1. The Commission considers it proven that in the police operation of the 3rd and 4th of May there was an excessive use of public force in the performance of the police that goes against the principles of proportion, reason, and absolute necessity that should guide it. The international standards of human rights were not respected.

2. For this reason the Commission considers that the police forces were not guided with in the framework of a State of Law, according to what is stated in the Political Constitution of the United State of Mexico, in the international treaties signed and ratified by Mexico, and in the laws and regulations applicable.

3. The Commission considers that the police abuses represent grave mass damages to human rights that translated into a series of presumed criminal acts like those of the illegal arrests, unjust leveling of residences, the death of one person, an aggression resulting in the brain death of another, acts of torture, a multitude of physical, verbal, and moral aggressions, grave attempts against sexual freedom, (including rape), and damages to the procedural rights of the detained, among others.

4. The Commission considers that the majority of the women hurt and/or detained in Atenco were objects of grave sexual aggressions of diverse character which we consider to be classifiable as sexual torture.
The attention that the women received upon arrival to the penitentiary center of Santiaguito was practically inexistent up to this day. This fact has particularly severe results in the treatment of people who are victims of sexual aggression.
In the same note, the Commission considers there to be serious questions in the way these sexual aggressions suffered by the women were documented in the penitentiary as well as by the authorities that later visited them.
Up to this day the victims of the sexual violence suffered in the events of Atenco have not been offered any specialized medical, social, or psychological attention that could repair the serious damages inflicted.

We recommend the establishment of therapeutic, social, and medical support for all of the women who have suffered aggressions.

We recommend the establishment of urgent measures of protection for those women who have been sexually abused and especially for those who have presented a formal complaint or will do so in the future.

We denounce the difficulties the women have suffered when attempting to present their complaints of sexual aggressions and the institutional lack of attention they have received, as in the case of the denial of their testimonies.

5. The Commission considers that the acceptation on the part of the authorities that excesses and abuses were committed by the police does not imply a sufficient assumption of responsibility on the part of the State. The federal and state authorities, who by omission or action participated in the elaboration or planning of the operative as well as its execution, should be identified, processed, and sanctioned.

6. The Commission considers that the first measures of the assumption of those responsible are: 1) the immediate dismissal of the General Commissioner of the State Agency of Seguridad, Mr. Wilfrido Robledo Madrid as well as the commander David Pintado Espinos, highest responsible officer of the operative of the state police; 2) the immediate dismissal of the responsible officer of the Federal Preventative Police, the Commissioner Alejandro Eduardo Martínez Aduana, the Head of State, the General of the Brigade Ardelio Vargas Fosado.

7. The Commission considers that the grave damages to human rights described in this Report are direct consequences of the structural problem of impunity of which many have, historically and to the present day, enjoyed among the agents of different bodies of the Mexican security in the exercise of their public duties. In this way, the Commission considers it essential to impulse the necessary legal reforms in order to pursue with greatest efficiency the crimes committed by agents of the police force and in the same way clarify the responsibilities of their hierarchical superiors. In the future any situation of impunity should be eradicated.

8. The Commission considers that the justice system should be equipped with the adequate instruments to implement the international standards as regards to the use of force and fire arms to guarantee the respect of human rights. Likewise the incorporation of members of the Mexican Army in police work should be avoided.

9. The Commission considers that with the utmost diligence and speed there should be a clarification and inquiry into the events occurred in Atenco. In the same sense the Commission shows its preoccupation that due to the beginning of the electoral campaign there is an unjust delay in the investigation and persecution of the police agents responsible for the violations of human rights described in this Report.

10. The Commission considers necessary the immediate release of the prisoners that are still detained in the jails of "Santiaguito" and "La Palma" in the presumption of their innocence. It considers equally urgent the reversal of the measures of expulsion against the foreigners detained in the police operation.

11. The Commission addresses all political actors, civil society in general, and especially national as well as international organizations in defense of human rights, to exercise, in their condition of guarantors of democracy, an active function of control and supervision of the performance of the public forces as guarantors of democracy. In this way the Commission makes public its commitment of civil observation that has been started and plans to establish a commission to follow up on the recommendations. In the same way the Commission has put into effect mechanisms of international protection of human rights, specifically urgent communications to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and to distinct Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations. Finally, we understand the events denounced in this present report to be even more relevant as Mexico currently holds the presidency in the Council of Human Rights in the United Nations.

12. The Commission considers the existence of a minimum assortment of measures of reparation for the individual and collective damages produced that should be implemented immediately. The measures of reparation should be decided by the affected and, at the very least, following the jurisprudence established by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for similar situations, should include:

-Moral reparation. Restitution of the honor of the victims and of the damage infringed on the private and public image through the official recognition of the unjust treatment and abuses received and the damage provoked by being considered delinquents.

-Emotional reparation for the people affected. The arbitration of all measures so that the community as a whole and the people and families affected in particular receive adequate medical and psychological attention by professionals who are trustworthy in the necessary ways. This is especially relevant regarding psychological and psychiatrically attention in which is it is fundamental that those affected can trust in those who attend to them therapeutically.

-Reparation for the community damage through programs for social reconstruction. These should never become tools for division or confrontation through programs or systems of conditional help or pressure through false agreements. For this reason there should be a monitoring done by national and international independent organizations.

-Economic reparations. Compensation for the losses suffered as a consequence of the violence (economic, educational, health and other) and especially those derived by the loss of jobs as a consequence of the violent acts committed as well as posterior harassment.

-Legal reparations. Judicial processes with the punctuated events established legally as crimes. Without true and effective justice, any reparatory measure is only partial.

-Social reparation. The articulation of the mechanisms that guarantee that there be no limits to the use of citizenship, social participation and individual and organized politics of the population of Atenco. The social reconstruction of Atenco is infallibly achieved by the active and committed participation of the citizens in their community life.

-Historical reparation. Recognition of the true history that permits the creation of a collective memory that prevents the occurrence of similar situations in the future.

13. The restoration of common life is a complex process and goes beyond the search for truth or justice and includes as a final goal, to find the original causes of the conflict. Frequently this is found in the structural reasons (poverty, unequal access to resources, the lack of real access to political participation, etc.) In this way the principal reparatory measure for the people of San Salvador Atenco and the principal demand reiterated in the interviews with the people of Atenco is to attend to the original causes of the conflict analyzed in this report. For this reason, to attend in a just and adequate way to the demands of education and health, urban development and other public works, the management of public spaces, to cite some more known elements, are, without a doubt, the principal components of reparation.

International Civil Commission for Human Rights Observation in Mexico

Mexico City 4th of June 2006

E-mail: cciodh@pangea.org
Website: cciodh.pangea.org