A group of attorneys and human rights activists are seeking to have Mexico’s president, other government officials and several top drug cartel leaders investigated for war crimes.

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The attorneys plan to file a complaint with the International Criminal Court naming Mexican President Felipe Calderón, Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and at least 8 other drug traffickers and government officials. At a press conference announcing the initiative, lead attorney Netzai Sandoval listed off specific crimes he wants the court to investigate in Mexico. It’s a long list.

SANDOVAL: “We are petitioning the court to investigate forced disappearances, the recruitment of children under 15 as hit-men, extrajudicial executions by soldiers, mutilation as a form of intimidation, attacks against the civilian population, forced displacements, the raping of women and girls, acts of torture perpetrated and tolerated by the army, attacks targeting drug rehabilitation centers, and the kidnapping, sale and enslavement of migrants by Mexican immigration authorities.”

Sandoval argues there are war crimes and crimes against humanity and thus, fall well within the ICC’s jurisdiction. Mexico’s organized crime groups have gained a reputation for brutality – and that’s well documented by the media. But reports of abuses by Mexican security forces receive less attention. Sanjuana Martínez is an investigative reporter based in the northern industrial city of Monterrey. She has extensively documented the violence in the border states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila.

MARTINEZ: “Mexicans are living in the middle of two types of violence – narcoviolence and state violence – which is perpetrated by the armed forces and federal police against the civilian population. In this country, we’re not used to speaking about state-sponsored violence. It’s not politically correct, particularly because the armed forces have a lot of power and impunity, so hardly anyone stands up to up to them.”

Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón defends his military strategy, even if he admits it’s not perfect. Here’s what he said in a meeting with relatives of drug war victims, just days after plans for the ICC complaint were announced.

CALDERON: It is not the state that’s committing acts of repression and murder. Yes, we do have a responsibility – which I’ve recognized and apologized for – because the state hasn’t been able to fulfil its proper role by protecting its citizens from violence. But the state has not systematically murdered, mutilated or disappeared people, as was the case under the military dictatorships of Argentina and Chile – or like what happened in Bosnia and other countries.

Calderón has also pointed to the recent creation of a special office for crime victims to show that his government is making efforts to heal social wounds and strengthen government institutions. It’s too soon to judge the new agency’s performance, but many observers have expressed scepticism.

(Roll Loretta Ortiz clip, reporter interprets)

Law professor Loretta Ortiz, who supports the petition to the International Criminal Court, says the Mexican government has a history of creating special commissions when certain types of crimes become too big to ignore and that these special commissions produce few – if any – real results. Ortiz points to the failures of special panels set up to investigate the Ciudad Juárez femicides, or crimes against journalists.

Different estimates put Mexico’s criminal impunity rate at between 95 and 98 percent – meaning only a tiny fraction of crimes committed end up being punished through the courts. Attorney Netzai Sandoval says that’s part of the reason he’s filing the complaint with the International Criminal Court.

SANDOVAL: “We’re not fighting to have more drugs in Mexico and the world. Quite the contrary, we’re also naming in our lawsuit drug traffickers who are killing young people, recruiting children, and attacking our country’s way of life. What we’re hoping to bring about with this petition to the ICC is the end of impunity and human rights violations in Mexico.”

More than 17 thousand Mexicans have signed an online petition urging the International Criminal Court to open an investigation. Another 3 thousand have signed on paper. Sandoval’s legal team says this represents that largest show of popular support for a particular case in the court’s history. The attorneys will submit their petition to the ICC on November 25th.

 (Transcript of report produced for The World. Original audio here)

Papers with names of the murdered and disappeared on a wall in Oaxaca City

Much of the news of Mexico’s Drug War focuses on the shootouts, massacres and abductions which have killed tens of thousands of people in the north. Violence in the south takes on a different form and generally receives less attention.

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The southern states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Chiapas share certain characteristics. They are Mexico’s poorest states, are rich in natural resources, have large indigenous populations and long traditions of social movements.

In parts of southern Mexico, the legacy of the decades-long Dirty War against political dissidents has dovetailed with the climate of violence and impunity of the ongoing Drug War.

MICAELA CABAÑAS: “Desde hace mas de 40 años que tenemos en esta lucha…(fade under, reporter interprets)

Such is the case of Micaela Cabañas, who joined the caravan in her home state of Guerrero. Her father, the iconic guerrilla leader and rural teacher, Lucio Cabañas, died during an army siege in the mid ’70s. Her mother and aunt, Isabel and Reyna Anaya, were assassinated just over two months ago while leaving a church. Just hours after the crime, Micaela Cabañas received a death threat from the cell phone that had been stolen from her murdered mother.

MICAELA CABAÑAS (voiceover): “We have to continue the struggle. We have to continue planting seeds – seeds that send down firm roots steeped in education and culture – to continue on this path towards the light.”

A historic grievance in this corner of Mexico has been indigenous control over ancestral territory. Conflicts over land can take many forms; from outright paramilitary displacement campaigns sponsored by powerful regional land bosses…to rifts within a community over religion or politics. Exploitation of inter-communal divisions are sometimes fueled by outside forces.

