[progchat_action] In Northern Mexico, Youth Curfews, Opposition Spread Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:21:11 -0500 (CDT) In Northern Mexico, Youth Curfews, Opposition Spread by Frontera Norte Sur August 27, 2007 In northern Mexico, local governments are turning to youth curfews as one answer to the public security crisis. First unveiled in Ciudad Juarez more than two months ago, youth curfews have since been enacted in cities in Sonora, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states. While curfews are spreading, so is the opposition to the new laws. "The government wants to use the curfew in Ciudad Juarez as a pilot plan to extend it elsewhere and, above all, to condition society to these sorts of authoritarian measures," contended Juan Carlos Martinez Prado, a spokesman for the pro-Zapatista Other Campaign in Ciudad Juarez. Charging that the curfew discriminates against poor youth and violates the right of free transit as guaranteed by the Mexican Constitution, Martinez and other critics worry that curfews, together with random police searches of public schools for illegal drugs and student drug-testing programs, represent a step backwards from Mexico's quest for a more democratic, participatory society. Hundreds of young people and adults attended an all-night gathering at the Benito Juarez Monument in Ciudad Juarez's downtown to protest the curfew earlier this month. Featuring rock bands and speakers, the event was sponsored by the Popular Independent Organization, Paso del Norte Human Rights Organization, Companeros Program, College of Sociologists and other groups. Separately, outgoing Ciudad Juarez Mayor Hector "Teto" Murguia announced that he was partially scaling back the curfew hour from 10 pm to 11 pm. Claiming that "90 percent" of Ciudad Juarez's population supports the curfew, Mayor Murguia announced the new policy after meeting with young skaters at an extreme sports park. "It's good to have contact with the young people of Juarez," he said. The newest curfew regulations prohibit children 10 or younger from being outdoors without the accompaniment of an adult after 10 p.m., while unaccompanied young people aged 11-17 must be at home after 11 p.m. In neighboring El Paso, Texas, youths below 17 must remain off the streets between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. if they are not accompanied by adults. El Paso violators are ticketed by police. Mayor Murguia's new policy was rolled out after the Chihuahua State Human Rights Commission, a purely advisory body, assumed what some view as a contradictory posture on the curfew question. Ruling on citizen complaints, the CEDH declared that the law was unconstitutional but that it could be improved. Curfew opponents contend that the CEDH missed two key points. "The CEDH has a legalistic view of reality, but it doesn't analyze (the curfew) as an authoritarian policy that goes beyond the constitutional issue," said Martinez in an interview with Frontera NorteSur. "Certainly, it violates the fundamental rights of human beings to travel freely at any hour in this country. The Constitution guarantees this." In response to the CEDH, the Ciudad Juarez municipal police department drew up with a 29-point protocol to guide officers who detain and release curfew violators. The enforcement policies require officers to not keep detained youths in police campers for more than 45 minutes, emphasize releasing youths to parents as soon as possible and prohibit mixing detainees with the opposite sex or with adult and juvenile prisoners held on criminal charges. As controversy brewed in Ciudad Juarez, a youth curfew was ordered in the border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas in mid-August. The measure is aimed at youths below 18 in 20 low-income neighborhoods considered particularly troublesome. Under the new ordinance, parents of curfew violators will be fined about $50. "We are going to send to court as a suspect anyone we encounter on the streets or on the corners after 10 in the evening and who can't justify his presence," vowed Juan Martin Reyna Garcia, operational director of the Matamoros public safety department. Reyna said that 10 p.m. was chosen as zero hour because "only those that have no job or purpose are out wandering around on the streets." Both the official Tamaulipas State Human Rights Commission and the Tamaulipas Youth Institute immediately protested the curfew on constitutional and human rights grounds. "We have to ask the authorities to do their work with a high degree of responsibility, because they should understand that it doesn't mean that a young person who is in the street after ten in the evening is a delinquent," said Omar Masso Quintana, youth institute coordinator. "People are leaving work or school and getting off public transport at this hour," Masso added. "They are good, productive people who have no reason to be detained by our police. Just the fact that someone is a young person doesn't mean that he is a delinquent." In Ciudad Juarez, some residents complain that police patrolling low-income, working-class neighborhoods harass law-abiding youths but allow real troublemakers to operate unchecked. In neighborhoods like Colinas del Norte, the streets are alive with young people during the hot summer months. Children playing street soccer, talking with friends and running errands are everywhere as the sun sets down. Lacking air-conditioning, residents must crank up fans -- and their utility bills -- just to keep tolerably cool in the stifling heat. Veronica Arzola, coordinator of the Aldea community organization in Colinas del Norte, told Frontera NorteSur that city patrols have recently targeted youths sitting in front of their homes or going to the store. A 12-year-old boy was picked up and kicked a couple times by unidentified officers before his mother intervened, Arzola charged. A 65-year-old neighbor, Josefina Moreno, contended that she is constantly harassed by name-calling, rock-throwing teenage gang members, so-called "cholos," who terrorize her neighborhood with impunity. Moreno is worried that flying missiles will soon cause real damage. "I'm afraid they'll hit the gas tank and blow me away," she lamented. Complaints to the authorities have gone unheeded, Moreno added. "Nobody pays attention to me," she said. Community activist Arzola cited another curfew-related concern that is widely shared by Ciudad Juarez's human rights and women's organizations: reports that members of the city's police force have been involved in the disappearances and killings of young girls and women. "We're afraid the (police) will pick girls up and they won't get to the police stations," Arzola said. With new city governments scheduled to take office in both Ciudad Juarez and Matamoros in the coming months, it's unclear if the curfew laws in the two cities will survive the political transitions. The Ciudad Juarez curfew overcame a key legal hurdle this month when a federal judge refused to grant a protective order to the sons of a lawyer who had been detained while playing a baseball park after 10 p.m. The teens' father, attorney Jose de Jesus Duron Gomez, said he will appeal the decision. Meantime, the Other Campaign's Juan Carlos Martinez said his group will set up informational tables in Ciudad Juarez's low-income neighborhoods for the purpose of gathering documentation on alleged curfew enforcement abuses and educating the public about the constitutional, human rights and political issues connected to the controversy. Additional Sources: -- El Paso Times, August 20, 2007. Article by Tammy Fonce-Olivas. -- El Universal, August 19, 2007. Article by Rocio Tapia. -- Lapolaka.com, August 15 and 16, 2007. -- El Diario de El Paso, August 17, 2007. Article by Araly Castanon. -- El Diario de Juarez, August 9, 13, 15, 19, 2007. -- La Jornada, August 15, 17, 18, 2007. Articles by Julia Antonieta Le Duc, Ruben Villalpando and Martin Sanchez Trevino. Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico http://www.newspapertree.com/features/1623-in-northern-mexico-youth-curfews- opposition-spread This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm