BILL ANALYSIS Ó
HR 5
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Date of Hearing: June 23, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JOBS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, AND THE ECONOMY
Eduardo Garcia, Chair
HR 5
(Cristina Garcia) - As Amended May 6, 2015
SUBJECT: Mexico and Human Rights
SUMMARY: Memorializes the Assembly's condemnation of the September
2014 forced disappearance and death of 43 college students in Iguala,
Mexico. In adding its voice to the international censure of this
violation of human rights, California offers support to all those in
Mexico who are standing up for human rights and justice against
corruption and violence. Specifically, this bill:
1)Makes findings and declarations that, among other things, state:
a) The 43 college students disappeared in Iguala, Mexico on
September 26th, 2014 and they add to the estimated 25,000 to
26,000 people who have disappeared in Mexico since 2006 including
poor migrants, indigenous people, and women and children; and
b) Mexico's Attorney General, Jésus Murillo Karam, announced in a
televised news conference on November 7, 2014, that evidence
indicates the 43 missing students had been executed and
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incinerated in the municipal dump of Cocula, Mexico, by the
Guerreros Unidos cartel at the behest of corrupt officials; and
c) The Director of the American Division of Human Rights Watch
described the murders in Iguala and an earlier massacre in
Tlatlaya, as "the worst atrocities we've seen in Mexico in years,
but they are hardly isolated incidents."
d) There has been international outcry regarding the deaths of
the missing students in Mexico from, among others, the United
Nations, the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the European
Parliament, and the international human rights community.
1)Resolves that the California State Assembly adds its voice to the
international community who has condemned the disappearance and
deaths of the missing college students from Mexico as a violation of
their human rights, of which the government of Mexico has failed to
acknowledge, and offers its support to the people of Mexico who are
standing up for human rights and justice against corruption and
violence.
2)Resolves that the Assembly urges the government of Mexico to support
further dialogue between the international community, including the
United States, and human rights organizations on human rights
reforms.
3)Directs the Chief Clerk of the Assembly to transmit copies of this
resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.
FISCAL EFFECT: None
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POLICY ISSUE FRAME:
In September 2014, 43 students from a rural teacher-training college
disappeared in Iguala, Mexico. While their disappearance made
international news and sparked demonstrations in many areas of the
world, the issues surrounding the event are not necessarily unique,
according to human rights groups.
Human Rights Watch believes that more than 23,000 individuals in
Mexico have become victims of enforced disappearance. These
disappearances affect the individuals who are taken, as well as their
families and communities. When not proactively addressed, these
disappearances can also draw into question the foundation of the
country's rule of law.
HR 5 asks that the California Legislature stand with others in the
international community and condemn those that instigated,
implemented, and withheld truth about the disappearance of the 43
students. The resolution further urges the government of Mexico to
engage in further dialogue with the international community on human
rights reforms.
In the Comments section of the analysis there is additional
information about the circumstances and varying explanations as to
what happened in Iguala. Background is also provided on follow-up
actions by the federal government, independent forensic groups, and
the United Nations' Committee on Enforced Disappearance, whose job it
is to oversee the implementation and the investigation of potential
violations under the International Convention for the Protection of
All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
COMMENTS:
1)Author's Purpose: According to the author's statement, "When
President Pena Nieto addressed the California Legislature, he spoke
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of the reforms implemented during the first months of his
presidency. What caught my attention were the reforms that 'focused
on safeguarding human rights and streamlining the process for
citizens to use this protective tool against abuses of authority
that violate their rights.' As an activist and ardent supporter of
ethics in government, I was excited to hear about reforms that would
'foster accountability and transparency' throughout Mexico's
government.
Passing reform laws are one thing, to actually be able to
investigate atrocities and corruption is another. The message needs
to be that the laws apply to everyone and that the law will also
protect you and your rights. Unfortunately, the actions of
Pena-Nieto's government is that it's business as usual where the
influence-peddling leads the way.
We need to be clear with these countries that if we are going to
engage in economic co-operation we will hold them accountable.
California is an economic powerhouse, the 8th largest in the world.
We are in position to insist that the Mexican government begin to
seriously address the injustices they have long been associated
with. Our co-operation should not come without strings. "
2)Information Sources: Information used to prepare this analysis came
from a variety of sources including the United Nations, the Mexican
Embassy in the U.S., The New York Times, the Associated Press, the
Washington Post, teleSUR, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian
Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Guardian, and The
Intercept.
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3)Background on the Students' Disappearance: On September 26, 2014,
43 students from a rural teacher-training college disappeared in
Iguala, Mexico, after what witnesses describe and evidence suggests
was the use of deadly force by local police. In dispute is why the
students were detained, who made the call to have them detained, and
what ultimately happened to the students and their physical remains.
