2019

January 8: Families of the 19 political prisoners, who are members of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to La Parota Dam – CECOP and the Community Police of the Regional Coordination of Community Authorities – CRAC-PC, meet with the Governor of Guerrero, Héctor Astudillo Flores, to demand the release of the 19 prisoners.

January 15: The Commission for Truth and Access to Justice is created for the case of the forced disappearance of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa.

January 24: Civil organizations and victims demand the implementation of the National Commission for Human Rights’ (CNDH) recommendations regarding the violent eviction in Tlapa in 2015, in which several teachers and social activists were arbitrarily detained and tortured.

January 29: At a press conference in Mexico City, the Movement for the Freedom of Political Prisoners in the State of Guerrero (MOLPPEG) calls on the federal government to grant them a hearing to demand the release of 19 prisoners detained for opposing the construction of La Parota Dam.

February 6: In a letter sent to the Governor of Guerrero, Héctor Astudillo, among others, members of European Parliament express their deep concern about “the situation of the defenders of land and territory in Mexico, particularly the incessant criminalization of members of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to La Parota Dam (CECOP) in the State of Guerrero.

February 6: The director of the Mexico City office of Guerrero’s El Sur newspaper, Viétnika Batres, receives death threats and is the victim of identity theft. Article 19 and the European Parliament launch “De la Mano” initiative to protect at-risk journalists.

February 11: In the municipality of Atoyac de Álvarez in Guerrero, a Plan for Attention and Reparations for the Victims of the Political Violence of the Dirty War is announced.

February 12: Two indigenous activists – Obtilia Eugenio Manuel and Hilario Cornelio Castro – disappear. Different government agencies and national and international human rights organizations release statements on the disappearance of the two activists, and the Organization of the Me’Phaa Indigenous People (OPIM) initiates a Solidarity Search Caravan for the two.

February 16: After four days of being reported missing, human rights defenders Obtilia Eugenio Manuel and Hilario Cornelio Castro are found alive.

February 18: Approximately 350 victims of forced internal displacement (DFI) in the state of Guerrero begin a sit-in in front of the National Palace in Mexico City and demanded that the President of the Republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, meet with them.

February 26: In a statement, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemns the deprivation of liberty of human rights defenders Obtilia Eugenio Manuel and Hilario Cornelio Castro.

February 27: The National Network of Civil Human Rights Organizations “All Rights for All” (Red TDT) makes a statement on the situation of around 700 displaced persons from the municipalities of Zitlala and Leonardo Bravo in the state of Guerrero. Around 300 of them have been in a sit-in in front of the National Palace in Mexico City since February 18.

February 27: Clemente Cabrera Benítez and Tomás Cruz Valeriano, members of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to La Parota (CECOP), are released after having been imprisoned for more than six months in Las Cruces prison, Acapulco.

February 27: Academics Gisela Zaremberg (FLACSO Mexico) and Valeria Guarneros-Meza (De Montfort University), as members of the project “Talking to Goliath: Participation, mobilization, and repression around neo-extractivist and environmental conflicts”, present a map of 879 conflicts that resulted from the implementation of 304 mega-projects, between 2006 and 2018.

February 28: After five years, three months, and 22 days in prison, Gonzalo Molina González, promoter of the Regional Coordination of Community Authorities-Community Police (CRAC-PC) of Tixtla, is released.

March 8: Through the platform of citizen petitions Avaaz, more than 2,000 people call for the release of the 16 members of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to La Parota Dam (CECOP).

March 12: A group of 56 displaced people from the state of Guerrero, 19 of them under 14 years old, join the 300 people who have been in a sit-in in front of the National Palace in Mexico City since February 12.

March 14: The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) reports that they have corroborated a link between organized crime and the Mexican government in the forced disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College, which took place in Iguala, Guerrero.

March 18: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador states “that the Federal Government will respect all mining concessions in the country and that the permits will not be revoked.

March 29: After 39 days of a sit-in in front of the National Palace in Mexico City, the almost 400 displaced people from the municipalities of Zitlala, Leonardo Bravo, and Heliodoro Castillo decide to return to Guerrero after signing an agreement with Alejandro Encinas, subsecretary of human rights in the Ministry of the Interior.

April 10: In the framework of Emiliano Zapata’s 100th anniversary, indigenous people, peasants, and teachers mobilize in seven states, including Guerrero.

April 12: Julián Cortés Flores, coordinator of the Regional Coordination of Community Authorities-Community Police (CRAC-PC) of San Luis Acatlán, is murdered.

