Evidence of meeting #74 for Subcommittee on International Human Rights in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was torture.
A recording is available from Parliament.
1:55 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
Thank you very much, Chair.
Mr. Quevedo, you have our deepest sympathies for what you've endured.
Tell us, what was your son's name? How old was he? What kind of cancer did he have and what kind of surgery did he need? Where is he buried?
1:55 p.m.
As an Individual
My son's name was Ángel Elvir Colón Baltazar. His cancer began in his back and then went into his lungs. He had 12 chemotherapy sessions and did not survive the last session. He died in the hospital and was buried in Choloma, in Honduras, near San Pedro Sula. He was my eldest son. He died at the age of nine.
1:55 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
I have four sons. I can't imagine what that must be like.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, has been on the ground working for your lawyer. You've mentioned the ombudsman, who has made it clear what the situation is, and the United Nations special rapporteur has been very vocal. What has been the response of the government in Mexico, both verbally and also in its actions in regard to these substantive institutions that are calling for justice?
1:55 p.m.
Human Rights Defender, Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center
The answer that was given by the Mexican state, in addition to denying the situation, was to not take specific steps to redress the situation. I'm referring here to reforms in Mexico that were sponsored by civil society, not specifically emanating from the government. The end result was that no real investigation was undertaken.
The Istanbul convention, which is a very useful tool to assess torture, has not been respected by the country. This places barriers to any investigation, and means there is no bringing to trial of those responsible for torture. Our national defence refuses to give information regarding individuals detained in military centres, as happened with Ángel Amílcar and as is happening with other individuals. The secretariat of the navy doesn't want to give a list of all of those individuals detained. This means that violations of human rights, and specifically torture, can continue.
That's what we want to denounce the Mexican government for.
2 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Scott Reid
Thank you.
We'll go now to our final questioner, to Mr. Benskin, please.
June 2nd, 2015 / 2 p.m.
NDP
Tyrone Benskin NDP Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
Thank you.
May I please add my voice in offering both of you condolences on your losses and for what you have suffered, and give you my thanks for your courage and bravery in coming here and sharing your story with us. One of the chief things I think I've found in this committee is the opportunity for individuals such as you to shine a light on some of the very ugly practices we have in this world of ours. If that is the least we can do here, then I hope you will leave here with some sense of moving forward in that quest.
With that, I have a question for either Mr. Neve or Mr. Olivares. I'm having a hard time, as I think any sane person would, just understanding the reasons for a lot of these actions. In most of the testimony that we hear when people come in, there's a political motivation. It's a dictatorship trying to keep power and so forth. This guise of the war on drugs, the mass military involvement, the disappearance of its own people, the 43 students, I'm having a hard time understanding what this is meant to accomplish.
If you could shed some light on that for me, it would be greatly appreciated.
2 p.m.
Human Rights Defender, Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center
The problem for us is that it is cyclical. As I said, there's criminal violence, and the state reacts in turn with violence against the criminals. This in turn has become a situation where if a crime is committed, the state as a reaction also commits a crime.
One thing you have to take into account is the collusion rate between organized crime and the state. Sometimes you can't even distinguish between the institutions of the state and the levels of collusion. In the case of the 43 students in Ayotzinapa, it was organized crime, says the state, but in actual fact it was the police force; and even worse, it was federal authorities. A year prior to what occurred in Ayotzinapa, they were already aware, through a federal investigation, of the collusion between the president of Iguala and organized crime.
Corruption, of course, is another thing that involves the Mexican government and that hasn't allowed for a specific response to the violations of human rights. This is an evil that affects and provokes these violations of human rights. We need justice to take care of these disappearances, and yet the answer is to have more violations of rights, more crime.
This is the violent circle we live in.
2 p.m.
Secretary General, Amnesty International Canada, Amnesty International
I'll give you six points. Number one, corruption; number two, impunity; number three, structural and legal defects in Mexico; number four, public pressure; number five, international pressure of the wrong kind to “Fight the war on drugs, and fight it now”; and number six, especially picking up on Ángel's experience, racism and discrimination. I think there's a toxic combination of those factors that goes some way. I think we all appreciate the fact that we have been searching for that explanation, that understanding, through many of the questions we have been asking, and I think those factors go some way toward an explanation. However, at the end of the day, there really isn't an answer because there shouldn't be an answer to that kind of question.
2 p.m.
NDP
Tyrone Benskin NDP Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
I agree wholeheartedly. In my limited capacity I would say that when we hear of these things in the context of a dictatorship, for example, we understand the disappearance of dissenting opinions since people who aim to speak out against the governmental structure will disappear for that reason. I guess I'm trying to understand, for example, about these 42 students en masse and the intent behind that. Was it to create fear within the community? Was there someone specific amongst that group who they were looking for and they took the others as witnesses? That's the bizarre logic that I'm trying to grapple with.
2:05 p.m.
Human Rights Defender, Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center
I think you can ask this question of the authorities of the State of Mexico. The students represented agents of change. They represented a rural school—in other words, an opportunity for these students to study and an opportunity to denounce what was happening in Mexico. Two years prior to the facts, two students has already been killed in Ayotzinapa. Federal agents had assassinated them. This would suggest that there had been a situation of repression in that area. We're not just talking about torture and disappearance in the context of investigating crime. There are other things that have to be investigated within the context of social protest in Mexico. In fact we would need another audience just to speak about repression of social protests and the freedom of expression existing in Mexico today.
2:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Scott Reid
Thank you, Mr. Benskin.
Thank you to all of our witnesses today.
To Alex Neve, who approached us first with this topic, we're grateful that you've once again drawn a very important matter to our attention.
Of course, to our two witnesses who come from Mexico, we're grateful to you for your courage and your dedication to this very significant issue. We very much appreciate it.
Colleagues, the meeting is adjourned.