As to the first two points, opinions vary from trying to bar the
students from protesting at a local event on the mayor's orders, to
preventing the students' from attending the Mexico City
commemoration of the 1968 Tlatelolco student massacre, to
allegations that a rival gang had been passing through and were
believed to be among the students. Many sources are reported as
believing there are direct ties between the local police, the mayor
and his wife, and a local gang. A few sources suggest that there
was at least knowledge by the federal police of the students'
movements on the day in question. The last reported sightings of
the students were in Iguala's city center and at the edge of the
city near the highway.
The missing students were from the Ayotzinapa Normal School in
Guerrero, Mexico, which is also officially called the Raúl Isidro
Burgos Normal Rural School. The school is one of 16 schools
established in Mexico to train rural teachers to help raise literacy
rates and standards of living among the rural poor, including the
high number of indigenous people who live in these areas. Some
reports suggest that the disappearance of these 43 students is part
of the targeted suppression of the political ideas and actions of
students from the school, while others say their deaths are
representative of the 20,000 to 25,000 missing persons from
throughout the region and Mexico, overall.
In response to increasing public pressure, the Mexican government
ultimately launched a criminal investigation into the Iguala events,
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they describe as being on "a scale unprecedented in the country's
recent history." The investigation is reported to have included the
detention of over 100 people including known gangsters and members
of Iguala's municipal police. Among the top suspects are Iguala's
mayor and wife, both detained and questioned. The (now former)
Mexican Attorney General Jésus Murillo Karam's official explanation
as to what occurred on the day the students went missing and what
became of their bodies has come under significant question. Much of
the evidence for the government's account relies on witness
testimonies, which some believe had been extracted under possible
torture or duress. Reports by independent investigators and
university scientists have also pointed to discrepancies in the
government's account as well as violations of key forensic protocols
by federal investigators.
As of June 20, 2015, the students remain missing and are generally
believed to be dead. The students' families are reported to be
angry and distrustful of their government's commitment to find and
disclose what happened to the college students. Many Mexicans are
reported to have seen this event as symbolic of their nation's
systemic problems with corruption and violence. The disappearance
of the students has sparked many protests in Mexico and other areas
of the world including the United States. On March 26, 2015, the
parents of the missing students and thousands of supporters
demonstrated at the federal elections office in Mexico City to ask
that the June 7 2015 elections in the state of Guerrero be
suspended.
4)Discrepancies in the Investigation: The official explanation of the
students' disappearance was that they had been killed by gang
members. The gang then burned their bodies at a dump, placed their
remains in garbage bags, and threw the bags into a river outside the
City of Cocula. The Mexican government's account, they say, is
based on forensic samples sent to a lab in Austria for review, as
well as their own assessment of the purported crime scenes.
Many in the public believe that the government's own accounts and
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timeline draw this conclusion into question. According to reports,
Attorney General Murillo Karam made a December 2014 announcement
that the Austrian experts were only able to determine that one
fragment from one of the samples belonged to one of the disappeared
students. The Austrian experts had determined that the other
samples were too severally degraded to likely yield positive
results. Just weeks later, in January 2015, the Mexican government
announced that the other 42 students shared the fate of the student
whose fragment was identified by the Austrian lab.
Not satisfied that the government's investigation would be
sufficiently comprehensive, a number of the parents of the
disappeared students sought help from the Argentine Forensic
Anthropology Team (EEAF). The EEAF was established in 1986 with the
aim of developing forensic anthropology techniques to help locate
and identify the Argentinians who disappeared during the military
dictatorship. Since inception, it is reported to have provided
international assistance in nearly 30 countries.
Based on their own research and investigative experience, the EEAF
released it's a report in February 2015. The EEAF report states
that the organization could not confirm the official explanation of
the Mexican government because the federal investigators violated
their agreement to work collaboratively with the EEAF. The EEAF has
said that, among other things, they were not present when the bags
allegedly containing the students' remains were removed from the
river nor were they given advance notice for when the government
collected ballistics evidence and soil samples from the Cocula dump
back in November 2014. In another example, the EEAF has stated that
forensic protocols were violated when the government failed to
comprehensively survey the dump site by only analyzing 30 of the 137
sections. This caused the EEAF to suggest that the government
searched only for evidence that matched with its account of what
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allegedly occurred to the students.
Other concerns were raised in a joint report by the Scientists at
the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico and the Universidad
Autónoma Metropolitana that questions the official account of what
happened to the students' remains. Among other discrepancies, the
scientific report states that burning 43 bodies would have required
many more tons of logs, pounds of gasoline, and/or tires than could
be gathered at the dump without notice and given the small timeframe
described by the government's account. Further, the report states
that the smoke from a fire of that size would most likely have been
noticed by someone in the area.
Based on these and other incidences, many sources suggest that the
level of complicity with corruption and violence is much broader
than the federal government has conveyed in its account which seeks
to place blame solely on local actors.
5)The United Nations High Command on Enforced Disappearance: In
February 2015, the United Nation's Committee on Enforced
Disappearances (Committee) met to receive and consider Mexico's
report on its adherence to the International Convention for the
Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Plans for
this meeting appear to predated the incidences in Iguala.