April 19: Ismael Eslava Pérez, first visitor to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), reports that the number of people disappeared in Mexico continues to rise with nearly 30,000 people missing, 1,306 clandestine graves found, and 3,760 bodies or remains found to date, and that official figures are not accurate.

April 25: Representatives from International Service for Peace (SIPAZ), the Collective Against Torture and Impunity (CCTI), and the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center visit prisoners from the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to La Parota (Cecop) in the Las Cruces prison in Acapulco.

April 27: International Service for Peace (SIPAZ) visits victims of forced internal displacement (DFI) in the municipalities of Zitlala and Leonardo Bravo in the Sierra de Guerrero.

May 5: The National Indigenous Congress (CNI), the Indigenous Government Council (CIG), and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) denounce the kidnappings and murders of José Lucio Bartolo Faustino and Modesto Verales Sebastián, two members of the CNI, after they attended a meeting with the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ), in Chilpancingo, Guerrero.

May 14: The Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights publishes a bulletin in which it informs that on May 22, an oral trial will begin in Acapulco to determine the legal situation of 16 community defenders from the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to the La Parota Dam (CECOP), who have been in prison since January 7, 2018, “unjustly accused of crimes they did not commit, in retaliation for their work in defense of territory.

May 23: Two members of the Regional Coordination of Community Authorities-Founding Towns (CRAC-PF) and promoters of CIPOG-EZ are murdered. Both were promoters of the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ), part of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI).

May 27: The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center publishes a bulletin to denounce the intensification of aggressions against Indigenous Peoples and emphasizes that the aggressions are “part of a strategy to contain civil and peaceful resistance in defense of the territory.”

June 7: The 16 members of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to La Parota Dam (CECOP) and of the Regional Coordination of Community Authorities-Community Police (CRAC-PC), who were arrested on January 7, 2018, are declared innocent and released from prison.

June 19: In a brief and violent communiqué, the Commissariat of Communal Properties of Cacahuatepec threatens the directors of the newspaper El Sur and the Tlachinollan Center for Human Rights.

June 26: The Special Investigation and Litigation Unit for the Ayotzinapa case is published in the Official Journal of the Federation, with Omar Gómez Trejo as the head of the new unit.

June 26: A video showing acts of torture against Carlos Canto Salgado during his detention in the case of Ayotzinapa is made public by several media outlets.

July 9: Article 19 and the National Network of Civil Human Rights Organizations: All Rights for All (Red TdT), denounce a “campaign of discredit and misogyny” against the lawyer of the “Tlachinollan” Mountain Center for Human Rights, Neil Arias Vitinio, and journalist Carmen Gonzalez Benicio of the newspaper El Sur de Acapulco, by the municipal president of Tlapa de Comonfort.

August 9 and 10: The Tlachinollan Human Rights Center celebrates its 25th anniversary.

August 9: Social activists Máximo Mojica Delgado, Javier Córdova Ruiz, María de los Ángeles Hernández Flores, from Teloloapan, and Santiago Nazario Lezma, from Atoyac, members of the Popular Movement of Teloloapan, are released through a direct appeal, after spending 10 years, 8 months, and 11 days in the Center for Social Reinsertion in Tecpan de Galeana, Guerrero, accused of kidnapping.

August 28: At a press conference, victims of forced internal displacement from the municipalities of Leonardo Bravo, Zitlala, and Eduardo Neri in the mountain region of Guerrero ask the federal government to deploy National Guard troops to guarantee the pacification of the region and the return to their places of origin.

September 4: A federal judge acquits Gildardo López Astudillo, alias “El Gil,” of the crime of “illegal deprivation of liberty in the form of kidnapping”. López Astudillo, identified as one of the leaders of the criminal organization Guerreros Unidos, is accused of having participated in the disappearance of the 43 students.

September 11: Family members of the 43 students of the Rural Teachers School in Ayotzinapa, disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, on September 2014, hold a private meeting with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).

September 14: Social activist Víctor Ayala Tapia disappeared 9 years ago, on September 14, 2010 in the community of Papanoa, municipality of Técpan de Galena, in the state of Guerrero.

September 15: A judge releases 24 people accused of alleged participation in the Ayotzinapa case. In total, 77 people have been released, out of the 142 who had been detained in the case, and only 65 people remain detained in relation to the case.

September 18: Vidulfo Rosales, lawyer for the relatives of the 43 students, reports that after a meeting with the attorney general, Alejandro Gertz Manero, the latter agreed to restart the investigations “almost from zero” by acknowledging “the irregularities that were committed.”

