In Mexico City, Federal District, on the 27th of September of 2013, the undersigned appears before the appropriate authority and before the People of Mexico, to present and file a complaint regarding the possible crime of treason, punishable under Article 123 of the Federal Penal Code, against Enrique Peña Nieto, his officials and responsible individuals from previous governments, for actions or omissions in the discharge of their duties.
These complaints are based on provisions of Articles 8 and 39 of the Constitution of the United Mexican States and Section I, parts 113, 116, 118, and other related and applicable [sections of the] Federal Code of Criminal Procedure and the events described below:
1. - For encouraging, assisting and permiting that at least 26 percent of the national territory be handed over to foreign mining corporations--70 percent of which are Canadian--that pollute water, flora and fauna, and seriously undermine the health of the inhabitants of that environment.
This has meant the dispossessing, in fact, of the legitimate owners of ejido lands, communal lands and private lands, through concessions granted to those companies, without taking into consideration that they are protected by Article 27 of the Constitution. These facts severely violate the independence, sovereignty and integrity of the Mexican nation, by alienating and encumbering the national territory, and thus contribute to its dismemberment.
MV Note: There are two forms of indigenous communal lands in Mexico: ejido lands are lands granted by the Mexican government at close of Mexican Revolution to indigenous communities, to be owned and worked communally. Communal lands are lands granted (back) by the Spanish king--who claimed title to all land after the Conquest--to indigenous communities, to be owned and worked communally.
2. - For ratifying and continuing to meet the provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Alliance for Security and Prosperity of North America (ASPNA), and the Mérida Initiative, which are severely damaging the economy and political sovereignty of the nation, for the benefit of the government and corporations of the United States, without these treaties and unjust mechanisms having been approved by Congress, nor has the citizenry been consulted.
Through ASPNA and the so-called Mérida Initiative--imposed by previous governments and accepted by the Federal Executive Power in office--military personnel, police and foreign intelligence agents work in the national territory, some of them allegedly armed. These agents perform security and intelligence tasks and interfere with and monitor our communications.
They are based in the Binational Office of Intelligence in Mexico City, where the Military Intelligence Agency (MIA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the National Security Agency (NSA) under the Department of Defense of the United States operate. There are also agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), who answer to the Department of Justice of that country and, of course, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
In clear violation of national sovereignty and security, these agencies maintain "links" to obtain information they require from all Mexican military, security and intelligence units. In 2007 we already called upon then Attorney General of the Republic, Eduardo Medina Mora, to respond to the fact that the government of the United States hired the company Verint Technology, Inc., to tap all communication systems in our country, according to contract 5-INLEC-07-M-0002, for a total of 2.9 million dollars USD. The announcement of the contract won by the company was published on February 23, 2007, on the website of the U.S. public administration.
From this it can be deduced that said company, or one similar, continues to work on scrutinizing the communications of citizens, affecting individual rights and, again, national sovereignty, without the current government having to give any account in response to our public denunciation.
In those days, we posed these questions: who decides which individuals, organizations or institutions should be watched? What legal framework permits this interference, or not? Who classifies the information and under what criteria? What local or foreign agency interprets the data? Is it legal for a foreign government to hire a company (also foreign) to tap domestic communications? What do you think in regard to human rights defenders, members of Congress, judges of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation whose communications no doubt will also be tapped, based on reasons of "national security" and the "fight against terrorism"? These questions remain unanswered.
3. - Another event that constitutes the offense of treason is the legislative initiative sent to Congress by Enrique Peña Nieto on August 12, 2013, which seeks to amend Articles 27 and 28 of the Constitution, with which it is hoped to further deepen the privatization of Pemex for the benefit of foreign corporations and private firms of Peña Nieto's followers.
In fact, this "reform" constitutes an act of denationalization of the oil and delivery of at least 60 percent of oil revenue to such large U.S. corporations as Exxon, Mobil and Chevron, according to the items documented by my colleague and expert on the subject, John Saxe Fernández (La Jornada, July 25 and August 22, 2013). The delivery of Pemex would complete the cycle of comprehensive occupation of the country that has been denounced by the group Peace with Democracy (La Jornada, November 16, 2007).For the foregoing reasons and having filed this complaint regarding the facts, I respectfully ask that the relevant authority proceed, within its jurisdiction, to take all appropriate steps to prove irrefutably the responsibility of the accused for the crime of which they are charged. Spanish original
*Gilberto López y Rivas is an anthropologist and researcher for Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in the state of Morelos. He earned the doctorate in anthropology from the University of Utah. He was active in the 1968 student movement and has served in the federal Chamber of Deputies.