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According to the official summary of the proceedings, the delegation
leader from Mexico opened their official remarks stating that "his
Government recognized that, despite the significant progress made in
promoting human rights in his country, challenges remained to be
overcome, especially in view of the recent events in Iguala, which
had sparked indignation and condemnation around the world. Both the
Government and society of Mexico were committed to seeking the truth
about those events and bringing the guilty parties to justice."
One of the areas of progress was Mexico's willingness have the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights provide technical
assistance. In discussing the role of the group of independent
experts recently appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights, the Attorney General of the Republic of Mexico said that
Mexico was open to constructive criticism and welcomed assistance
from other international institutions, but also pointed out that
work should be based on a shared agenda for advancing human rights
"rather than denunciation."
The delegation from Mexico also informed the Committee on actions
Mexico had taken to prevent a reoccurrence of the events in Iguala,
including the announcement of 10 measures by the President of Mexico
to "strengthen security, justice and the rule of laws on the
prevention of torture and enforced disappearance, the establishment
of a national missing persons search system and the adoption of
procedures for ensuring that investigations into enforced
disappearances were timely, exhaustive and impartial."
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As part of the review of Mexico's report, the Committee also met
with Mexican NGO Tlachinollan and some of the families of victims of
forced disappearance. According to news reports, the group made
formal acquisitions against the government's investigation into the
disappearance of the 43 students in Iguala, as well as the other
23,000 other reported missing persons.
As a signatory to the Convention, Mexico agrees to abide by its
provisions, including investigations into potential violations of
its covenants. During the February 2015 meeting, the Committee
acknowledged that it had formally apprized the government of Mexico
that it believed it had received reliable information as to a
possible serious violation of the Convention and that an official
visit of one or more of its Committee members was warranted,
pursuant to Article 33 of the Convention.
In explaining the scope of the Article 33 official visit and local
review, one Committee member clarified "that while the Committee did
not intend to focus exclusively on the events of Iguala, the manner
in which the State investigated those events, punished those
responsible and ensured that such crimes did not reoccur would be
viewed by the entire world as a test of resolve."
6)Technical Amendment: The author may wish to clarify the phrase "of
which the government of Mexico has yet to even acknowledge," page 2,
lines 23 and 24.
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7)Related Legislation: Below is a list of bills from the current and
prior sessions.
a) SR 7 (Lara) Mexico and the Disappearance of 43 Students: This
resolution adds the voice of the Senate to those in the
international community condemning the disappearance and deaths
of the missing college students from Mexico as a violation of
human rights; offers support to all those in Mexico standing up
for human rights and justice against corruption and violence; and
urges the government of Mexico to support further dialogue
between the international community, including the United States,
and human rights organizations on human rights reforms. Status:
Adopted by the Senate, 02/02/2015.
b) AJR 15 (Alejo) Colombia Free Trade Agreement and the
California Cut Flower Industry: This resolution memorializes to
the U.S. Congress and the U.S. President that California
encourages the federal government to consider the jobs and
economic role that the California floriculture industry provides
California when advancing free trade agreements, specifically
with Colombia.
Among other things, the resolution declares that: (1) Over 75% of
domestically grown flowers are grown in California; (2) countries
participating in the Andean Trade Preference Act supplied 82% of the
total value of U.S. imports of fresh cut flowers in 2009; (3)
Colombian exports to the U.S. increased 89% between 2002 and 2010,
resulting in a rapid decline in the number of domestic flower growers;
and (4) Floriculture is an important California industry that must be
considered as the U.S. works to advance the pending U.S. - Colombia
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Trade Promotion Agreement. Status: Chaptered by the Secretary of
State - Res. Chapter 122, Statutes of 2011.
c) AJR 27 (Torrico) United States-Columbia Free Trade Agreement:
This resolution memorializes Congress that the California
Legislature opposes the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion
Agreement, which was signed on November 22, 2006, and is
currently being reviewed by the Office of the United States Trade
Representative.
Among other things, the resolution declares that: (1) Violence against
trade unionists persists to this day, with over 500 unionists having
been murdered during the administration of current Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe; (2) The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia has
secured convictions in only about 5% of the over 2,700 cases of murder
of trade unionists, and in the vast majority of cases, the person
convicted of the crime is not the originator of the crime, but rather
carried out the order to kill; (3) Defamatory remarks regarding trade
unionists and human rights defenders in Colombia delegitimize the
important and valued work of human rights defenders and place
individuals and entire organizations at the grave risk of physical
retaliation; and 4) The United Nations Special Rapporteur on
Extrajudicial Executions, Phillip Alston, recently found that killings
of innocent civilians by the armed forces have occurred throughout the
country. Status: The resolution was adopted - Resolution Chapter
145, Statutes of 2010.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
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Support
California Immigrant Policy Center
Opposition
None received
Analysis Prepared by:Toni Symonds and Benjamin Arriaga/ J., E.D., & E.
/ (916) 319-2090