Ayotzinapa: April 26, 2023 Open Letter to Arizona Senators Sinema and Kelly

 

TONATIERRA

Human Rights Commission

 

PO Box 24009  Phoenix, AZ 85074

www.tonatierra.org

Contact: Tupac Enrique Acosta

 

Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema

3333 E. Camelback Rd, Suite 200

Phoenix, Arizona 85018

 

Arizona Senator Mark Kelly

2201 E. Camelback Rd, Suite 115

Phoenix, AZ 85016

 

April 26, 2023

 

Dear Arizona Senators Sinema and Kelly,

On September 24, 2021, we submitted a Freedom of Information Request along with the WATER PROTECTOR LEGAL COLLECTIVE requesting disclosure of records related to the case of the Forced Disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students on September 26, 2014, in Iguala Guerrero, Mexico.

On May 24, 2021, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador communicated he had received files from the United States regarding the investigation of the 2014 Ayotzinapa disappearances and subsequent criminal coverup by officials of the Mexican government. President Lopez Obrador received these files after a virtual meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris on May 7, 2021.  

The TONATIERRA Human Rights Commission has accompanied the parents and families of the 43 Ayotzinapa students for over seven years now in their attempts to bring accountability and justice to the case.

 

Although we have sent this message to both of your offices on December 26, 2021, via the email address provided on your website and the message has been confirmed to have been received, we have not had any substantive response from either of you regarding our request for assistance in terms of bringing to light the relevant information as outlined our initial FOI request.

 

We shall continue to follow up with your offices to arrange for a meeting to discuss the particulars of the human rights issues involved.

 

Sincerely,

Tupac Enrique Acosta

TONATIERRA

 

PRESS RELEASE

Comisión Permanente Ayotzinapa

TONATIERRA Submits Freedom of Information Request to the Biden administration for US government files on the investigation of the Forced Disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students missing since September 26, 2014, in Mexico

Phoenix, Arizona – Today a Freedom of Information Act request was formally submitted to the Biden Administration by TONATIERRA and the WATER PROTECTOR LEGAL COLLECTIVE soliciting disclosure of the files related to the US government’s investigation into the Forced Disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College missing since September 26, 2014.

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TONATIERRA

Comisión de Derechos Humanos

PO Box 24009 Phoenix, AZ 85074

www.tonatierra.org

Contacto: Tupac
Enrique Acosta

chantlaca@tonatierra.org

 

 

26 abril de 2023

 

Senadora de Arizona Kyrsten Sinema

3333 E. Camelback Rd, Suite 200

Fénix, Arizona 85018

 

Senador de Arizona Mark Kelly

2201 E. Camelback Rd, Suite 115

Fénix, Arizona 85018

 

Estimados Senadores Sinema y Kelly,

 

El 24 de septiembre de 2021 presentamos una Solicitud de Libertad de Información (FOI) junto con el COLECTIVO LEGAL PROTECTOR DEL AGUA solicitando la divulgación de antecedentes relacionados con el caso de la Desaparición Forzada de los 43 estudiantes de Ayotzinapa el 26 de septiembre de 2014, en Iguala Guerrero, México.

El 24 de mayo de 2021, el presidente mexicano, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, comunicó que había recibido archivos de Estados Unidos sobre la investigación de las desapariciones de Ayotzinapa en 2014 y el subsiguiente encubrimiento criminal por parte de funcionarios del gobierno mexicano. El presidente López Obrador recibió estos archivos luego de una reunión virtual con la Vicepresidenta Kamala Harris el 7 de mayo de 2021.

La Comisión de Derechos Humanos de TONATIERRA ha acompañado a los padres y familiares de los 43 estudiantes de Ayotzinapa desde hace más de siete años en su intento de llevar la rendición de cuentas y la justicia al caso.

Aunque enviamos este mensaje a sus dos oficinas el 26 de diciembre de 2021, a través de la dirección de correo electrónico proporcionada en su sitio web y se confirmó que se recibió el mensaje, no hemos recibido ninguna respuesta sustancial de ninguno de ustedes con respecto a nuestra solicitud por asistencia en términos de sacar a la luz la información relevante como se describe en nuestra solicitud inicial de FOI.

