Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca sworn in on November 28th. Photo: Cuartoscuro / Damián Sánchez
MEXICO CITY. Social organizations from Mexico and other countries denounced on Wednesday that the recent appointment of Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca as Attorney General of Chiapas further aggravates the human rights situation in the state.
They consider that it is an endorsement “for the continuation of old practices and customs that encourage human rights violations, and perpetuate torture as a widespread and systemic practice, so the outlook will continue to be bleak.”
On November 28th, the local Congress approved the appointment of Llaven Abarca as Attorney General of the State, who will serve in the position for nine years.
For NGOs defending human rights, “the appointment of Llaven Abarca places a prosecutor committed to the political and factual power groups in Chiapas, sending a clear signal that the government is not only opting for corruption and impunity, but also on practices of repression and human rights violations.”
This “evidences a resistance to implementing in Chiapas the constitutional reforms in human rights, the General Law to Prevent and Punish Torture, and other international human rights instruments that the government is obliged to comply with and respect.”
In a statement, the 70 signatory organizations say that Llaven Abarca, during his performance as a public servant, “has proven to be harmful, especially in his role as Secretary of Public Security and Citizen Protection during the government of Manuel Velasco Coello.
“His administration was characterized by the excessive use of public force, repression of human rights defenders, arbitrary detentions and torture, events that remain unpunished. It is also added that he did not take the necessary measures to prevent violence against women, resulting in an increase in femicides, despite the Gender Violence Alert in Chiapas.”
Controversial career
Llaven Abarca, they say, has held several very questionable positions in each of his administrations, both during his time as delegate in Chiapas of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and as head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office Against Organized Crime (FECDO) of the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Chiapas (PGJE).
He has been an agent of the Public Ministry, a specialized prosecutor of the Public Ministry, in charge of the Investigation Unit for the Crime of Homicide and Head of the Specialized Unit against the Crime of Kidnapping.
“During his time at the FECDO he was accused of being responsible for torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment, as demonstrated by recommendation 26/2002 of the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH) for arbitrary detentions and torture in the community of San José, municipality of Marqués de Comillas.”
Regarding that case, the State Human Rights Commission issued recommendation 01/2002 requesting an administrative investigation and the integration of a preliminary inquiry against the newly appointed State Attorney General for various crimes, including torture and abuse of authority.
Both recommendations were rejected, perpetuating impunity. In addition, the new attorney was identified as the perpetrator in cases of arbitrary detentions, threats, torture and other human rights violations, including the detention and torture of members of the La Otra Campaña of San Sebastián Bachajón, and the death under torture of Luis Ignacio Lara Vidal in 2005, among other cases.
Despite this history, in August 2011, he was appointed delegate of the PGR in Chiapas in the context of the “war against crime” implemented by then-president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, the organizations emphasize.
In the document, the signing NGOs demand a profound transformation of the justice administration bodies in our country. “In Chiapas, an autonomous prosecutor’s office is urgently needed, as well as a change in the structure and officials who are stuck in corruption and act under the cover of impunity.”
Among the organizations that signed the statement are: No Estamos Todxs Working Group; The Time Has Come Collective; Morelos Support Network for CNI and CIG, Our Joyful Rebellion Collective; Heart of Time Collective (Puelmapu, northern Patagonia, Argentina); Human Rights Node (NODHO); Space for the Fight against Oblivion and Repression, Chiapas Mexicanos Unidos; Armadillo Suomi Collective (Finland) Documentation Center on Zapatismo (CEDOZ); Lumaltik Herriak; Mexican Institute for Community Development (IMDEC); Melel Xojobal A.C; El Tekpatl; La Flor In Xochitl im Cuicatl newspaper; United Peoples of the Cholulteca Region and the Volcanoes; Free and Chosen Mobilities-CoLibres; Criptopozol Collective + Human Rights; EZLN Support Collective CNI CIG The Time of the Peoples Has Arrived; Women Transforming Worlds C.A.; Ajmaq Resistance and Rebellion Network, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights , among others.