Saturday, September 8th

WHERE: Institute of the Americas (University of California, San Diego

4:00pm— Screening of Reportero/Reporter (Directed by Bernardo Ruiz) preceded by Silencio  Forzado/Forced Silence

5:30pm— Panel Libertad De Expresión y Persecución a Periodistas/ Freedom of Expression and Persecution of                                        Journalists [With: Lynne Walker, Adela Navarro, Bernardo Ruíz, Carlos Dada, Mariclaire Acosta (as Moderator)]

                   Trans-Border Institute (University of San Diego)

8:00pm— Screening of Al Otro Lado/To The Other Side (Directed by Natalia Almada)

Saturday, September 8, 2012

WHERE: Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT)

4:00pm— Screening of Vol Special/Special Flight (Directed by Fernand Melgar)

5:30pm— Panel Migración y Centros de Detención/ Child Migration and Detention Centers [With: Fabienne Venet, Gisele Bonnici, Michelle Brané, Uriel González (as Moderator)]

                   El Faro, Playas de Tijuana

8:00pm— Screening of Una Frontera, Todas Las Fronteras/ One Frontier, All Frontiers (Directed by David Pablos)

Sunday, September 9, 2012

WHERE: Institute of the Americas (University of California, San Diego)

4:00pm— Screening of Vol Special/ Special Flight (Directed by Fernand Melgar)

 5:30pm— Panel Migracion y Centros de detention/ Child Migration and Detention Centers [With: Fabienne Venet, Gisele Bonnici, Michelle Brané, Kevin M. Keenan (as Moderator)]

                  Centro Cultural La Raza, Balboa Park

 8:00pm— Screening of Una Frontera, Todas Las Fronteras/ One Frontier, All Frontiers (Directed by David Pablos)

Source: Trans-Border Institute, Ambulante, Ford Foundation

Photo: ambulante.com.mx

MEXICO.— The director of a local battered women’s shelter, Mujeres Unidas contra la Violencia (Women United Against Violence), in Ciudad Juarez has been arrested on charges of human trafficking.

Soledad Griensen Porras was arrested on Monday after a woman living at the shelter reported being abused to police officer passing by the building.

“Our officers responded immediately and that’s when they found the shelter, which had pretty much become a brothel,” said Adrian Sanchez, spokesman for the Juarez municipal police department.

One of the women told authorities that men would regularly visit the shelter soliciting sex, for which Griensen would request payment.

According to a press release some of the children living at the shelter as young as 5 had been forced into prostitution.

Several victims accused Griensen of beating them and pushing chile into their private parts as punishment.

Authorities rescued eight girls and five women who claimed they were being held against their will at the shelter. One victim said that Griensen would demand money in order to release the women.

Four of the women rescued have filed complaints against Griensen.

Irma Casas, director of the women’s rights organization Casa Amiga, said “It is a shame to have this happen because there aren’t any spaces for women in high-risk situations. Sadly, this is how we find out what’s going on.”

Casas reported visiting Griensen’s shelter about four months ago and claimed she didn’t notice anything suspicious at the time.

Casas said she had often seen Griensen during demonstrations and focus groups denouncing violence against women. Griensen had been active in issues of women’s rights for a number of years and was known to work closely with local politicians advocating the cause.

Griensen, now in custody, faces charges of human trafficking as well as several others and could be sentenced with eight years minimum in prison.

MEXICO.— Mexican authorities have confirmed the death of the editor of a Nuevo Laredo newspaper.

The body of Maria Elizabeth Macias Castro, the editor-in-chief of Primera Hora, was found decapitated next to a statue of Christopher Columbus in Nuevo Laredo with a message attacking the use of social media to report drug cartel violence.

The message read: “Ok Nuevo Laredo live on the social networks, I am La Nena de Laredo and I am here because of my reports and yours … for those who don’t want to believe it, this has happened to me because of my actions, because I trusted SEDENA (the army) and MARINA (the navy)… Thank you for your attention. Att: La Nena de Laredo… zzz.”

Reporters Without Borders said that Macias used online social networks to report on organized crime along the border and blogged under the name “La Nena de Nuevo Laredo.”

The letter “Z” in the message allegedly refers to the Zetas drug cartel, a gang created by ex-military combatants who are known for their brutal killings and executions.

It is unclear how the killers discovered Macias’ true identity.

Macias-Castro is the third person in Nuevo Laredo to be murdered and left with a message stating not to use blogs or social media to report about drug cartels.

Two other bloggers were found dead hanging from a bridge in Nuevo Laredo on September 14. The attackers left threats mentioning two websites on signs beside the mutilated bodies, the messages indicated that they had also been killed in retaliation for their social network postings.

José Luis Méndez Martínez holds  a B.A. in International Relations from El Colegio de México as well as a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh. He was a Fulbright Scholar in 1987-1989. From 2004 to 2005 he was General Director for Research at the Presidential Office for Governmental Innovation. He was Executive Director of the Professional Electoral Service and member of the General Executive Board of the Federal Electoral Institute.  He has served as an advisor to several Secretaries of the Mexican Federal Government and consultant to the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Program.

WHERE: Institute of the Americas Building, Deutz Conference Room

WHEN: Wednesday, May 25th from 3:30p.m.- 5:30p.m.

The presentation focuses on the appearance and disappearance of bodies in the public sphere. Particularly, the disappearance of the corpses of victims of current narco-violence; the presence of corpses in public space and in the media as a communicative strategy in narco-violence; and the disappearance and re-integration of bodies of undocumented migrants and border-crossers.

When: May 11th, 2011 at 12p.m.

Where: Humanities Instructional Building (HIB) 135

DRAFTED BY: Ashly Bloxon

MICHOACAN, Mx.– For several years an armed gang with links to the drug cartel in Michoacan has abducted and killed members of the indigenous Purépecha community of Cherán. As further injury has carried out incessant illegal logging on the community’s land.

These criminal gangs operate with the complicity with the local police and authorities.

On April 15th, members of the community of Cherán stopped trucks carrying illegally-logged timber and captured five loggers. The community then informed the local authorities what had happened.

The response: two hours later a police car and two pick-up trucks carrying at about 14 heavily armed men entered the smalll establishment and began shooting at residents. Eugenio Sánchez Tiandón a resident of the community was shot in the head and remains in a coma.

Since April 15th the community has decidely sealed itself off, closing down access to the town through the use of barricades.

On April 23rd, the community produced the five illegal loggers to representatives of the Federal Attorney General’s Office, Procuraduría General de la República (PGR), along with 140 complaints from residents of ongoing incidences.

On April 27th, community members once against stopped illegal loggers entering their lands, the armed loggers then attacked community members killing two men, Pedro Juárez Urbina and Armando Hernández Estrada in the altercation.

Prior to recent events, seven members of the community have been killed and five forcibly disappeared since 2009, purportedly by members of a criminal gang acting corroborating municipal police.

Community leaders, with the assistance of human rights lawyer,  have started discussions with state and federal authorities about the security of Cherán .

Despite filing complaints with the state and federal authorities no action has been taken against those responsible for the violence,  leaving the community of Cherán with neither protection or recourse to justice.