Haremos un seguimiento con sus oficinas para organizar una reunión para discutir los detalles de los problemas de derechos humanos involucrados.

Atentamente,

 

Tupac Enrique Acosta

TONATIERRA

¡AYOTZINAPA!

¡Ni perdón, Ni olvido!

Acción Global

26 de septiembre 2022

4:00 - 6:00 PM

Frente el Consulado de Mexico

Phoenix, Arizona

320 E. McDowell

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Solidaridad Internacional

 

Comisión Permanente Ayotzinapa

TONATIERRA 

 

Phoenix, Arizona

On September 26, 2014 in the town of Iguala, Guerrero in Mexico, 43 students from the rural teacher preparation school of Ayotzinapa were Forcibly Disappeared by federal and local police agents of the Mexican state.  Six others were killed that night, including three students and three innocent bystanders shot and killed when the Mexican army attacked the bus the students were taking to Mexico City.

The 43 Ayotzinapa students were unarmed, they were on their way to participate in the commemoration of the massacre of the students in Tlaltelolco Square in 1968. Unknown to the students, was the fact that the bus they were on was also carrying a contraband load of heroin for delivery to the US, in Atlanta and Chicago.

 

The military and police agents were sent by the cartels of the narco-state in Mexico to recover the heroin, at any cost.

Now, over eight years later, the parents, families, and the community of the Ayotzinapa continue to demand accountability and justice not only for the 43 Ayotzinapa students, but also for the tens of thousands of victims of killed and disappeared in Mexico under the shroud of the US backed “War on Drugs” and the US financed Plan Merida Mexico.

Today, the guilty parties to the crime of the Forced Disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students remain at large. In open collusion and complicity, the highest echelon of the Narco State in Mexico, the guilty parties who were facing formal court charges in Mexico and in the US, have escaped capture and detention, and after fleeing to Canada, are living in comfort with protection and political exile in Israel.

¡AYOTZINAPA!

¡We do not forget, we do not forgive!

They were taken alive, we want them back alive!

The Confessions of Pope Francis and the Lies of Bishop Bergoglio

The release by the Vatican of the Joint Statement on the “Doctrine of Discovery” on March 30, 2023, has agitated and catalyzed a cascade of commentary and critique that is remarkable for the scope, relevance, irreverence and outright bullshit that still passes for political discourse when it comes to the inherent Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

The joint statement was made public by a press release by  two dicasteries of the Vatican:

 

1) The Dicastery for Culture and Education, and

2) The Dicastery Promoting Integral Human Development. 

 

A dicastery is a section or division of the departments of government of the Vatican. The major departments of government are called congregations, where each governs or oversees a major sector of the Catholic Church. A dicastery is a department within a congregation. The congregations govern or oversee sectors of the Catholic Church - bishops, doctrine, education, etc. while a dicastery is a section of a congregation that is focusing on a particular aspect of a congregation’s mission or work.

To the point, and for purposes of outlining the geopolitical context of the issues of the violations of international law not yet presented nor adressed, here is an excerpt from the March 30^th statement by the press office of the Holy See (Vatican City State), which is a presently internationally recognized state entity with the UN system having achieved international status as a state by way of the Vatican Treaties of 1929 (aka the Lateran Treaties).

 

The “doctrine of discovery” is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church. Historical research clearly demonstrates that the papal documents in question, written in a specific historical period and linked to political questions, have never been considered expressions of the Catholic faith. At the same time, the Church acknowledges that these papal bulls did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of indigenous peoples. The Church is also aware that the contents of these documents were manipulated for political purposes by competing colonial powers in order to justify immoral acts against indigenous peoples that were carried out, at times, without opposition from ecclesiastical authorities.

 

More recently, the Church’s solidarity with indigenous peoples has given rise to the Holy See’s strong support for the principles contained in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The implementation of those principles would improve the living conditions and help protect the rights of indigenous peoples as well as facilitate their development in a way that respects their identity, language and culture.

