PBI expresses profound concern over the events of the 26-27 of september in Iguala, Guerrero in which 6 people were killed, 20 injured and 55 more have disappeared. We are also concerned for the physical and psychological wellbeing of the students, their families and the members of human rights organizations that are supporting them, among them the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, accompanied by PBI in Guerrero since 2001.
URGENT ACTION
GRAVE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS COMMITTED AGAINST STUDENTS FROM THE RAUL ISIDRO BURGOS RURAL SCHOOL ON 26 SEPTEMBER 2014 IN IGUALA, GUERRERO
On 26 September, 2014, six people (three of whom were students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural School) were killed and at least 20 more were injured in four related violent events near the city of Iguala, Guerrero. One injured student remains in a vegetative state while the whereabouts of 55 others remains unknown since the aforementioned incidents occurred.
It is important to note that local students were victims of similar events on 12 december, 20111, when a failed police operative attempted to remove protesting students from the Autopista del Sol highway resulting in the loss of life of three people including the extrajudicial killing of students Jorge Alexis Herrera Pino and Gabriel Echeverria de Jesus. Three other students were gravely injured by gunshot wounds and at least 24 cases of arbitrary detention, one case of torture and seven other incidents of inhumane treatment were documented. These incidents remain in impunity and the only police processed for these crimes were exonerated last year.
INCIDENT
On 26 September, 2014 at 9:00pm, 80 students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural School were traveling to Chilpancingo from the city of Iguala aboard three buses from the Costa Line company after having carried out activities to collect resources for school operations. After leaving the bus terminal in the direction of Chilpancingo, several police vehicles attempted to block the path of the busses and then began shooting live rounds intermittently without warning. After a short chase, the buses carrying the students were surrounded when police vehicles 017, 018, 022, 027 and 028 closed in behind the caravan. The students disembarked and directed themselves toward the police vehicle located at the front of the caravan.
Without saying a word, the Municipal Police began to shoot in indiscriminate bursts from their different positions surrounding the caravan and Aldo Gutierrez Solano, a first year student from El Refugio in the municipality of Ayutla, Guerrero, was hit and fell to the ground. He remains in a vegetative state today. Students aboard the third bus were violently removed by the police and forced to lay on the street next to the bodega Aurrera grocery store. The rest of the students scattered as municipal police continued to shoot for approximately four minutes.
Finally the police left, detaining around 20 students in police vehicles 017, 018, 020, 022 and 028. Other students remained at the scene of the shooting waiting for authorities from the district attorney's office to receive their testimony and collect evidence.
At midnight, students were beginning to inform the media and civil society organizations who had arrived at the scene about what had happened when a red Dodge Ram truck arrived from the north. Several people in civilian clothing carrying automatic weapons descended from the vehicle and began firing indiscriminately into the crowd. Two students were killed during the shooting, Daniel Solis Gallardo and a first year student from the bilingual program who has not yet been identified by family members. Five other students and two professors were gravely injured during this second shooting spree, which lasted around 15 minutes.
At 7:00am on september 27th, students regrouped at the office of the Northern Zone District Attorney for the Guerrero State Attorney General (Procuraduria General de Justicia del Estado de Guerrero-- PGJE). Students began giving their testimonies and asked to visit the cells of their classmates in order to ascertain the physical well being of those first detained on the highway by municipal police. They were told by the Public Security Director that there was no one in the cells and were allowed to verify that there were no students inside. During the second shooting, students scattered in different directions and at this time 55 are still missing, among them those originally detained by municipal police.
At 4:00pm while still at the District Attorney's office following up on the case, they were informed that another student's body had been found three blocks from the original shooting site with visible signs of torture, his skin was flayed and he was missing both eyes. The student was identified as Julio Cesar Fuentes Mondragón.
Within this context on 28 September, 2014 a formal complaint was made for the crime of disappearance against the 55 missing students, registered under prior inquiry VRA/03/2385/2014 in the State Attorney General's office in Chilpancingo, Guerrero. A formal complaint has also been made to the State Human Rights Commission of Guerrero.
The Guerrero State Government has published a press release along with information about these and two other regrettable violent events that occurred in the same context2.
CALL TO ACTION:
The extrajudicial killings of three students and the situation of those injured and disappeared constitute grave human rights violations that cannot remain in impunity. These events demonstrate an excessive use of force and an intention to deliberately extrajudicially execute students by the Municipal Police and an omission on the part of state and federal authorities for failing to implement appropriate security measures that would have prevented a second aggression and the disappearance of 55 local students.
