Expression
On 25th August, the former governor of Tamaulipas threatened to sue a journalist because of a story he published containing allegations against the former official. Martha Olivia López, a journalist with several media outlets, published a story alleging human remains were found on a property belonging to Francisco Cabeza de Vaca. Cabeza de Vaca denied the story and threatened via social media to sue the journalist.
On 18th August, a reporter for NMAS was attacked and threatened in Monterrey by members of the Nuevo León police after attempting to cover a story on a public street. Francisco León Álvarez says when he arrived on the scene police had not blocked parts of the street for their investigation, but an officer accused him of crossing the police line anyway. Another officer then grabbed him and slammed him against a police vehicle and threatened to arrest him. While he was being detained by police, another officer began setting up the police lines (that had not been set up earlier, as the journalist had said) and he was soon released.
On 15th July, María Luisa Estrada of the Grillotina Política was attacked by an unknown person in Guadalajara who attempted to shoot her multiple times. Estrada says she was driving in her car when a person got out of another car and started shooting at her and threatened to kill her. She requested protection under the federal mechanism to protect journalists. The mechanism issued an order of protection, but the journalist claimed the measures were not adequate.
On 30th July, Jorge Ugalde, director of Descontento Ciudadano Quintanarroense, says two unknown people shot at his house in Benito Juárez, hitting his front door. Ugalde was not home at the time but is enrolled in the federal mechanism to protect journalists. Later when he notified both police and the federal mechanism, only the police came to his house. The National Guard refused to send anyone despite him requesting protection. This is not the first time Ugalde or his colleagues have been targeted. According to ARTICLE 19 records, “from 2019 to date, Ugalde and his team have been victims of at least 16 attacks and assaults both by alleged members of organized crime groups, unknown individuals,” and police.
#Tamaulipas 🚨| Artículo 19 condenó la amenaza legal que el exgobernador de Tamaulipas, Francisco Cabeza de Vaca, realizó contra la periodista Martha Olivia López, luego de que publicara una nota sobre el hallazgo de restos humanos en fosas clandestinas. https://t.co/dtMQjWF4Qh
— Desinformémonos (@Desinformemonos) August 29, 2023
Peaceful Assembly
On 1st August, hundreds of migrants in Nuevo Laredo protested about the difficulty in scheduling asylum interviews using the U.S. Custom’s One app. Many of the migrants are from Venezuela, according to Noticias En La Frontera, and were part of the large group of asylum-seekers who had arrived in Nuevo Laredo during the spring and summer. Since Title 42 was lifted in May, Title 8 immigration rules now require that all asylum-seekers schedule asylum interviews via the CBP One app at U.S. ports of entry. But there are only 1,450 interview slots throughout the U.S. border per day, and asylum-seekers say they have to wait for months to secure one.
In early September, more than 300 teachers protested in Nuevo Laredo to demand better working conditions and wages and for the removal of the state’s education secretary. Demonstrating outside the Centro Regional de Desarollo Educativo, the state's educational administration offices, the teachers took shifts protesting throughout the day to maintain their pressure. Members of the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de Educacion, which helped organise the protest, are staging strikes in several cities throughout Tamaulipas and Michoacan.
Association
On 18th August the country’s labour ministry notified the United States that it would not conduct a review of possible labour rights violations at Grupo Yazaki's auto components factory in Guanajuato. Two weeks earlier the U.S. had asked Mexico to see whether workers "are being denied the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining" at the company's facility.
Mexico's labour ministry and the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration "determined that there is no substantial evidence of employer interference or denial of rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining by the company.”
In a similar story, the U.S. has asked Mexico to review whether the cargo airline Mas has denied the right of pilots to organise for bargaining purposes after a complaint In August from Mexico’s Associated Union of Aviation Pilots that Mas engaged in “intimidation, interference and reprisals, including the dismissal of eight pilots who tried to affiliate with the union.”