 

 

 https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/holy-see-vatican-city/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joint Statement of the Dicasteries for Culture and Education and for Promoting Integral Human Development on the “Doctrine of Discovery”, 30.03.2023

 

1. In fidelity to the mandate received from Christ, the Catholic Church strives to promote universal fraternity and respect for the dignity of every human being.

 

2. For this reason, in the course of history the Popes have condemned acts of violence, oppression, social injustice and slavery, including those committed against indigenous peoples. There have also been numerous examples of bishops, priests, women and men religious and lay faithful who gave their lives in defense of the dignity of those peoples.

 

3. At the same time, respect for the facts of history demands an acknowledgement of the human weakness and failings of Christ’s disciples in every generation. Many Christians have committed evil acts against indigenous peoples for which recent Popes have asked forgiveness on numerous occasions.

 

4. In our own day, a renewed dialogue with indigenous peoples, especially with those who profess the Catholic Faith, has helped the Church to understand better their values and cultures. With their help, the Church has acquired a greater awareness of their sufferings, past and present, due to the expropriation of their lands, which they consider a sacred gift from God and their ancestors, as well as the policies of forced assimilation, promoted by the governmental authorities of the time, intended to eliminate their indigenous cultures. As Pope Francis has emphasized, their sufferings constitute a powerful summons to abandon the colonizing mentality and to walk with them side by side, in mutual respect and dialogue, recognizing the rights and cultural values of all individuals and peoples. In this regard, the Church is committed to accompany indigenous peoples and to foster efforts aimed at promoting reconciliation and healing.

 

5. It is in this context of listening to indigenous peoples that the Church has heard the importance of addressing the concept referred to as the “doctrine of discovery.” The legal concept of “discovery” was debated by colonial powers from the sixteenth century onward and found particular expression in the nineteenth century jurisprudence of courts in several countries, according to which the discovery of lands by settlers granted an exclusive right to extinguish, either by purchase or conquest, the title to or possession of those lands by indigenous peoples. Certain scholars have argued that the basis of the aforementioned “doctrine” is to be found in several papal documents, such as the Bulls Dum Diversas (1452), Romanus Pontifex (1455) and Inter Caetera (1493).

 

6. The “doctrine of discovery” is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church. Historical research clearly demonstrates that the papal documents in question, written in a specific historical period and linked to political questions, have never been considered expressions of the Catholic faith. At the same time, the Church acknowledges that these papal bulls did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of indigenous peoples. The Church is also aware that the contents of these documents were manipulated for political purposes by competing colonial powers in order to justify immoral acts against indigenous peoples that were carried out, at times, without opposition from ecclesiastical authorities. It is only just to recognize these errors, acknowledge the terrible effects of the assimilation policies and the pain experienced by indigenous peoples, and ask for pardon. Furthermore, Pope Francis has urged: “Never again can the Christian community allow itself to be infected by the idea that one culture is superior to others, or that it is legitimate to employ ways of coercing others.”

 

7. In no uncertain terms, the Church’s magisterium upholds the respect due to every human being. The Catholic Church therefore repudiates those concepts that fail to recognize the inherent human rights of indigenous peoples, including what has become known as the legal and political “doctrine of discovery”.

 

8. Numerous and repeated statements by the Church and the Popes uphold the rights of indigenous peoples. For example, in the 1537 Bull Sublimis Deus, Pope Paul III wrote, “We define and declare [ ... ] that [, .. ] the said Indians and all other people who may later be discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the Christian faith; and that they may and should, freely and legitimately, enjoy their liberty and possession of their property; nor should they be in any way enslaved; should the contrary happen, it shall be null and have no effect”.

 

9. More recently, the Church’s solidarity with indigenous peoples has given rise to the Holy See’s strong support for the principles contained in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The implementation of those principles would improve the living conditions and help protect the rights of indigenous peoples as well as facilitate their development in a way that respects their identity, language and culture.