One of the deadliest recent rural conflicts in Oaxaca occurred last year in the town of San Juan Copala. Armed men forced supporters of

Caravan event in the main plaza of Oaxaca City

a local self-governance model to flee the town after a 10 month long siege. The displaced say their aggressors received resources from what was then the state’s ruling party to keep the town under siege and crush the indigenous autonomy project.

Macario Garcia Merino spoke to the caravan during one of its stops in Oaxaca.

MACARIO GARCIA MERINO (voiceover):“It’s not just the situation in San Juan Copala and it’s not specific to the state of Oaxaca. We’ve come to realize that this situation, this war of extermination, is throughout the entire country. This is why we need all need to band together and walk together to find justice.”

San Juan Copala, like other areas experiencing forced displacements, is believed to contain significant mineral wealth.

(SPEECH/AMBI – Monte Alban ceremony)

The issue of conflict and indigenous control over their mineral-rich lands was acknowledged specifically during a ceremony for caravan participants at the Monte Alban archaeological site.

Amada Puentes, whose son has been missing since he was taken from the streets of Monterrey by policemen more than 2 years ago, said the ceremony for peace had a profound impact.

Banner with written messages next to caravan bus

AMADA PUENTES: “Cuando iniciamos la caravana, yo todavía traía en mi corazón deseos de venganza, ya no tanto de justicia, de venganza. En esta ceremonia creanme que me cambió la manera de pensar “(fade under, reporter interprets)

Puentes says even at the start of the caravan her heart yearned for revenge; not so much for justice any more, but revenge. But she says the ceremony at Monte Alban changed her way of thinking.

PUENTES (voiceover):“I now feel calmer than at the start of this journey. And I know now that it was worth it because I felt connected and I could see that I’m not alone. Even with all the people at the start of this trip, I felt isolated. After such an amazing moment [in the ceremony], my way of thinking and feeling changed. Even though I continue to cry on the inside, I now feel strong. I feel accompanied. And I feel hopeful that I’ll find my son soon.”

From Oaxaca, the caravan continued on to Chiapas, where a delegation met with the indigenous pacifist community Las Abejas and the leadership of a Zapatista base community.

The caravan also focused attention on the relatively under-covered dangers faced by undocumented migrants and their advocates in southern Mexico.

Sunday night, the bus loads of drug war victims, human rights activists, observers and journalists received a welcome by thousands ofpeople in Xalapa, the state capital of Veracruz – a city which has recently begun to experience the shoot outs and spike in missing persons cases that have plagued the north.

(Julian LeBaron tape – fade under, reporter interprets)

In Xalapa’s main plaza, Julian LeBaron, a home builder who has lost a brother and a brother in law to the violence in his home state of Chihuahua, told the crowds of people who have lost loved ones that the house that is best protected isn’t the one with the most police guarding it, but rather the one with the most organized residents.

(Julian LeBaron continues, reporter interprets)

LeBaron said that while he is a victim of crime, members of the the movement need to stop viewing themselves as victims and become the agents of the change they want to see.

 (This report was produced for the September 19, 2011 broadcast of Free Speech Radio News. The audio is downloadable here.)

Members of Mexico’s peace movement set out on a multi-stop caravan today to bring visibility to the impacts of drug war-related violence in the country’s southern states. Hundreds of people aboard 14 buses set out from Mexico City’s main plaza this morning on an eleven day journey to seven states. The caravan’s figurehead is Javier Sicilia, the poet who became a peace activist and prominent critic of the government’s drug war strategy after the murder of his son in March.

Earlier this summer, Sicilia led a caravan through northern Mexico to bring attention to the on-the-ground situation in the states hardest hit by “narco-killings”. The southbound caravan will visit Mexico’s poorest states, which are home to large indigenous populations and significant expanses of natural wealth.

The drug war in southern Mexico takes on a different form from the large-scale shoot outs and massacres that have made civilian life difficult in the northern states. The shared border with Guatemala has become a hot spot for the shipment of drugs stored in Central America. Years ago, organized criminals muscled into the smuggling, trafficking and kidnapping of migrants who cross Mexico without visas on their way to the border with the United States.

The caravan is likely to focus public attention on the more hidden aspects of violence and impunity in the southern states; the displacement of indigenous communities, land grabs in resource-rich areas, rural para-militarism and politically-motivated attacks targeted at indigenous autonomy and social movements.

The caravan passed through Morelos today and will visit Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Veracruz and Puebla over the coming days before returning to Mexico City on September 19th.

Marcela Yarce and Rocío González (credit: Contralinea)

Certain elements of the most recent crime against journalists stand out from other murders in the hemisphere’s deadliest country for press workers. First, it was a double homicide involving two women; Marcela Yarce and Rocío González. Second, it occurred in Mexico City – which has been spared much of the physical violence suffered by press workers in other parts of the country. Third, the two journalists were close friends. The two had gone to a cafe together on Wednesday night.

