WHO ARE WE AND WHAT DO WE DO?
The José Ma. Morelos y Pavón Regional Center for the Defense of Human Rights, A.C.
The Morelos Center is a non-profit civil society organization, a bilingual organization that provides support, legal defense, and training, offering its services in Spanish and the indigenous Nahuatl language. Its office is located in the city of Chilapa de Álvarez, in the central region of the state of Guerrero, Mexico (one hour and twenty minutes from the capital, Chilpancingo). The Morelos Center began preparations for its establishment in 1996 with several meetings led by Father Bernardo Sánchez Cruz, parish priest of the village, with teachers and Indigenous people. It was established as a Civil Association on March 7, 1997.
It was founded in response to the militarization and repression against the civilian population, with the goal of providing communities with reliable channels to report human rights violations by the various authorities operating in the region. It was specifically dedicated to serving the Indigenous population in the municipalities of the high and low mountain regions.
As a non-profit civil association, it is composed of a five-person Advisory Council charged with ensuring respect for the Center’s mission and the consistency of its activities. Within the operational team, decision-making is carried out horizontally. All members (director, administrator, lawyers, communications, managers, and the interpreter) meet, analyze, and decide by consensus what is most appropriate for the institution. Each team member has a complementary role.
Since the 1960s, the state of Guerrero has experienced a militarization of its territory in response to social protests and against insurrectionist groups. Since its founding, the Morelos Center has addressed complaints of human rights violations and has offered workshops on human rights, both in the municipality of Chilapa and in nearby municipalities. Currently, our work takes on greater relevance at the national and international levels due to the fact that there is a clear and alarming contradiction between the Mexican government’s international commitments to human rights and what is happening within the country, which has witnessed extreme violence for several six-year terms, triggering serious human rights violations.
In its first 12 years, the Morelos Center achieved recognition from the region’s Indigenous Peoples and their authorities. It expanded its activities to other regions, such as the Costa Chica region and the communities of the municipality of Tecoanapa, where the human right to water was achieved for five communities and legal advocacy and counseling services were provided to those who lacked access to formal justice due to a lack of interpreters in their native language. Through its advocacy and training on human rights, the Morelos Center has contributed to the formation of new organizational spaces for the defense of human rights, such as the formation of the Citizen Council of the Municipality of Chilapa A.C. In legal matters, the Morelos Center has handled a variety of cases, most notably securing the release of several citizens from the municipality of Ahuacuotzingo, arbitrarily detained by members of the Army in April 1997. It also secured the release of two indigenous residents of the community of Zopilotepec, municipality of Atlixtac, who were detained by members of the Army on December 3, 1997, after reporting the rape of their wives, also Indigenous women, in their presence at the national and international levels. These complaints allowed the Army to reduce abuses against the population and, at the same time, human rights violations committed by the military.
Issues currently being addressed by the Morelos Center in recent years:
INTERNAL FORCED DISPLACEMENT:
In 2019, a 37-day sit-in outside the National Palace brought national and international attention to the problem of internal forced displacement, its causes, and consequences.
Since 2011, we began providing support and legal representation to families who are victims of internal forced displacement from the municipality of Coyuca de Catalán, engaging in dialogue with state authorities and filing public complaints.
In 2016, we supported families from the indigenous community of Quetzalcoatlán de las Palmas who had to leave their community after a criminal group arrived and murdered six people.
In 2018, we began supporting families from the municipalities of Zitlala, Leonardo Bravo, and Heliodoro Castillo.
* En el año 2022 se mantuvo un plantón por tres meses en las puertas de la Secretaría de Gobernación.
El número de personas desplazadas aumentó en Guerrero a 26,700 en 2023.
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DESAPARICIÓN FORZADA O INVOLUNTARIA.
El Centro Morelos inició su labor en el tema de la desaparición forzada el 27 de septiembre del 2014 siendo el primero en acudir a Iguala a el llamado de los estudiantes de la normal de Ayotzinapa, iniciando el acompañamiento a las madres y padres de los estudiantes desaparecidos, manteniendo su presencia por seis meses, de manera ininterrumpida en la normal.
En el año 2015, cuando del 9 al 14 de mayo un grupo armado tomó Chilapa ante la mirada complaciente de militares, Gendarmería Nacional, Policía Federal y policías del estado, así́ como de la policía investigadora ministerial, fueron desaparecidas al menos 30 personas, la mayoría jóvenes, se constituye el colectivo “Siempre Vivos”, después de algunos meses impulsamos con familias indígenas, la constitución del Colectivo de Víctimas de Chilapa y Pueblos Indígenas. La desaparición forzada o involuntaria la sufren particularmente hombres y mujeres jóvenes para incorporarlos a las actividades delincuenciales y/o para la explotación sexual, incluso el tráfico de órganos y desde luego también para sembrar el miedo en las familias.