In virtue of these events, human rights organizations who have accompanied the students of the Raul Isidro Burgos rural school of Ayotzinapa for several years urge the international community and civil society to insist that authorities:
- Carry out an independent, expedited and efficient investigation of the events that took place on the 26-27 of September, 2014 in Iguala, Guerrero
- Process and sanction the municipal police responsible for the extrajudicial killings along with municipal authorities who by omission permitted the grave human rights violations described here to occur
- Initiate administrative and judicial processes against Federal and State authorities who failed in their duty to reasonably prevent these grave human rights violations
- Conduct investigations and searches to ascertain the whereabouts of the 55 disappeared students and return them alive
- Implement precautionary measures in order to guarantee and preserve the physical and mental wellbeing of the 55 disappeared students
- Establish the truth and provide integral reparations to the victims and their families
- Ensure the integral medical and psychological attention to injured students
- Ensure the security and integrity of students who have denounced these acts and of the human rights defenders who accompany the students of the Ayotzinapa rural school in their process, as established in the Declaration on the Rights and Responsibilities of Individuals, Groups and Civil Organisms to Promote and Protect Human Rights and the Universally Recognized Fundamental Liberties
Send your calls and letters of concern to:
Lic. Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong
Secretario de Gobernación.
C. Abraham González No.48
Col. Juárez, Del. Cuauhtémoc C. P. 06600, México, D. F.
Tel. (55) 5728-7400 ó 7300
Lic. Ángel Heladio Aguirre Rivero
e-mail: secretario(at)segob.gob.mx
Lic. Jesús Murillo Karam
Procurador General de la República
Paseo de la Reforma 211-213, Piso 16
Col. Cuauhtémoc, Del. Cuauhtémoc, C.P. 06500 México D. F.
Tel: (52.55) 53460000 ext. 0108
Fax: (52.55) 5346.0928
e-mail: ofproc(at)pgr.gob.mx
Lic. Ángel Aguirre Rivero
Gobernador del Estado de Guerrero
Palacio de Gobierno, Edificio Centro 2do. Piso
Col. Ciudad de los Servicios, C.P. 39074 Chilpancingo, Guerrero, México,
Fax: +52 747 471 9956
e-mail: contacto(at)guerrero.gob.mx gobernador(at)guerrero.gob.mx
Lic. Jesús Martínez Garnelo
Secretario de Gobierno del Estado de Guerrero
Palacio de Gobierno, Edificio Norte, 2º Piso.
Boulevard Lic. René Juárez Cisneros No. 62
Col. Cd, de los Servicios, C.P. 39074, Chilpancingo, Gro.
Tel: (747) 471 9803, 471 9804, 471 9806
e-mail: contacto(at)guerrero.gob.mx, secretariageneral(at)guerrero.gob.mx
Lic. Iñaki Blanco Cabrera
Procurador General de Justicia del Estado de Guerrero
Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado de Guerrero
Boulevard René Juárez Cisneros S/N, esquina calle Juan Jiménez Sánchez
Col. El Potrerito, C.P. 39098, Chilpancingo, Guerrero
Tel. 01 747 494 29 99
e-mail: pgj(at)guerrero.gob.mx
Dr. Raúl Plascencia Villanueva
Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos
Edificio “Héctor Fix Zamudio”
Blvd. Adolfo López Mateos 1922, 6° piso
Col. Tlacopac San Ángel, Del. Álvaro Obregón, C.P. 01040, México, D.F.
Tel. y fax (55) 56 81 81 25 y 54 90 74 00
e-mail: correo(at)cndh.org.mx, presidencia(at)cndh.org.mx
Lic. Ramón Navarrete Magdaleno
Presidente de la Comisión de Defensa de los Derechos Humanos del Estado de Guerrero (Coddehum)
Avda. Juárez, Esq. Galo Soberón y Parra
Col. Centro, 39000, Chilpancingo, Guerrero, México. Teléfono: (+52) (01) 747 471 21 90 Fax: (+52) (01) 747 471 2190
e-mail: coddehum(at)prodigy.net.mx
Javier Hernández Valencia
Oficina del Alto Comisionado para las Naciones Unidas
Alejandro Dumas No 165
Col. Polanco. Del. Miguel Hidalgo. C.P 11560, México D.F.
Tel: (52-55) 5061-6350; Fax: (52-55) 5061-6358
e-mail: quejasoacnudhmexico(at)ohchr.org ; oacnudh(at)ohchr.org
Dr. Emilio Alvarez Icaza
Secretario Ejecutivo de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos
1889 F Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C., 20006 U.S.A.
Tel: 202-458-6002 Fax: 202-458-3992
e-mail: cidhoea(at)oas.org
1 Para más información ver. Tlachinollan. Informes Ayotzinapa. Disponible en: www.tlachinollan.org/index.php
2 Gobierno de Guerrero. Comunicado de Prensa: Instruye Ángel Aguirre investigar los hechos registrados en Iguala, y con estricto apego a la ley para castigar a los responsables. 27 de septiembre de 2014. Disponible en: guerrero.gob.mx/2014/09/instruye-angel-aguirre-investigar-los-hechos-registrados-en-iguala-y-con-estricto-apego-a-la-ley-para-castigar-a-los-responsables/