Marcela Yarce co-founded the critical investigative news magazine “Contralinea” which has been the target of lawsuits, harrassment, and office break-ins. She went from actively reporting to becoming a key figure in the magazine’s administrative functions. Noteably, she secured advertising revenue for the publication which receives no government-sponsored advertising. Official ads are the financial life blood of many commercial news outlets in Mexico.

Rocío González spent 15 years as a reporter at the Televisa network. She worked as as freelance journalist and owned a currency exchange booth in Mexico City’s international airport. Mexico City authorities have indicated they are investigating robbery as a possible motive, citing a large cash withdrawal from the business coffers before the women dissappeared.

Another publicly-disclosed line of investigation is that of femicide; a murder that specifically targets women and usually involves both physical torture and sexual assault. Femicide victims are usually in their teens or early 20s. Both of the murdered women were 48 years old.

Press freedom organizations have called on Mexico City investigators not to rule out the possibility that the murders were related to the journalism work of the women.

The bodies of Marcela Yarce and Rocío González were found dumped in a park Thursday in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district. They were stripped naked, hands and feet bound, mouths gagged, with a cord around their necks. Asfixiation is noted as the cause of death in both cases although their bodies bore gunshot wounds.

Their deaths came one week after the kidnapping and murder of veteran reporter Humberto Millán Salazar in the state capital of Sinaloa. Press freedom organizations say eight press workers have been killed in Mexico so far this year – half of them in the state of Veracruz.

The "Brothers on the Road" shelter in Ciudad Ixtepec, Oaxaca

[Transcript and audio of a report produced for The World]

ANCHOR: Many undocumented migrants from Central America travel through Mexico on their way to the United States. It’s a perilous journey. The migrants face lots of dangers, from exposure to the elements to murder. And now Mexico’s drug cartels have gotten involved. They control the smuggling routes for profit and they often kidnap the migrants and force them into work. About the only protection migrants can count on is that offered by shelters. The shelters offer services such as free meals and a safe place to sleep, but these shelters themselves have become targets. Shannon Young reports.

REPORTER: A recent incident in the southern Mexican city of Tenosique illustrates just how brazen criminals have become in targeting migrant shelters. A staffer at the “La 72″ shelter received an anonymous tip that the shelter would be the target of a mass kidnapping. And indeed, in the early hours of July 6th, men pulled up to the shelter in three vehicles and tried to force their way in. Migrants fled over the back wall.

The incident occured shortly after the shelter’s coordinator, Friar Tomas González and other religious figures, had met with the top United Nations human rights official – precisely to speak about the dangers facing migrants and those who defend them.

(Friar González speaks, reporter interprets)

Friar González says in addition to providing food and water, the shelters also document human rights violations suffered by migrants. That

invites intimidation or retribution from those who abuse the migrants, which González says includes both immigration authorities and organized criminals.

“La 72″ in Tenosique isn’t the only shelter that’s been targeted. Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission recently documented threats or security breeches at five other facilities. Among them is the “Casa Belén” shelter in the northern city of Saltillo, which was granted a protection order last year from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Casa Belén coordinator, Father Pedro Pantoja says the government has stood idly by as the attacks have intensified.

PEDRO PANTOJA (voiceover): “Organized criminals have come inside our migrant shelter. Despite the protection order, there were no police patrol cars outside. We see that not only as incompetence, but disdain. The authorities couldn’t care less about the disaster, the cruelty to which these people are subjected. They are completely invisible as victims. Even more invisible are those who victimize. And in all of this, there’s not only silence, but also zero action and a total lack of respect for the lives of these people.”

Two European volunteers had to abandon the Saltillo shelter last month after an act of intimidation by men who identified themselves as members of the Zetas cartel. A shelter in the border city of Nuevo Laredo closed its doors in late June citing threats and a lack of security guarantees.

The rails where migrants wait to catch a freight train

(Roll Solalinde tape – reporter interprets)

Father Alejandro Solalinde – who runs a shelter in Ciudad Ixtepec, Oaxaca – says profit is the motive behind many of the attacks against the shelters. He says the drug cartels would love to see the shelters disappear because they hinder the criminals’ ability to make money by controlling the migrant routes. The most notorious hallmark of this cartel expansion is the mass kidnapping of migrants.

Mexico’s Human Rights Commission says more than 20 thousand migrants are kidnapped each year in Mexico, generating upwards of 50 million dollars in ransom revenues. Father Solalinde has himself received multiple threats, but seems unfazed in his work.

(roll Solalinde tape, reporter interprets)

He says despite the dangers, his life is in God’s hands. He adds that’s he’s well aware that he can be killed at any moment, but that the work will go on with or without him because it’s part of God’s plan – a plan he’s willing to carry out whatever the consequence.

In a country where dozens of human rights activists have been killed over the last five years, it takes a special kind of conviction to continue the dangerous work of protecting migrants, one of the most vulnerable – and transitory – groups in Mexico.