September 23: Cocula union leader and community activist Oscar Hernandez Romero disappears. He was last seen leaving his home in Real de El Limon for Nuevo Balsas and has not returned to his home, reports La Jornada de Guerrero.

September 26: On the fifth anniversary of their children’s disappearance, parents of the 43 students of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers School who disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, hold a peaceful demonstration in Mexico City and demand that the Mexican government investigate the case.

October 1: During the last week of September, 4 members of the National Guard die, due to two unrelated attacks, one of which happened in Guerrero, leaving 3 elements dead.

October 1: Tropical Storm “Narda” arrives in Guerrero, where there are reports of flooding of homes and roads, overflowing rivers and streams, stranded vehicles, landslides onto highways, and silting of municipal drainage systems.

October 5: In the framework of the seventh anniversary of the Regional Council of Agrarian Authorities in Defense of Territory (CRAADT), a forum is held in which the municipalities of Malinaltepec and San Luis Acatlán are declared free of mining.

October 15: Dozens of civil organizations sign a communiqué demanding an end to the aggressions and defamations against the “Tlachinollan” Human Rights Center and its lawyer Vidulfo Rosales Sierra.

October 25: National and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Article 19, Fundar, Serapaz, and the Red Todos los Derechos para Todas y Todos, carry out a Civilian Observation Mission in Tlapa, Guerrero, to document the case of Arnulfo Cerón’s disappearance. The activist, who was a member of the Popular Front of the Mountain (FPM) and the Movement for the Freedom of Political Prisoners of the State of Guerrero (MOLPEG), was reported missing on October 11 by his family.

October 30: Miguel Ángel Dorado, assistant general director of the Center for Migratory Studies, names Guerrero as one of the five states most affected by situations of forced internal displacement.

November 1: The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) informs in a press release that Guerrero’s human rights defender Obtilia Eugenio Manuel is awarded the 2019 National Human Rights Prize, in recognition of her “outstanding trajectory in the effective promotion and defense” of basic rights.

November 2: In the framework of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) urges to clarify the crimes against journalists that remain in impunity (90% of them according to its data).

4 November: The colloquium “The State of the Search for Disappeared peoples in Guerrero: Challenges and Perspectives” is held in Mexico City’s Ciudad Universitaria, in which experts and members of collectives of families of the disappeared participate.

November 4: With a communiqué, the Houses of Justice belonging to the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities – Community Police (CRAC-PC) of Guerrero denounce various situations of criminalization and persecution of their members by the judicial power.

November 7: More than a thousand members of the five houses of justice of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities-Community Police (CRAC-PC) march in Chilpancingo to demand the reform of Law 701, which was modified a year ago in a change that they denounce as violating the rights of indigenous peoples, particularly the validity of their own system of security and community justice.

November 11: One month has passed since the disappearance of human rights defender Arnulfo Cerón Soriano in the city of Tlapa de Comonfort.

November 11: The families of the 43 students of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers School who disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, hold a private meeting with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and members of the Commission for Truth and Access to Justice for the Ayotzinapa Case.

November 20: Guerrero Governor Héctor Astudillo Flores reports that the body of Arnulfo Cerón Soriano, activist and leader of the Popular Mountain Front (FPM), who had been missing since October 11, has been found in a clandestine grave in Tlapa de Comonfort.

November 28: Seven years after the execution of Juventina Villa Mojica and her son Reynaldo Santana Villa, the Collective Against Torture and Impunity (CCTI) demands justice for the case, stating that “impunity persists”.

December 10: In the framework of the International Human Rights Day, indigenous defender Obtilia Eugenio Manuel receives the National Human Rights Award granted by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) for “her outstanding trajectory in the effective promotion and defense of human rights”.

December 17: The former prisoner and spokesperson for the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to the La Parota Dam (Cecop), Marco Antonio Suástegui Muñoz, files a complaint with the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) in which he denounces that two days previously, the State Police entered the Communal Properties of Cacahuatepec, in rural Acapulco, in an attempt to arrest him again, this time accusing him of having kidnapped two women.

December 17: In a press conference held at the headquarters of the Ayotzinapa Rural School, relatives of students who lost their lives in various events since 2011 announce the formation of the Committee of the Forgotten Others, which will seek justice in the cases.

December 18: The chief of staff of the Moreno municipality of Tlapa de Comonfort, Marco Antonio García Morales, is arrested for his alleged participation in the disappearance and murder of activist Arnulfo Cerón Soriano, leader of the Popular Front of the Mountain (FPM).