En México más de 111 mil personas salieron un día de su hogar y nunca más les ha vuelto a ver. ———————————————————————
TRABAJAMOS LOS TEMAS DE VIOLENCIA DE GENERO Y VIOLENCIA SEXUAL
El estado de Guerrero es extremadamente patriarcal y machista; la violencia contra las mujeres y las niñas es una de las violaciones mas generalizadas de los derechos humanos, se reproducen cada día y en cada rincón del estado; estos tipos de violencia tienen graves consecuencias fisicas y psicologicas sobre todo en las mujeres y niñas que están expuestas desde pequeñas a sufrir varias formas de violencia como el acoso sexual y el matrimonio infantil que son frecuentes en la zona de origen indígena nahuatl. Es por eso que el Centro Morelos acompaña a las víctimas en estos temas tan sensibles desde el 2020 tanto en actividades de difusión y en el empoderamiento de las mujeres afro mexicanas, indígenas y mestizas, respecto a sus derechos, llegando a asumir distintos casos. Para nosotr@s el tema de la violencia en contra de las mujeres en todas sus manifestaciones, es de suma importancia, como personas defensoras.
Actualmente contamos con algunas experiencia exitosas en casos de violencia sexual en contra de niñas y niños, como es la sentencia de 8 años de prisión en contra de un profesor, juzgado por el delito de violación en contra de una niña indígena nahual, de 13 años, cuyo padre fue desaparecido y ahora, junto a su madre y hermanos son víctimas de desplazamiento interno forzado y son integrantes del Colectivo de Víctimas de Chilapa y Comunidades Indigenas de la Montaña Baja representados por el Centro Morelos. También se ha logrado la devolución de niños y niñas sustraídos de su hogar y niños víctimas de violencia sexual.
Desde en septiembre del 2022 impartimos talleres de violencia sexual y de genero en los municipios de Ayutla de los libres y Tecoanapa, donde identificamos graves violaciones a niñas y dos niños menores de siete años; hemos alertado que en las comunidades se ha normalizado la violencia sexual y la violencia de genero, incluso en las escuelas.
- In 2022, a sit-in was held for three months at the doors of the Ministry of the Interior.
The number of displaced people in Guerrero increased to 26,700 in 2023.
FORCE OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCE.
The Morelos Center began its work on the issue of forced disappearances on September 27, 2014, being the first to respond to the call of the Ayotzinapa Normal School students in Iguala. It began supporting the mothers and fathers of the missing students, maintaining its presence at the normal school for six months without interruption.
In 2015, when an armed group took over Chilapa from May 9 to 14, under the complacent gaze of the military, the National Gendarmerie, the Federal Police, and state police, as well as the ministerial investigative police, at least 30 people, most of them young, disappeared. The collective “Siempre Vivos” was formed. After a few months, we promoted, with Indigenous families, the formation of the Collective of Victims of Chilapa and Indigenous Peoples. Forced or involuntary disappearances are particularly experienced by young men and women, as a means of recruiting them into criminal activities and/or sexual exploitation, including organ trafficking, and of course, also to instill fear in families.
In Mexico, more than 111,000 people left their homes one day and have never been seen again. ———————————————————————
WE WORK ON THE ISSUES OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE
The state of Guerrero is extremely patriarchal and sexist; violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread human rights violations, occurring every day and in every corner of the state. These types of violence have serious physical and psychological consequences, especially for women and girls, who are exposed from a young age to various forms of violence, such as sexual harassment and child marriage, which are common in the Nahuatl indigenous area. That is why the Morelos Center has been supporting victims on these sensitive issues since 2020, both through outreach activities and by empowering Afro-Mexican, Indigenous, and mestizo women with respect to their rights, taking on various cases. For us, the issue of violence against women in all its manifestations is of utmost importance, as human rights defenders.
We currently have some successful experiences in cases of sexual violence against children, such as the 8-year prison sentence for a teacher, tried for the crime of rape of a 13-year-old Nahual Indigenous girl. Her father was disappeared and she, along with her mother and siblings, are now victims of forced internal displacement. They are members of the Collective of Victims of Chilapa and Indigenous Communities of the Lower Mountains, represented by the Morelos Center. We have also achieved the return of children abducted from their homes and children who are victims of sexual violence.
Since September 2022, we have been offering workshops on sexual and gender-based violence in the municipalities of Ayutla de los Libres and Tecoanapa, where we identified serious violations of girls and two boys under the age of seven. We have warned that sexual and gender-based violence have become normalized in these communities, even in schools.