VZCZCXRO5667
RR RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHME #6219/01 3531223
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 191223Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9957
INFO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MEXICO 006219 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KCRM SNAR ECON PINR MX
SUBJECT: CONCERNS ABOUT SECURITY, HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES 
COLLIDE IN GUERRERO 
 
 
¶1.    Summary: Concerns about human rights abuses and threats 
to security posed by drug trafficking collide in Mexico's 
southern state of Guerrero where Poloff met with a wide range 
of Mexican congressional representatives, government 
officials, human rights activists, NGOs and other members of 
civil society during a recent visit. State Congressional 
members were focused on immigration reform in the U.S. but 
short on answers when it came to addressing human rights 
concerns and economic challenges in their own state. 
Meanwhile NGOs and other members of civil society focused at 
length on human rights abuses -- often victimizing Guerrero's 
substantial indigenous community -- perpetrated by the 
security forces in the name of the war on drugs.  Already one 
of Mexico's poorest states, Guerrero faces an uphill battle 
in overcoming security challenges and providing its 
population with the kind of economic opportunity needed to 
check the flow of migrants to major cities in more prosperous 
states as well as the U.S. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
GUERRERO'S LANDSCAPE, ECONOMY, AND PEOPLE 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.    The dire poverty that characterizes much of the 
mountainous state of Guerrero is akin to the variety observed 
in much of the third world that has not kept apace with the 
transformations produced by globalization.  Economic 
development centers around Acapulco as a tourist hub and 
Zihuatanejo in the western part of the state.  Development in 
much of the rest of the state is dominated by agriculture or 
artisan handicrafts. Many schools do not have textbooks in 
indigenous languages, lack adequate teachers, and are not 
furnished. 
 
¶3.  Guerrero serves as the home for many members of Mexico's 
diverse indigenous community accounting for 17 percent of the 
state's population.  Each of the group's members in Guerrero 
in turn account for a significant proportion of that group's 
population in Mexico countrywide. 
 
--Nahualts (35.2%) 
--Mixtecos (28.7%) 
--Tlapanecos (24.0%) 
--Amuzgos (9.7%) 
 
Guerrero's indigenous groups live mainly in the mountainous 
region of the state and generally represent the state's most 
marginalized members.  Over the last 20 years, migration has 
emerged as a primary survival option for much of the 
indigenous population.  Noe Ramos Cabrera, President for the 
Commission on Indigenous Affairs told poloff that more than 
37,000 day laborers leave Guerrero annually in search of work 
and that 80 percent of all indigenous homes have at least one 
family working as a migrant agricultural worker in the 
Mexican states of Sinaloa, Sonora, Morelos, Chihuahua, and 
Baja California or in the U.S.  With regard to health 
challenges, Ramos lamented the fact that alcoholism remains 
the leading cause of death for the indigenous population in 
Guerrero. 
 
------------------- 
GUERRERO'S DRUG WAR 
------------------- 
 
¶4.  Guerrero has become one of the major staging grounds for 
Mexico's drug wars given the increasing number of weapons 
entering the state and the growth in the production of 
poppies used in heroin production. Human rights organizations 
say that the weapons coming into the state end up in the 
hands of the poor.  Meanwhile Poppy production in Guerrero 
has tripled making it Mexico's top producer according to 
indigenous NGOS and state government officials in Guerrero. 
Many uneducated farmers have resorted to poppy production in 
order to survive, because regular food production sales are 
not sufficient to support their families and much of the land 
in Guerrero's more mountainous regions do support the 
cultivation of high-value crops. The Sinaloa cartel is the 
most dominant cartel in the state.  However, clashes of the 
Sinaloa and Gulf cartels have increased over the years 
producing violence in Acapulco and Zihuatenejo.  The increase 
in drug violence and drug-related killings prompted President 
Calderon to send more troops to the region. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AND CIVIL SOCIETY DISAGREE ON SECURITY 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
 
¶5.  Guerrero has been the locus of conflict between armed 
leftist groups and the military for decades and mistreatment 
of indigenous communities has too often been an unfortunate 
 
MEXICO 00006219  002 OF 002 
 
 
by product of this clash.   Not surprisingly, many members of 
the indigenous community are apprehensive about the higher 
profile the military has assumed in combating drug 
trafficking in the state. The Tlachinollan Mountain Center 
for Human Rights and a network of indigenous human rights 
organizations in Ayutla expressed concern about illegal 
searches conducted within indigenous communities and fear an 
expanded presence of the military would only contribute to 
more abuses. 
 
¶6.  As an example of the ongoing problem, several of the 
indigenous groups with whom poloff met in Ayutla cited the 
cases of two indigenous women, Valentina Rosendo Cantu and 
Ines Fernandez Ortega, who were allegedly raped by Mexican 
soldiers in 2002.  When Rosendo and Fernandez sought to file 
their complaint with Mexican authorities, they were told by 
military officials the Mexican military had jurisdiction over 
the case but that they shouldn't bother to take the matter to 
the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights because Mexican 
soldiers have to be convicted of their crimes in a military 
court.  In October 2007, they presented their case to the 
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington D.C. 
Since then, the women and their families told poloff they 
have received many threats.  Indigenous groups requested the 
USG's help in protecting their communities from abuse at the 
hands of the military. 
 
¶7.  State public security officials, however, tend to 
discount such concerns and cite efforts to professionalize 
their own security forces.   Humberto Quintil Calvo Memije, a 
senior official from the State's Public Security Office, said 
he favored the military's involvement, maintaining it was 
making a significant contribution to the state's counter drug 
efforts.  In the face of complaints about corruption within 
the security forces, Calvo remarked that his office had 
developed mechanisms to better regulate the police and hire 
commanders, including through the administration of periodic 
toxicology exams.  Conceding the fact that police corruption 
still remains a major problem in Guerrero, Calvo blamed poor 
pay for police as the major cause for corruption. 
 
¶8.  Comment:  Guerrero is a microcosm of the "other Mexico" 
that faces entrenched poverty and the kinds of security 
problems and human rights concerns that attend regions 
afflicted with significant drug trafficking activity.   The 
Calderon administration has relied on the military to 
confront the security challenges that exist in Guerrero but 
that involvement has been met with suspicion on the part of 
many in the rural communities.  Security is a prerequisite 
for a brighter future for Guerrero but only if it is 
accompanied by significant public and private sector 
investment that meets the local population's basic human 
needs and creates genuine economic opportunity.  End Comment. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American 
Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / 
BASSETT