Chihuahua, Chih., September 08, 2022. Chihuahua’s Centro de Derechos Humanos de las Mujeres (Women’s Human Rights Center) sends its regards and respectfully requests that you vote against the Resolution of the Second Joint Justice and Legislative Studies Commissions, on the Minutes for a draft Decree to reform and repeal various provisions of the Organic Law of the Federal Public Administration, of the Law of the National Guard; of the Organic Law of the Mexican Army and Air Force, and of the Law of Promotions and Rewards of the Mexican Army and Air Force, in matters of the National Guard and Public Security.

As you know, the state of Chihuahua has suffered the consequences of violence and the militarized response to it. Since the 1970s, serious human rights violations have been committed by the military and this has only increased with the implementation, in March 2008, of the Chihuahua Joint Operation.

It is precisely from this strategy of militarized security, under the leadership of the Armed Forces, that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued the sentence in the Alvarado Espinoza et al. vs. Mexico case. This case is related to the enforced disappearance of Nitza Paola Alvarado Espinoza, Rocío Irene Alvarado Reyes, and José Ángel Alvarado Herrera in December 2009. Since then, their whereabouts remain unknown and those responsible have not been identified or punished.

The resolution of the Inter-American Court, of November 28, 2018, condemned the Mexican State for enforced disappearance, impunity, threats to families, and the forced displacement of several of them, some of whom have never returned to their homes. For this reason, the highest human rights court on the continent determined that Mexico must locate the victims, investigate the facts, provide psychological care to the families, publish the sentence, strengthen a «unified and updated registry of disappeared persons» with disaggregated information, publicly apologize, train the Armed Forces and pay compensation to the victims. None of these measures has been fully complied with.

The Inter-American Court established fundamental standards on different issues. One of them had to do with the militarization of security. Thus, the resolution was:

• 182. […] as a general rule, the Court reaffirms that maintaining internal public order and citizen security must be primarily reserved for civilian police forces […]. However, when they exceptionally intervene in security tasks, the participation of the armed forces must be:
• a) Extraordinary, so that any intervention is justified and exceptional, temporary and restricted to what is strictly necessary for the circumstances […];
• b) Subordinate and complementary to the work of civil corporations, and their work cannot extend to the powers of the institutions for the prosecution of justice or judicial or ministerial police […]; c) Regulated, through legal mechanisms and protocols on the use of force, under the principles of exceptionality, proportionality and absolute necessity […] and in accordance with the respective training in the matter […], and
• d) Overseen by competent, independent and technically capable civil organizations […].¹

Unfortunately, that paragraph -which was fully incorporated into the fifth transitory article of the constitutional reform that creates the National Guard in 2019 and substantially added to the Agreement by which the permanent Armed Forces are enabled to carry out public security tasks in a extraordinary, supervised, subordinate and complementary manner as stated in May 2020- has been counterproductive and has led to a misunderstanding of the criteria established by the Inter-American Court.

Senators: before approving the initiative by President López Obrador, we ask you to think of Nitza Paola, Rocío Irene, José Ángel, their families and many other victims. We ask that you propose a serious, informed debate on the alternatives to a militarized security strategy that flagrantly violates what is established both by the Inter-American Court and by various international instances and article 21 of the Constitution, which establishes that «Public security institutions, including the National Guard, will be civilian, disciplined and professional.»

Before you approve this reform, we ask you to urgently request information from the authorities involved and coordinated by the Ministry of the Interior, on the enforcement of the judgment in the Alvarado Espinoza case. This would not only help the victims of this case but, above all, to understand that the measures of non-repetition ordered by the Court are closely related to the discussion of the initiative that the Senate will make today.

Senator Bertha Alicia Caraveo Camarena, Senator Rafael Espino and Senator Gustavo Madero: we would like to ask you specifically to vote against the resolution based on the interests of Chihuahua. History, legality and the victims will thank you for it.

Sincerely,

Centro de Derechos Humanos de las Mujeres, A.C. (CEDEHM)

¹(Interamerican Rights Court. Alvarado Espinoza and Others Vs. Mexico case. Background, reparations and costs. November 28, 2018, resolution. Series C No. 370, para. 182.)