Raza (Day of the Race). Demonstrators demand the release of political prisoners, repeal of structural reforms, particularly education, and the presentation of the 43 student teachers from Ayotzinapa.

October 19th: About 100 people hold a ceremony at the Mexcalpetec Bridge in Atoyac to remember Rocio Mesino Mesino, a former leader of the Southern Sierra Campesino Organization (OCSS), three years after her assassination.

October 21st: The Decade Solidarity Network Against Impunity states that the Mexican State has requested the IACHR to declare “inadmissible” the case of the massacre of El Charco, Ayutla municipality, which occurred on June 7, 1998.

October 15th: 21st anniversary of the CRAC-PC marked with a series of activities.

October 21st: Felipe Flores Velazquez, the former police chief of Iguala, fugitive after the disappearance of the 43 student teachers from Ayotzinapa, is arrested.

November 23rd: Irineo Salmeron Dircio, primary school teacher, coordinator of the Liaison Committee of the CRAC-PC, is deprived of his freedom in Tixtla by three armed men.

November 25th: Two bodies are found in a plastic bag in Chilapa, one of those is that of Irineo Salmeron Dircio.

December 1st: Three years of unjust imprisonment of the indigenous leader of the CRAC PC, Arturo Campos Herrera. In this context, a rally is organized outside the prison of Ayutla de Los Puertos, where he is being held.

December 6th – 7th: The National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Mexico carry out a joint mission in the state of Guerrero, holding meetings with victims, human rights defenders, and authorities.

December 7th: Political prisoner and promoter of the CRAC – PC, Arturo Campos Herrera, has a face-to-face encounter with the five main witnesses of his case who do not maintain their previous accusations and expressly accept that Arturo Campos did not commit the crime of kidnapping against them.